Tag: Korean Government

Since the Korean left controls the National Assembly the failure of this impeachment is no surprise, but the Korean right did have an opportunity to describe how Choo Mi-ae is has stopped probes into Blue House corruption:

On Monday, the UFP submitted a motion to impeach Choo to the National Assembly. It was signed by 110 lawmakers. All 103 lawmakers from the UFP, all three lawmakers from the People’s Party and four independent lawmakers who were formally members of the UFP co-sponsored the motion.    
   
Although the motion was struck down, it appeared that at least two members of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) or its allies had voted to support it.    
   
According to Rep. Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the UFP, not all 110 lawmakers who sponsored the motion participated in the voting. Two UFP lawmakers and one independent lawmaker were absent. (……)

“A justice minister is a servant of the people, not a specific political faction. As a servant to the people, the minister must maintain political neutrality, not abuse power of office, never submit to outside pressures and faithfully respect laws,” Rep. Bae Hyun-jin, spokeswoman of the UFP, said before the voting started. “But Choo’s actions clearly violated her duty to serve the people.”  
   
“Shortly after she took office, she reassigned the prosecutors who were investigating corruption and abuse of power allegations against key members of the Moon Jae-in administration, without consulting the prosecutor general,” Bae said, pointing to the move as retaliation.   
   
Bae also said Choo had illegally intervened in the prosecution probes, and such actions are in violation of the law governing the prosecution. Choo also disgraced the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution by publicly criticizing the prosecutor general, Bae said.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I have long chronicled how Choo was specifically chosen to stop all prosecution attempts to investigate the Blue House. Choo has even promised to investigate the prosecutors who were leading the Blue House corruption probes as payback.

Just think that prior ROK President Park Geun-hye was impeached for far less than this.

Does anyone else see the irony of a prominent North Korean defector elected to the National Assembly questioning the Unification Minister on his past communist background?:

Opposition lawmakers on Thursday bombarded Unification Minister nominee Lee In-young with questions about his ideological leanings during a National Assembly confirmation hearing that was largely devoid of policy discussions over the deteriorating state of inter-Korean relations.    

The fiercest attacks came from Rep. Thae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat and defector elected as a South Korean district representative in April. Thae led the conservative United Future Party’s (UFP) charge against Lee, accusing him of not renouncing his supposed former Communist beliefs.    

Lee was a founding member and first chair of Jeondaehyup, or the National Council of Student Representatives, an influential left-wing student union active in the struggle against South Korea’s military junta throughout the 1980s.  

The group’s prominent pro-unification activities, like its dispatch of a student delegation to Pyongyang in violation of domestic law in 1989, led many on the right to accuse Jeondaehyup of being a pro-North organization, though many of the group’s leaders, including Lee and former Blue House Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok, have since entered the mainstream of South Korea’s liberal establishment.  

After stating that he officially renounced North Korea’s Juche state ideology after defecting to the South, Thae argued, without evidence, that he was taught in the North that members of Jeondaehyup recited anti-American slogans in front of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung’s portrait every morning.  

Lee denied that he ever harbored a belief in Juche, responding that such attempts to vet a candidate’s ideology belonged to the playbook of North Korea or South Korea’s past authoritarian governments, and were not appropriate in modern South Korean democracy.    

“In the North such things like ideological defection may be forced upon [people] but in the South, ideology and morality are not imposed,” Lee said. “That [Thae] has asked me about my ideological beliefs shows [Thae] still lacks an understanding of democracy in the South.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but The Yong-ho knows enough about democracy to get elected to the National Assembly.

I hope no one is surprised that the Moon administration is busy removing private sector hires from the government and replacing them with bureaucrat allies:

The Gwanfia is back, though it may never have left to begin with.

It seems that more senior bureaucrats than ever are parachuting into top posts at government-controlled institutions since the start of the Moon Jae-in administration.

Gwanfia is a portmanteau of the Korean word gwanryo, meaning “bureaucrat,” and Mafia. 

The latest is the appointment of former Blue House economic chief Yoon Jong-won as the chief executive of the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK).

Almost all positions filled during the Park Geun-hye administration by executives from the private sector are now held by bureaucrats. 

The heads of three major state-run banks – Korea Development Bank (KDB), Export-Import Bank of Korea (Exim Bank), Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) – and the leaders of the major financial associations – the General Insurance Association of Korea (GIAK), the Credit Finance Association and the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (Kodit) – had been selected from the private sector. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

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:

“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.

Korea Times

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.

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

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

Here is what Chung Jae-jeong, professor emeritus at the University of Seoul has to say about the current trade dispute between Korea and Japan.

Q: Since the Supreme Court ruling, has Seoul given the impression that it may be disregarding the 1965 pact?

A: There is a high possibility that Japan takes this view. Seoul says that it is addressing the insufficiencies of the 1965 pact, but from Japan’s point of view, all issues regarding compensation were completely resolved with the deal. The Korean government has only said it respects the ruling, and has not given clear explanations about the discrepancy between the 1965 pact and the Supreme Court ruling. There has not been any statement from the foreign minister or the President declaring once and for all that Seoul does not deny the pact. If this position was declared through an official channel, it could help to assuage the considerable level of concern Japan has. This will facilitate negotiations on how to resolve the current disputes. Abe and the Japanese foreign minister have continued to demand Korea “keep state-to-state promises and treaties.”

Q: If the President were to make such a declaration, the Korean public may see it as a humiliation and get the impression that we are succumbing to Japan’s demands. 

A: I think we as a country have passed a stage where we approach state-to-state conflicts emotionally. They should be handled with professional judgment and knowledge. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Professor Chung recommends that a third party arbitrator be used to resolve this issue, but this is whole is issue is about driving anti-Japanese sentiment for future elections not resolving it, so the Moon administration will continue to down play the 1965 Treaty.

#MoonJaein nominated Inspector Yoon Seok-ryul, who viciously went after Moon's political opponents, to the post of chief prosecutor. https://t.co/Jgkn1APjBK

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) June 17, 2019

Seoul City Mayor spends budget like water for populist policy, including "free cash" to youths, & raises taxes. So does Gyeonggi governor Lee Jae-myeong. So does Moon Jae-in. Why do they so doggedly pursue what Maduro has done in Venezuela? https://t.co/VEF5EdT6aV

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) May 26, 2019

It appears the ROK foreign ministry is not very good at keeping state secrets:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has come under fire once again for an ethical lapse among its staff after a diplomat leaked information from a telephone conversation between President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump. 

Cheong Wa Dae and the ministry are considering legal action against the 54-year-old diplomat for allegedly leaking the confidential information to Rep. Khang Hyo-shang, a lawmaker from the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP).

The diplomat, working at the South Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., is suspected of sharing some key details of the Moon-Trump phone conversation with his high school alumni Khang, the day after the two leaders held talks. 

The presidential office said the diplomat admitted to the incident. 

“The telephone conversations between leaders of two countries are identified and categorized as the third-highest level of state diplomatic secrecy,” a senior presidential aide told reporters in a briefing, Thursday.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.