Lee Un-ju, an independent lawmaker, shaves her head at the National Assembly, Tuesday, in a symbolic protest calling for the withdrawal of the appointment of Cho Kuk as justice minister. (Korea Times)
President Moon’s political opposition is going to play out the Cho Kuk saga as long as they can for maximum political benefit prior to next’s year’s national assembly elections:
Cho Kuk
“South Korea’s democracy is dead. We plan to use all available cards responding to President Moon’s nomination of Cho to the justice minister position including a plan to team up with minor opposition parties to submit requests to name a special investigator to look into Cho’s alleged corruption and nepotism allegations,” a spokesman at the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) said in a party commentary after the President’s confirmation of Cho, Monday afternoon.
The minor opposition Bareunmirae Party (BMP) said it will discuss action plans with the LKP. “Floor leaders of the country’s major political parties were discussing detailed plans for the next Assembly sessions, but I received a short phone call from senior presidential secretary for state affairs Kang Ki-jung in which he said President Moon appointed Cho as justice minister as planned. It’s simply unacceptable. We will do what we can do but other lawmakers oppose the President’s decision,” BMP floor leader Rep. Oh Shin-hwan said during a hurriedly arranged party meeting.
It is actually good politics to keep Cho Kuk in the headlines because this is what his current poll ratings are:
In a poll by local pollster Realmeter released last week, 56.2 percent of South Koreans respondents were opposed to Cho becoming justice minister, while 40.1 percent were in favor.
The ruling DPK are facing a key election next year, which would be critical for Moon to avoid “lame duck” status. The South Korean leader is facing challenges to diffuse an uncertain outlook for the country’s export-dependent economy, which this year is projected to expand at the weakest pace in more than a decade.
However, with Cho Kuk being appointed, I expect we will start seeing less of him in the headlines and this will just fade away down the memory hole like the Moon administration expects it too.
For example does anyone mention Foreign Affairs Minister Kang Kyung-hwa’s ethical lapses any more? It will be the same thing with Cho Kuk.
The ROK prosecutors tried to put some heat on Cho Kuk by indicting his wife for fraud:
Cho Kuk
The wife of justice minister nominee Cho Kuk was indicted on Friday over allegations that she fabricated a school certificate for her daughter.
The prosecution filed a formal charge against Cho’s wife, a professor surnamed Chung, without summoning her for its probe into a series of corruption allegations involving Cho’s family.
Chung, 57, a Dongyang University professor, was accused of forging a school president’s award certificate in 2012 to help her daughter enter a medical school in 2014.
The move is expected to deal a blow to Cho, who attended a parliamentary confirmation hearing Friday, nearly one month after he was nominated to lead the justice ministry.
It apparently worked because President Moon went ahead and appointed him to ROK Justice Minister as expected:
President Moon Jae-in (R) shakes hands with Justice Minister Cho Kuk before giving him a letter of appointment at Cheong Wa Dae on Sept. 9, 2019. (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in appointed Cho Kuk as justice minister Monday, emphasizing the need to continue the government’s reform drive.
He appealed for “public understanding and support” for his decision to appoint Cho despite controversies over alleged ethical lapses and wrongdoing by his family. Cho’s wife has even been indicted on charges of forging a university president’s citation for her daughter.
Moon said he’s aware of the fierce debate over whether Cho is suitable for the post.
“But I thought what’s more important is to maintain the principle and consistency,” Moon said in a televised statement issued after giving Cho a letter of appointment at Cheong Wa Dae.
It would be a “bad precedent” to not appoint Cho solely on the basis of suspicions of illicit acts that have not been confirmed, Moon said.
Over the coming weeks expect to hear the term “reform” quite a bit because President Moon wanted Cho Kuk as the Justice Minister to take power away from prosecutors for corruption investigations. President Moon wants to move indictment powers from prosecutors to a special unit. If this special unit is staffed with political allies like Cho, this would allow the Blue House to control who gets indicted.
1/ Mr. Hwang reports now >60% ROK ppl are against Cho Kuk appointed as justice minister. Even Moon's main supporters, housewives, are against Cho. But, Moon still plan to appoint Cho this week. https://t.co/mMJZUB6pbO
Wow. There are still those who support Cho Kuk & want to portray him as "just." He also said having sex with minor should not be a crime if there's a consent. But wait. There's more, like corruption, subversion, abuse of authority, China's CCP money…https://t.co/47QHAXpKCqhttps://t.co/6hB3YFAwkc
The Moon administration is continuing to try and push Cho Kuk into the powerful Justice Minister position despite the corruption allegations:
Kang Gi-jung, senior Cheong Wa Dae secretary for political affairs, holds a press briefing on Aug. 30, 2019.
Cheong Wa Dae on Friday ratcheted up pressure on the National Assembly to hold a confirmation hearing for the justice minister nominee, frustrated by a political dogfight over the issue.
Cho Kuk, a law professor who served as senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, is at the center of intensifying bickering between ruling and major opposition parties.
Three weeks earlier, President Moon Jae-in nominated Cho to be the new justice minister amid his drive to reform the state prosecution.
Cho, however, has faced harsh political attacks and public condemnation over a host of scandals, including suspicions about his daughter’s entry into coveted schools in South Korea and dubious investment in a private equity fund (PEF) by Cho and his family members.
