Tag: Korean Government

This is not surprising that the ROK would not further open up these markets. Long time Korea watchers may remember what happened back in 2008 with the U.S. beef protests. President Lee is not going to have that happen again on his watch:

South Korea’s markets for rice and beef will not be further opened under a tariff deal with the United States, a senior presidential official said Sunday.

Kim Yong-beom, the presidential chief of staff for policy, made the remarks during an appearance on a KBS news program amid lingering uncertainty over the details of the tariff deal.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I don’t know why the ROK military would come under scrutiny when they are the reason the martial law attempt failed. The rank and file did not want to implement the Presidential order:

This composite photo shows Defense Minister nominee Ahn Gyu-back (L), Unification Minister nominee Chung Dong-young (C) and Foreign Minister nominee Cho Hyun. (Yonhap)

President Lee Jae Myung on Monday named five-term lawmaker Ahn Gyu-back as defense minister, the first time in 64 years that a civilian defense chief has been nominated for the post, the presidential office said.

Lee’s pick of Ahn is seen as carrying out his election pledge to reform the military, a key promise from his presidential campaign to rebuild a nation fractured by the brief imposition of martial law in December last year under his predecessor, the ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol. 

The military has come under scrutiny since Yoon deployed troops to the National Assembly when he declared martial law on Dec. 3, allegedly to block lawmakers attempting to stop his brief imposition of martial law decree. Yoon was removed from office in April over the martial law debacle.

Yonhap

Lee Jae-myung also brought another Roh Moo-hyun administration retread into his cabinet as well by naming Chung-Dong-young as his unification minister:

Lee also nominated Chung Dong-young, a journalist-turned-veteran DP lawmaker, for unification minister, responsible for inter-Korean affairs. Chung previously served as the unification minister under the Roh Moo-hyun government from 2004-05.

“Chung has unmatched experience and a firm commitment to peace on the Korean Peninsula. He’s the right person to help create conditions for dialogue with North Korea and to find a breakthrough in easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” Kang said.

Chung just like President Lee’s spy chief nominee Lee Jong-seok is also a pro-North Korea cheerleader. He was the Unification Minister during the Roh administration when South Korea was giving more money to North Korea than what was being paid for the upkeep of the US-ROK alliance. Back then the Roh administration foolishly believed all the aid they gave to North Korea would be used to improve their economy. Instead the funding was poured into building their nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The selection of Chung for the Unification Minister position shows that the new Lee administration has learned nothing from past leftist mistakes, instead they are doubling down on them.

Does anyone really believe Lee Jong-seok does not have pro-North Korea views?:

Lee Jong-seok, the nominee to lead the National Intelligence Service (NIS), pushed back against claims that he is pro-North Korea, Thursday, saying he would serve with a pragmatic approach focused on national interests. 

“I don’t quite understand why my past remarks would be considered pro-North Korea,” Lee said during his confirmation hearing at the National Assembly. 

His comments came in response to a question from Rep. Song Eon-seok of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), who referenced Lee’s past statements opposing the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system and the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Lee Jae-myung has basically never nominated a Pyongyang cheerleader in charge of the ROK intellgence service. During his time as unification minister Lee Jong-seok was involved in establishing the quasi-slave labor Kaesong Industrial Complex that has since been shuttered. He was also helping the ROK government send more money to North Korea than they contributed to USFK cost sharing. He even said that due to all the money they were giving to North Korea that no one there was starving any more.

South Korea really needs a Constitutional convention because the Koren Democratic Party just continues to abuse their impeachment power. Now they are planning to impeach the Supreme Court Chief Justice because they don’t like how the court ruled on the election law violation case involving their leader Lee Ja-myung. They have no cause to impeach him other than they don’t like how the court ruled. It wasn’t like the decision was even close, it was a 10-2 verdict and they still want to impeach him:

The Democratic Party (DP) was set to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday during which it was expected to discuss measures to the Supreme Court’s decision to remand an election law violation case involving its presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung.

During an emergency general meeting of its lawmakers later in the day, the DP is likely to discuss whether to push for the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, who handed down the ruling last week. 

The Supreme Court ruled that Lee should be retried on allegations of making false statements during the 2022 presidential campaign and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court, reviving the possibility that Lee could receive a sentence barring him from running in the June 3 presidential election.

The DP has strongly condemned the court’s unusually swift ruling on the high-profile case, calling it a “judicial coup.”

Yonhap

The only coup going on is the from the Korean Democratic Party which continues to impeach members of the government. Their continuing impeachment of government officials is what directly led to the failed martial law plan by impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol. Their impeachment actions combined with Yoon’s failed martial law attempt has done nothing, but destablize what had been strong Democratic nation.

Anyone surprised by this finding? I doubt anyone will be held accountable though:

The previous Moon Jae-in government fabricated key official data on housing prices, income distribution and employment for nearly four years to make the public believe that its real estate and economic policies are effective, the state audit agency said Thursday.

