Category: Politics-Korea

President Park may have her own Hillary Clinton like email scandal on her hands if in fact she was sending secret information over unsecure email to her friend to review to help prepare Presidential speeches.   President Park’s non-profit group just like the Clinton Foundation is also accused of strong arming corporations for money:

The broadcaster said it obtained the computer by searching through things discarded from Choi’s office after she left the country in the wake of a series of corruption and power abuse allegations. Choi is accused of creating nonprofit foundations to benefit President Park after she leaves office, strong-arming conglomerates to make massive donations to them and personally siphoning off money from them.

Choi is a daughter of Park’s former mentor, the late Choi Tae-min. Following JTBC’s Monday report on her editing of the president’s speeches, Park admitted Tuesday that she sought help from her longtime friend to write speeches and public addresses and issued a public apology. Choi, however, seems to have exerted much more power over the president than ever conceived of before – possibly to an unprecedented extent.

According to the JBTC’s Monday report, a file entitled “Blue House meeting” was saved at 4:56 a.m. on Dec. 28, 2012. The eight-page document laid out a scenario for Park, who was then the president-elect, ahead of her meeting to President Lee Myung-bak. The meeting took place 10 hours later.

In a section of the file marked “Foreign affairs and national security issues,” Park was directed to ask Lee a question: “In order to prevent the North’s additional provocations, I believe inter-Korean dialogue is necessary in addition to international cooperation. What contacts have made between the two Koreas?”

Underneath the question, a line read: “The military had three secret contacts with the North’s National Defense Commission recently.”

Talks between Seoul and Pyongyang formally ceased after the North’s sinking of the warship Cheonan in April 2010. It was confidential information that the South Korean military and the North Korean National Defense Commission had secret contacts in 2012. The document suggests that Choi had access to a national security secret.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

This seems to be much to do about nothing and simply partisan politics:

President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday apologized to the nation over a leak of dozens of presidential speeches to an acqaintance who has been at the center of an escalating corruption scandal that has roiled politics over the past month.

“Regardless of the reasons involved, I am sorry that (the scandal) has caused national concerns,” she said. “I deeply apologize to the people.”

Park’s apology came a day after local broadcaster JTBC revealed that Choi Soon-sil had received dozens of presidential speeches, including Park’s election campaign remarks, before they were delivered by the president.

The broadcaster said it found the speeches from about 200 files obtained from a computer that was left to be thrown away in Choi’s office in southern Seoul. Among the speeches was Park’s so-called Dresden address on reunification delivered in Germany in March 2014.

The president acknowledged that Choi had helped her prepare for public speeches during her presidential election campaign and the early part of her presidency.

“During the last presidential election campaign, she (Choi) has offered me personal comments about my campaign activities, mostly speeches and publicity efforts,” Park said.

“For some period of time after my inauguration, I had asked for her opinion over some materials, but after the secretarial staff at Cheong Wa Dae was fully established, I stopped (asking for her help).”  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but Park’s political opposition wants her cabinet ministers who gave Choi the speeches to resign and possibly face prosecution.  According to the legal experts quoted in the article the speeches were drafts and thus not official Presidential correspondence thus no legal ramifications.

I wonder if in the US there are any legal ramifications for giving the text of a Presidential speech to someone to look at before it is given?

Personally I kind of like the Korean Presidential system to where it cycles out leaders quicker.  I think leadership changes are a good thing that brings renewed energy and ideas to the Presidency:

South Korean President Park Geun Hye on Monday (Oct 24) called for constitutional reform that could allow future presidents to serve two terms – a sensitive issue for a country tainted by memories of long-term, autocratic rule.

While its Constitution grants enormous power to the executive, South Korea is one of the only economically advanced liberal democracies to restrict the presidency to a single five-year term, with no possibility of re-election.

The limit was set back in 1987 as South Korea transitioned to democracy after decades of military rule, and sought to preempt any return to extended periods of authoritarian control.  [The Strait Times via a reader tip]

You can read the rest at the link, but President Park says that the Constitutional change would not apply to her presidency.  This is definitely a wise move because if she tried to run for reelection the Korean left would be claiming she is trying to begin a dictatorship just like her father Park Chung-hee.  Speaking of dictatorships has there even ever been one in modern times led by a female?