Political parties have agreed to open a two-day hearing next Monday but failed to reach a deal on details, including the list of witnesses.
The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) says the nominee’s wife and other family members should testify in parliament as well.
The ruling Democratic Party is opposed to the call, stressing that it’s enough to give Cho an opportunity to explain the scandals.
You can read more at the link, but obviously the ruling party does not want Cho Kuk’s family members to testify because there is no way to explain away the alleged corruption involving his daughter.
This whole Cho Kuk nomination shows how committed the Moon administration is towards changing the ROK Constitution to make it easier to form a confederation with North Korea and allow President Moon to run for a second term. Moon’s close friend Cho Kuk becoming the Justice Minister is part of this strategy.
After his confirmation the next part of their strategy will be increasing their hold in the National Assembly in the 2020 elections to facilitate changing the ROK Constitution. This is why the Moon administration needs to continue to play the anti-Japan card and depending how things go with North Korea, we may even see the anti-US card played as well leading up to the election.
The latest “me-too” clone movement in South Korea has taken out two big name athletes:
South Korean women volleyball twin stars Lee Jae-yeong, left, and Lee Da-yeong, right, of the Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders posing after they selected as all-stars before a V-League game at a gymnasium in Incheon. This picture was taken on January 26, 2021.
South Korean volleyball twins Lee Jae-yeong and Lee Da-yeong have been dropped from their national and club sides amid claims of teenage bullying. The 24-year-old sisters, two of the country’s best known female athletes, have both apologized after being anonymously accused of bullying previous students at their school. In Jae-yeong’s apology she referred to “actions and images from her teenage years.”
You can read more at the link, but the alleged bullying happened 10 years ago in middle school. Because of this they have been dropped from playing in the Olympics this summer and suspended from their club team. This seems like something extreme to do based off of anonymous social media accusations.
I had things happen to me while in school that would be considered bullying, especially since I was an athlete just like these twins and hazing was a right of passage back then. I don’t condone hazing and I think it is good that it is going away, but I don’t wish people that hazed me to be cancelled. Heck I have enough self esteem I don’t need or expect any apology. That is why I think these accusations say just as much about the accusers as the Lee twins. If you read the article the accusers actually consider themselves “victims”. This seems like another example of the cult of victimhood where people search to be part of some kind of victim class to bring attention to themselves, especially in the social media age.
These twins being premier athletes who received a lot of attention in middle and high school probably were jerks. However, people change significantly between middle school and adulthood. Are they still jerks? I don’t know the article doesn’t ask anyone they play with now. It seems like if they were still jerks teammates would be telling their stories to the media.
It seems like this could have been something handled with a statement of apology from the twins and their pledge to lead an anti-bully awareness campaign. It seems like this would have been more helpful to addressing bullying than cancelling them.
Protest in support of justice ministerSupporters of Justice Minister Cho Kuk stage a rally near the headquarters of the Supreme Prosecutors Office in southern Seoul on Oct. 12, 2019. (Yonhap) (END)
Considering that the article states this group is practicing “hate speech” it looks like it is probably the Zaitokukai group that has been protesting not only North Korea, but also South Korea’s claims to Dokdo and the comfort women issue:
Riot police try to form a barrier between members of the ultraconservative anti-Korean Zaitokukai organization and a group of counterprotesters in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward in May 2013. | SATOKO KAWASAKI
The Japanese city of Kawasaki, where anti-Korean rallies are often held, has refused to allow an anti-Korean organization from using a park to hold a demonstration.
Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Tuesday that the city government decided not to allow an anti-Korean group to hold a protest on Sunday at a park in the city.
The city government’s decision marks the first such case since Japan legislated the antihate speech law aimed at preventing rallies against a specific race or country of origin.
Kyodo reported that the organization held 13 anti-Korean rallies in the city since 2013.
Kawasaki Mayor Norihiko Fukuda said that it is very regrettable that hate speech rallies have been held around the city, adding that the latest decision was made to ensure the safety of citizens who are targeted by unfair and discriminatory words and acts. [KBS World Radio]
Here is an example of what the Zaitokukai group says during their protests:
But despite their purported political nature, a “significant” number of the demonstrations in reality featured a string of derogatory invective against ethnic minorities, Maeda said.
Prominent examples of vitriolic language favored by the protesters include violent slogans such as “You should all be massacred,” phrases such as “Get the hell out of Japan,” and insults calling Koreans “cockroaches,” according to video analysis of 72 such rallies conducted by the ministry.
In the rallies, participants typically brandish placards and yell epithets while marching on the streets of neighborhoods home to large numbers of ethnic Koreans such as Shin-Okubo in Tokyo and Tsuruhashi in Osaka.
The ministry, meanwhile, attributed a recent drop in the frequency of these rallies to a 2014 Osaka High Court ruling that ordered Zaitokukai to pay about ¥12 million in damages for a series of hateful rallies it organized in front of a Kyoto-based Korean school.
The survey also followed an unprecedented move by the ministry last December to issue an official warning to Zaitokukai to halt its hateful activities. [Japan Times]
You can read more at the link, but that is pretty provocative to march down Shin-Okubo and say stuff like that. Whenever I go to Tokyo I usually find a place to stay in Shin-Okubo because it is a fairly cheap to find a place to stay there with one of the Korean owned hotels.
