Tag: South Korea

It looks like the purge of Korean conservatives is continuing:

Prosecutors on Monday requested prison sentences for nearly a dozen lawmakers affiliated with the predecessor of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) over their alleged involvement in a physical altercation at the National Assembly in 2019.

The Seoul Southern District Court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Nov. 20, more than six years after the incident took place.

Prosecutors requested a two-year sentence for Rep. Na Kyung-won of the PPP, who served as the then main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP)’s floor leader at the time.

A 10-month prison term and a fine of 2 million won ($1,440) were sought for Rep. Song Eon-seog, the current PPP floor leader.

Prosecutors also sought a 1 1/2-year prison term for Hwang Kyo-ahn, former leader of the LKP.

In April 2019, the then ruling Democratic Party, in cooperation with minor opposition blocs, including the center-right Bareunmirae Party, sought to fast-track a package of reform bills. Among the key bills was legislation aimed at establishing an independent agency to investigate corruption involving high-ranking government officials.

Members of the LKP fiercely resisted the move, physically attempting to block the legislative process. The conflict escalated when Rep. Chae Yi-bae of the Bareunmirae Party was confined in his office for five hours by LKP members.

Following the incident, rival parties filed a total of 18 complaints against each other, involving charges such as assault, obstruction of business and defamation.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The Lee administration is still playing the victim card over the detainment of the South Korean illegal immmigrants and the State Department is playing right into this narrative:

A senior U.S. state department official on Sunday expressed regrets over the recent mass detention of South Korean workers in America and vowed to prevent similar occurrences.

Christopher Landau, deputy secretary of state, visited Seoul for a meeting with South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo.

According to Seoul’s foreign ministry, Landau conveyed his deep regrets over the detention of hundreds of South Korean workers in an immigration crackdown earlier this month at an electric vehicle battery plant construction site for a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Bryan County, Georgia. A total of 316 South Korean workers returned home Friday, after being held in a detention center for a week.

Landau also said U.S. President Donald Trump has a keen interest in the matter and ensured that those who have returned home will not face any disadvantages when reentering the United States. The state department official said Washington would try to ensure there would be no further incidents of a similar nature in the future.

Landau proposed working-level talks on issuing proper visas for South Korean workers in the U.S., citing a need to provide institutional support for South Korean corporations’ investments that contribute to the American economy and manufacturing.

In response, Park touched upon inconveniences that South Korean workers faced while in detention and said the general public in South Korea, in addition to the workers themselves, felt deeply shocked by the crackdown.

According to the ministry, Park also strongly urged the U.S. to take practical steps and implement systematic improvements to ease South Korean people’s concerns.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the message Landau should have matched what U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick recently said that the U.S. wants Korean business, just come in on a proper visa. If you are having problems let us know and we will resolve it. Instead this “regret” wording just feeds into the victim narrative the Lee administration is promoting.

It looks like Korea may see a surge in Chinese tourists:

A temporary visa waiver program for Chinese group tourists who visit Korea will begin later this month, officials said Sunday, as part of efforts to boost the nation’s tourism market.

Under the visa-free program, a group of Chinese tourists with more than three people can travel to Korea without visas for as many as 15 days from Sept. 29 to June next year, according to a joint statement by justice, culture and other ministries.

Korea Times

You can read at the link.

It looks like Korea’s “Bali-Bali” culture led to the Hyundai and LG workers not wanting to wait and go through the H1B visa process:

Many of those reportedly entered the US using B1 visas — issued for business purposes, such as attending meetings or signing contracts — or through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization visa waiver program for short-term stays. US immigration officials said that was the central issue in the raid.

Foreign nationals must acquire an appropriate visa such as the H-1B, L1 or E2 to legally obtain employment at workplaces located in the US. But as those visas can take months to obtain and their numbers are capped, they are often deemed impractical for companies that need to dispatch workers frequently or on short notice. Industry officials also complain that wait times for all types of visas have lengthened since the start of the Trump administration.

According to Korean media reports, the US allocates annual H-1B visa quotas to certain countries with which it has free trade agreements, including Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Chile and Australia. Despite having a free trade agreement with the US, South Korea does not receive a quota.

In response to the concern, an official from Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, who requested anonymity, noted that H-1B visas are distributed through a lottery. The official said that the ministry has repeatedly urged the US government and Congress since 2012 to create a separate visa quota for Korean professionals, such as via the proposed Partner With Korea Act.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but I wonder how many of the jobs the detained Joreans were doing could have been done by Americans?

It will be interesting to see if the personnel deported will be allowed back into the country again in the future with a proper work visa. With that said I am sure every Korean business is reviewing visa status of their workers now:

The Korean government said Sunday that talks with U.S. authorities to release more than 300 Korean workers detained in Georgia were finished, and that only administrative steps remained before a chartered plane would be dispatched to bring them home.

Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik announced the development at a high-level policy meeting in Seoul, saying the release as imminent thanks to swift cooperation among government ministries, business groups and companies.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I don’t doubt any of this is true and does anyone think the left isn’t doing the same thing with the KCTU and the organizations that support them?:

Former first lady Kim Keon Hee asked for the Unification Church’s cooperation in backing a specific candidate in the People Power Party’s (PPP) leadership election in March 2023, an indictment written by special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team showed Monday.

The team suspects that the Unification Church sought to request various policy favors from the administration of former President Yoon Suk Yeol in exchange for its political support.

According to the indictment for a former Unification Church official surnamed Yun, obtained by Yonhap News Agency, church leader Han Hak-ja emphasized the ideology of unity between church and state in around October 2019 and has since pushed for various projects and events related to Africa, Cambodia, a Demilitarized Zone peace park and hosting a U.N. secretariat in South Korea.

Under the instruction of Han, Yun selected Yoon as a presidential hopeful, who can not only accommodate the Unification Church’s policy proposals but also establish friendly relations with the church, ahead of the 2022 presidential election, according to the indictment.

Yun is accused of offering Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the PPP 100 million won (US$72,000) in January 2022 while promising the church’s extensive support for Yoon in the presidential election in exchange for the government’s support for the church’s projects and events in the future.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I have always supported radio broadcasts as a low cost way to penetrate North Korea’s information blockade of its people and the Lee administration has given it up for nothing in return:

South Korea has halted the broadcast of a propaganda radio program into North Korea, the defense ministry said Monday, as the South seeks to mend frayed ties with the North.

The move is the latest in Seoul’s reconciliatory gestures, with President Lee Jae Myung vowing to restore inter-Korean ties and resume dialogue with Pyongyang.

“The defense ministry has halted the ‘Voice of Freedom’ broadcast as part of efforts to ease inter-Korean military tensions,” the ministry said in a notice to reporters.

South Korea had aired K-pop and news into North Korea through the halted radio program. Last year, it broadcast news on North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia in support of its war against Ukraine.

The ministry reportedly halted the broadcast starting earlier in the day, marking the first suspension of the radio program in 15 years. South Korea resumed the radio program in May 2010, following North Korea’s deadly attack on the South Korean naval corvette Cheonan.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.