This has to be one of the weakest sexual harassment claims I have seen yet:

Rep. Han Sun-kyo has become the target of opposition criticism after making what female lawmakers claimed was a “sexually harassing” remark to Rep. Yoo Eun-hye during National Assembly audit sessions on Thursday.

Han, a ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker, was addressing sessions held to question the Education, Culture and Tourism Committee, of which he is a member. As he mentioned the rising controversies of the Mir and K-Sports foundations, he caught some of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) lawmakers, including Yoo, laughing.

Apparently angered, Han, a former MBC news reader, asked Yoo, “What is so funny? Do you find me attractive or something?”

Yoo, offended by the comment, demanded Han apologize. MPK’s poet-turned-lawmaker Do Jong-hwan and Park Kyung-mi joined Yoo in criticizing Han.

Han apologized, saying he and Yoo are from the same alumni circle.

“I guess I might have lost grip since I perceived her as my colleague,” Han said during the audit’s follow-up session in the afternoon. “If she is still uncomfortable about what I said, I will make further apologies.”

Yoo was not moved by his apology.

“Before I am your colleague, I am a lawmaker representing my citizens and we are in the middle of an Assembly audit session,” Yoo said. “Your comment embarrassed me and neither is it appropriate to the committee.” [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I find it ironic these opposition lawmakers are claiming that Han’s comment was inappropriate during a committee meeting when they were the ones giggling and disturbing the meeting in the first place.

I will never understand how these leftists continue to think that the Kim regime will ever denuclearize?  How does he plan to do this?  By more talks and negotiations with the North Koreans:

Rep. Moon Jae-in, a former leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea and presidential aspirant, called on the government Sunday to temporarily suspend ongoing procedures to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system to the Korean Peninsula, demanding diplomatic efforts resume to denuclearize North Korea.

In his Facebook post, Moon also pointed out that the agreement between Seoul and Washington to deploy a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to the peninsula by end-2017 needs parliamentary approval.

“Rather than arguing that only the THAAD deployment serves the national interests, there should be discussions about national interests from a more comprehensive perspective,” he wrote, apparently alluding to President Park Geun-hye’s defense of the deployment plan.

But he added it would not be easy to reverse the agreement with the United States, South Korea’s top security ally, to station a THAAD battery in a golf course in the southern county of Seongju, about 290 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Moon, then, said that South Korea has already shown to the world a “strong resolve” against Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs through the deployment decision, and that a delay would not cause any big change in the allies’ efforts to install the THAAD in Seongju.

“The fundamental resolution of North Korea’s nuclear problem is through the realization of (the goal to) denuclearize the Korean Peninsula,” he said. “A freeze on the North’s nukes is urgent, and then we should go in a direction towards a complement dismantlement of the North’s nuclear arms.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

President Park Geun-hye is getting some love from Elle magazine:

Before becoming South Korea’s first-ever female president in 2013, Park Geun-hye acted as the chairwoman of the Conservative Grand National Party and as a member of the Korean National Assembly. Geun-hye, whose father served as president for nearly two decades, is often called one of the most powerful women in the world. During her time in office, she has worked to prioritize national security, particularly in relationship to North Korea, and to revitalize the South Korean economy, which is the 14th largest in the world.  [Elle]

You can see the rest of the list at the link.

This poll I think isn’t too surprising considering Ban Ki-moon’s name recognition within Korea and the fact he really isn’t tied to any bad scandals which makes him a safe pick in most people’s minds for President:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon led in the latest support poll for South Korea’s next potential president, giving him yet another hopeful sign that he could defeat all other seasoned politicians now busy gearing up for the country’s highest office in next year’s election.

Ban topped the poll conducted by the JoongAng Ilbo of 1,000 adults nationwide by receiving 32.7 percent support from eligible voters, nearly twice that of Moon Jae-in’s 17.3 percent.

Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party received 8.1 percent while Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon received 4.2 percent, trailed by former Saenuri chairman Kim Moo-sung with 3.9 percent. Former Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon garnered 3.7 percent, followed by former Gyeonggi governor Sohn Hak-kyu with 3.2 percent.

The JoongAng’s poll, conducted on Sept. 20 and 21 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, comes at a time of growing speculation over whether Ban will declare his bid for presidential office upon completing his second term at the United Nations at the end of this year.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Yeah, good luck with this especially in South Korea where Internet mud slinging is almost a national past time:

Ahead of its official launch, a special interest group supporting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has asked similar groups linked with other potential presidential candidates to agree not to maliciously attack or slander each other.

The group, named Banditburi, or firefly in Korean (a play on the UN chief’s surname), is scheduled to hold its inaugural meeting on Nov. 10.

Banditburi has reached out to groups that support liberals Moon Jae-in, the former chairman of the main opposition Minjoo Party, and Ahn Cheol-soo, former chairman of the People’s Party, to agree to avoid any mudslinging ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

Kim Sung-hee, chairman of the preparatory committee to launch the group for Ban, told the JoongAng Ilbo over phone on Wednesday, “We asked other groups supporting key potential presidential contenders, including the opposition’s Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo, as well as the ruling party’s Kim Moo-sung [former chairman of the Saenuri Party], to forge a gentlemen’s agreement.”

He continued, “The political scene is messy as is, so we proposed that at least groups like ours should not engage in slander or malicious comments online, or muckraking of any kind.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the North Koreans are doing the Park administration a favor with their continued provocations:

Opposition parties are toning down their opposition to the Park Geun-hye administration’s plan to allow the deployment of a controversial U.S. antimissile system.

Following the North’s continuing nuclear and missile provocations, South Korea and the United States agreed that a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery will be deployed in the South.

China and Russia have protested the decision, expressing concern that its powerful radar could be used to spy on their territories.

“Our only bargaining chip with China is Thaad,” said Ahn Cheol-soo, former chairman of the People’s Party, during an interview on Monday. “If China agrees to sanction the North, we should recant the deployment plan. That should be our negotiation strategy.”

Ahn’s remark was a departure from the People’s Party’s adamant opposition to the Thaad deployment plan, as it can be interpreted that the party will not disagree with the deployment if China does not aggressively punish the North.

Rep. Joo Seong-yong, a senior party official, also told reporters on Monday that the party will follow the decision of the National Assembly.

The People’s Party formally expressed its opposition to the Thaad deployment as its party line in July. It has also urged other opposition lawmakers to join its protest. The latest remarks by the top party official, therefore, suggest a change.

Sources in the party said concern grew about reactions to its protests after the North’s fifth nuclear test. “Public opposition to Thaad weakened,” a party official said. “And there was a possibility of a sixth nuclear test. The sense of risk grew inside the party that we may gain nothing by insisting on our protest.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but it sounds like the Korean left is saying that they never did care about people’s health and their protests were all politically driven.

The most obvious question in regards to this idea is what will the bribe amount be to secure a summit?  Kim Jong-un is not going to show up to an Inter-Korean summit without a bribe.  Secondly what will they talk about?  How Kim Jong-un’s grandpa was responsible for the killing of President Park’s mother?  North Korea is not going to give up their nuclear or missile programs so it is a waste of time to talk about that.  From their perspective why would they give them up?:

Rep. Park Jie-won, the interim leader of the country’s second-largest opposition party, called on President Park Geun-hye, Wednesday, to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to break the deadlock in inter-Korean relations.

He also asked President Park to push for a constitutional revision during the remainder of her term that ends in February 2018.

“The most important things that Park should do during her remaining year-and-a-half in office are to push for an inter-Korean summit and a constitutional revision at the earliest possible date,” Park of the People’s Party said in a speech at the National Assembly.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but Rep. Park may also be calling for reforming the Presidential system to change it to two four year terms like we have in the US.  It seems to me the five year term has been working well for South Korea so why the need to change it?