Tag: Minbyun

The fact that the pro-North Korea Minbun group is involved shows how these lawyers plan to use the Itaewon crush tragedy to politically attack the Yoon administration:

The bereaved families of some Itaewon crowd crush victims held a news conference Tuesday, calling for the punishment of those responsible for the tragic accident.

The conference was organized in southern Seoul by Minbyun-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, an organization of progressive lawyers, which it says legally represents the families of 34 of 158 people killed during and after Halloween celebrations in Seoul’s Itaewon district on Oct. 29.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Minbyun for those that don’t remember has been used to legally attack North Korean defectors, one of the groups behind the US beef riots, and have long attacked the USFK relocation plan. They have recently been calling for the signing of a peace treaty to end the Korean War so US troops can be withdrawn:

The former Finance Ministry employee who accused the Moon administration of intentionally raising the national debt has now been taken in custody for supposedly trying to commit suicide:

The former Finance Ministry official who accused the Blue House of fiddling with state coffers and intervening in private companies went missing for hours on Thursday after leaving a suicide note on the internet that read he was going to hang himself in a motel – until police found him alive.

Officers at Gwanak Police Precinct provided scant details to the local press about Shin Jae-min’s health condition but said he was hospitalized in Seoul in a “favorable state.”

Police refused to hold a press briefing detailing how they discovered Shin or what he was doing by the time they arrived at the motel in Gwanak District, southern Seoul, saying they didn’t want to “stimulate” someone who was already “mentally instable.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

Shin allegedly left a suicide note as a web posting on a forum hosted by his alma mater Korea University:

In his post, Shin wrote that he thought people would trust him and his whistle-blowing accusations if he died. 

Shin added he hoped Korean society would adopt a culture that embraces whistle-blowers and reveal how government policies are made to the general public. 

Shin lamented blowing the whistle on a left-leaning government, saying he could have received legal help from Minbyun – Lawyers for a Democratic Society, a non-governmental organization with special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, if he was whistle-blowing on a conservative Blue House. 

Shin said he was “deeply disappointed” after hearing that every attorney in Minbyun refused to defend him if Shin revealed to the press he was being backed by the progressive group. 

I don’t know why he was surprised the Minbyun group would not help him because they are notorious for basically being Kim Jong-un’s lawyers in South Korea. They have been used to legally attack North Korean defectors, one of the groups behind the US beef riots, and have long attacked the USFK relocation plan. They have recently been calling for the signing of a peace treaty to end the Korean War so US troops can be withdrawn.

Minbyun of course are not going to do anything that would damage a North Korean friendly administration in South Korea. Shin best toughen up because the leftists in South Korea know how to defend their own and will do everything they can to destroy him. Just ask the conservative journalists sitting in jail for reporting accurate information about the Moon administration.

As I have been saying for some time, if a peace treaty is agreed to with North Korea, the South Korean left will then challenge the relevancy of the US-ROK alliance:

Two progressive civic groups on Sunday called for a review of the character of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) in line with the two Koreas’ efforts for reconciliation and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The ,  and Minbyun-Lawyers for a Democratic Society issued the call, with Seoul and Washington set to hold a third round of negotiations this week on sharing the cost for the upkeep of 28,500 American troops in the South.

“As (the two Koreas) are in the process of implementing the Panmunjom Declaration and establishing a peace regime, the character and size of the USFK, and the scope of its activities should be reviewed,” the two groups said in a joint statement.  [Yonhap]

The PSPD and Minbyun are both extreme left wing pro-Pyongyang organization that have long been anti-US.  For example PSPD is one of the groups behind the ongoing THAAD protests, blamed the US for Christian missionaries kidnapped by the Taliban, was a member of the Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA that even had one of their own set himself on fire outside one of the FTA meetings in Seoul.  PSPD was also one of the lead organizations against the relocation of US forces to Camp Humphreys.

Minbyun on the other hand are basically Kim Jong-un’s personal lawyers in South Korea.  They have long been used to legally attack North Korean defectors, one of the groups behind the US beef riots, and have long attacked the USFK relocation plan.

ROK President Moon Jae-in has said that after a peace treaty he wants US forces to stay.

Moon, however, has said that the USFK is a matter of the Seoul-Washington alliance and that it has “nothing to do with” a peace treaty that the two Koreas agreed to pursue to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended only with a truce.

Remember though that Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down.  If he advocated openly for a USFK withdrawal that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces.  That is why I think it is a possibility that the Moon administration may publicly say they support USFK, but will then have their surrogates do things to make life difficult for USFK such as what Minbyun is proposing:

Regarding the allies’ talks on the cost of American troops here, the civic groups called for more transparency in spending procedures, more parliamentary oversight and a ban on the use of money for supporting the deployment of U.S. strategic assets.

Possibly the future of USFK could look a lot like the current THAAD site in Seongju.  President Moon will say all the right things that he supports USFK, just like he supposedly supports the THAAD site, but will set conditions to make it difficult for its continued existence.  Minbyun and PSPD’s current efforts could just be the start of a larger strategy to make life more difficult for USFK if a peace treaty is signed.  All the while expect the Moon administration to say how much they support USFK.

It will be interesting to see if the anti-US leftists try to bring back the US beef issue as a way to further drive a wedge between the US and the ROK:

The government said Thursday it has strengthened inspections on U.S. beef imports following the detection of mad cow disease in the United States.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs held a quarantine committee meeting to share information on the outbreak of mad cow disease in the U.S. and gather expert opinion. The ministry has boosted quarantine measures, increasing the ratio of the U.S. beef going through inspections to 30 percent from the current 3 percent.

The step follows the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announcing that an 11-year-old cow in Alabama was found to have an “atypical” variety of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease.

The USDA said that it is not the classic variety that is linked to Creutzfeldt Jakob disease in people. Cattle are known to be infected with “typical” BSE through feed contaminated with infectious prion agents, such as meat-and-bone meal containing protein derived from rendered infected cattle.

Atypical BSE, meanwhile, generally occurs in older cattle, usually over eight years old, and is known to arise rarely and spontaneously in all cattle populations.

The USDA emphasized that atypical BSE cases do not impact official BSE risk status recognition.

“Therefore, this finding of an atypical case will not change the negligible risk status of the United States, and should not lead to any trade issues,” it noted, making clear that it has no plan to stop beef exports.  [Korea Times]

Should not lead to any trade issues?  Tell that to an anti-American leftist:

Lawyers for a Democratic Society, an NGO, claimed that the government should stop U.S. beef imports “to protect the people’s health.” Korea can suspend imports under U.S. beef “import requirements” which the two countries agreed upon if it is necessary for public health and safety.

Lawyers for a Democratic Society are known in Korean as Minbyun. Minbyun has worked with other anti-US groups to go after USFK as well as try to get defectors returned to North Korea.