Moon’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae and the land ministry instructed the Korea Real Estate Board (REB), a public agency affiliated with the land ministry, to make downward adjustments of weekly and monthly housing price fluctuation rates or manipulate statistics to make it appear as if real estate policies were effective on a total of 102 occasions from January 2018 to October 2021, according to the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI).

The manipulation of official data was also widespread in the fields of income distribution and employment to conceal the negative consequences from widening income inequality and a surge in non-regular workers, the BAI said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The stock trading during work hours I think is fair criticism, but bringing up a school bullying claim from 2012 is ridiculous:

Adm. Kim Myung-soo, nominee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) chairman, was grilled at his confirmation hearing in the National Assembly, Wednesday, over stock transactions he made while on duty including days when North Korea launched ballistic missiles.

According to Rep. Jung Sung-ho of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Kim conducted 46 stock transactions from January 2022 until September this year, all during working hours. None were made during lunch breaks, the lawmaker pointed out, citing data submitted by the Korea Exchange (KRX).

Some of the transactions were made on Jan. 5 and 17, 2022, days when North Korea fired ballistic missiles toward the East Sea. Back then, Kim was a senior officer at the Ministry of National Defense.

Data revealed that Kim also conducted stock transactions on Sept. 8 this year, when North Korea unveiled its first tactical nuclear attack submarine. He was serving as the naval operations commander at the time.

During the confirmation hearing, Rep. Yoon Hu-duk of the DPK pointed out that a government official’s stock trading during work hours is subject to disciplinary measures. (…..)

The nominee was also questioned about his daughter’s school bullying allegations.

According to data submitted by the Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education to Rep. Ki Dong-min of the DPK, Kim’s daughter was one of six middle school students accused of assaulting a fellow student at a school restroom in 2012.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

President Yoon has named a new Defense Minister among other cabinet positions he announced changes for:

People Power Party Rep. Shin Won-sik leaves his office at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday named ruling People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Shin Won-sik, former culture minister Yoo In-chon and former ruling party emergency committee member Kim Haeng as new defense, culture and family ministers, respectively.

The nominees are familiar faces in Korean politics, with Shin and Yu having the reputations of hardline conservatives. Pundits are saying this is in line with the conservative wing of Yoon, who has been stressing ideology and anti-communism ideas in recent public remarks.  

Korea Times

The North Korean regime and the South Korean leftists are really going to dislike Shin as the new Defense Minister since he is pro-strong ROK military and anti-Communist:

Shin is a retired three-star general and former deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has been spending most of his military career in key posts. During his discharge ceremony in 2016, Shin said the military should prepare for “unification through northern advancement,” meaning unification through toppling the North Korean regime. (……)

Shin is also one of the first people who triggered the ongoing controversies over assessing independence fighter Hong Beom-do, who was involved with the Soviet Communist Party, spearheading campaigns that resulted in Hong’s bust being removed from the Korean Military Academy. 

You can read more at the link.

It looks like President Yoon is actually trying to be a conservative who actually wants to reduce spending unlike U.S. conservatives who only seem to care about cutting spending when they are not in charge:

President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Tuesday to stick to a sound fiscal policy, strongly criticizing the preceding Moon Jae-in government for increasing national debts with reckless spending.

Yoon made the remark during a Cabinet meeting, pledging to reject temptations of spending for political purposes, as the government proposed a national budget of 656.9 trillion won (US$495 billion) for 2024, the slowest on-year growth since 2005. 

“Due to the previous administration’s lax fiscal management, the national debts rose by 400 trillion won, and reached over 1,000 trillion won for the first time last year,” Yoon said in opening remarks at the Cabinet meeting. 

Thanks to his administration’s efforts to achieve fiscal soundness, Yoon said the growth of national debts has markedly slowed, and the government will continue to stick to a sound fiscal policy for the sake of external credibility and price stabilization.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

President Yoon gave some blunt advice to some new vice-governmental ministers:

Yoon gave the instruction during lunch with 13 new vice minister-level officials after presenting them with certificates of appointment, according to Lee Do-woon.

“Fight ruthlessly against cartels with vested interests,” Yoon was quoted as saying, repeating a mission he gave to several presidential secretaries last week after they were nominated as vice ministers.

“Our government is an anti-cartel government,” he said. “What topples a democratic society from the outside is totalitarianism and socialism, but what topples it from the inside is corrupt cartels.”

Yoon called on the new vice ministers to be loyal to the spirit of the Constitution, saying both domestic and foreign affairs should be conducted in the spirit of the liberal democratic Constitution.

“Be loyal to the state, the nation and the constitutional system,” he said. “I am not saying you should switch horses, but that you should ride your horses properly in the spirit of the Constitution.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.