The ROK prosecutors tried to put some heat on Cho Kuk by indicting his wife for fraud:

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.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but he had already thrown his wife under the bus before to advance his nomination.

It apparently worked because President Moon went ahead and appointed him to ROK Justice Minister as expected:

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.

Yonhap

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.

It is things like South Korea claiming they are a developing country that gives weight to President Trump’s frequent criticisms of how these international organizations are unfair to American workers:

South Korea’s new agriculture minister has ruled out the possibility of abandoning the country’s special and differential treatment under the World Trade Organization regime, despite growing U.S. pressure to reform the global trade body.

In a recent brief comment to Yonhap News Agency, Kim Hyeon-soo said that South Korea has no plan to give up developing country status, underscoring the country’s efforts to keep the status intact, mainly to protect its sensitive agriculture industry, especially rice.

Currently, Asia’s fourth-largest economy imposes a 513 percent tariff on imported rice. Government data showed 54 percent of the 1 million South Korean farming households grow rice, a staple food for Koreans.

Yonhap

South Korea is one of the most developed and maybe even the most technologically advanced country I have ever been to and to claim they are a developing nation is ridiculous. President Trump is threatening to unilaterally consider South Korea and other nations in the WTO as developed nations if the WTO does not change its developing nation criteria.

Cho Kuk, when asked if he has turned away from Sanomaeng (Socialist Workers League of Korea), which called for armed revolt to overthrow #SouthKorea's liberal democracy, said socialism is necessary in South Korea. Moon sill wants to appoint him.https://t.co/Wo039glAEO

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) September 6, 2019

It seems that an outsider like this operating in North Korea would be closely watched by the Kim regime making any espionage attempts extremely risky:

A former prisoner in North Korea has told German media that he used to spy for the CIA, seeking out nuclear secrets and taking pictures with a concealed wristwatch camera.

In a TV report by public broadcaster NDR, South Korean-born US citizen Kim Dong-chul, 67, recounts his former espionage operations, arrest and the abuse and torture he suffered behind bars.

“I approached military officers and scientists who I knew needed money,” Kim says in the programme, showing crooked fingers that he claims were broken by soldiers’ boots during his interrogation.

Kim Dong-chul was one of three American detainees freed by Pyongyang in May 2018, in the lead-up to the first summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The ex-prisoner has since told South Korean media that he used to gather information for the country’s National Intelligence Service and the US Central Intelligence Agency.

The businessman and former Christian missionary had become a trusted insider in North Korea, where from 2001 he ran a hotel in the Rason special economic zone near the China and Russia borders.

He was arrested in October 2015 after he reportedly received a USB stick containing nuclear-linked data and other military information from a former North Korean soldier.

In April 2016 he was sentenced to 10 years’ hard labour for subversion and espionage.

In the TV programme, he reports that after the 2011 death of former leader Kim Jong Il, he was recruited by a CIA agent in South Korea.

AFP

You can read more at the link.

It makes sense that this guy would get promoted considering the priority that the Kim regime has put on developing bigger and better rocket and missile systems:

Pyongyang has named an army general with expertise in artillery as its new military commander, North Korean state media reported, in a move that an analyst said could signal plans for the development of new weapons.

Pak Jong Chon was appointed the “chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army,” KCNA said late Friday, adding that the decision was announced during a meeting attended by leader Kim Jong Un.

Pak succeeds Ri Yong Gil, an expert on military operations who has served in the position on two separate occasions since 2013.

His promotion from head of the Korean People’s Army’s Artillery Command may suggest a new military focus on weapons development, said Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector and researcher in Seoul.

The North was particularly threatened by the South’s acquisition of cutting-edge American F-35 stealth fighter jets — known for their ability to evade radar detection — earlier this year, Ahn told AFP.

“It is also notable that Pak accompanied Kim during the North’s test-firing of its new weapons,” he added. “With him as the North’s top military officer, it’s more likely that Pyongyang will prioritise artillery along with its new weapons system.”

AFP

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

If someone created a fictional character–a corrupt millionaire financier, anti-free speech "liberal" socialist, self-absorbed law professor who failed the Bar masquerading as an arbiter of justice/rights aspiring to be Justice Minister–would you laugh or cry? #Life crushes #Art

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) September 6, 2019