UAE defense chief in SeoulSouth Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo (R) and his visiting UAE counterpart, Mohammed Ahmed Al Bowardi (L), enter the defense ministry building in Seoul for talks on Dec. 5, 2018. (Yonhap)
Here is the latest on the Moon administration’s attempt to take out another political rival using South Korea libel laws:
Kim Hye-kyung, wife of Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung, emerges from an interrogation by prosecutors for a lunch break on Tuesday. [YONHAP]Prosecutors summoned the wife of Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung for questioning on Tuesday over allegations that she defamed her husband’s political rivals online.
Kim Hye-kyung, who police identified as the owner of the Twitter handle @08_hkkim, told reporters she was tired and frustrated at being wrongly accused as she entered the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi.
“I only hope the truth is revealed,” she said, echoing the words of her husband who underwent his own 13-hour interrogation last week over a number of different criminal accusations.
A police investigation into Kim’s case revealed last month that the @08_hkkim Twitter account posted thousands of political messages supporting Lee and defaming his political rivals. Some of the political figures publicly defamed were Rep. Jeon Hae-cheol of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and President Moon Jae-in.
Prosecutors say that Kim may be charged with spreading false information about Jeon in the run up to the Gyeonggi gubernatorial election in June and smearing the reputation of Moon’s son, Moon Joon-yong, with allegations that he obtained a public sector job through his father’s influence.
Both Kim and the governor deny the accusations, claiming that she never operated the Twitter account. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but with a Twitter handle with her named attached to it she obviously wasn’t trying to hide her identity if it was her. On the other hand it could have been someone else who set up the Twitter handle to set her up. After all the misinformation we saw over the “discovery” of the PC tablet that brought down President Park, anything is possible.
By the way I do like how the prosecutors are going after Governor Lee Jae-myung, a political rival to President Moon Jae-in than they were after fellow Governor Kim Kyoung-soo for his part in the far worse Druking Scandal. I have always said South Korea is not a rule of law country, but instead a rule by law country which means it helps to be the President’s close friend in regards to Governor Kim.
I've been called a free speech "absolutist" & I embrace the label. But no society can remain free if it allows some people to threaten violence against others for the peaceful expression of their views. A society that does so selectively commits censorship by proxy. #juchejugendhttps://t.co/ZETAzwrTzB
The first part of the survey of North Korea’s railways has been completed:
This photo provided by the Joint Press Corps shows a group of South Korean officials and railway experts speaking to reporters after returning home on Dec. 5, 2018, following a six-day railway inspection in North Korea. (Yonhap)
A group of South Korean officials and railway experts returned home Wednesday after completing a joint inspection of the rail system in western North Korea.
The 28 South Koreans crossed into Dorasan Station, just south of the inter-Korean border, at around 5:11 p.m. following a six-day inspection that covered the rail line from Kaesong near the border with the South to Sinuiju near the border with China.
A train carrying six South Korean cars left for the North on Friday. It was taken over by a North Korean locomotive at Panmun Station, from which point five North Korean cars were connected to it for the joint work.
“The overall railway conditions have not been better or much worse compared with when we visited there before,” Lim Jong-il, a transportation ministry official who headed the team, told reporters. He was involved in a 2007 railway inspection in the North. [Yonhap]
Probably not the best venue to let his views on radical feminists be known:
Rapper San E’s explosive remarks against online radical feminist communities during a concert have stirred up yet another controversy.
Hip-hop label Brand New Music held its year-end “Brand New Year 2018” concert at Jamil Olympic Stadium on Sunday.
There, San E offended females by saying in English, “Are there any WOMADs or Megalians (referring to online communities for radical groups that support misandry and female chauvinism) out there?
“One thing I want to say to you is that I don’t give a xxxx. Feminist NO, that’s mental sickness. WOMADs and Megalians are social evil.” After his remarks, the angry crowd shouted for an apology and the concert was interrupted for several minutes.
His appearance on stage had met with a chilly reception ― he recently came under fire for posting on YouTube a controversial song targeting feminists. [Korea Times]
Metal workers union members (under the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions) beat company exec b/c the firm was negotiating w another labor union. Police blocked by 30 or so unionists, waits while beating occurs for 40 minutes. Beaters threaten exec's family too. https://t.co/nZDGXZP5W9
After the ROK completes this railway inspection they will know how much cash they will need to handover to Kim Jong-un to upgrade his railway lines while he does little to nothing in return. The artillery along the DMZ is still there pointed at Seoul and the ballistic missiles and rockets are still there pointed at other cities in South Korea:
A South Korean train departed for North Korea on Friday for an 18-day joint railway inspection that the Koreas are conducting as part of efforts to modernize, and eventually reconnect, rail lines across their border.
The train, made up of six cars and carrying dozens of South Korean officials and experts, left Dorasan Station, just south of the inter-Korean border, around 9:05 a.m. for Panmun Station, near the North’s border city of Kaesong.
The train will be used to inspect 1,200 kilometers of rail track in the North through Dec. 17.
The inspection is part of a summit agreement between the leaders of the Koreas, signed in April, to modernize and eventually reconnect rail systems across their border in a bid to foster reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula.
“The inter-Korean railway connection project is intended to overcome division and open a new future of the Korean Peninsula,” Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told a ceremony at Dorasan Station to mark the launch of the inspection. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if the South Korean officials on this train will get to see the North Korean child slave labor in action maintaining the rails?
The ‘chain gang’ of children works along a stretch of railway (Image: Daily Mirror)
Condolences to the friends and family of Captain Joonki Min:
Air Force Capt. Joonki Min, an emergency room nurse assigned to the 51st Medical Operations Squadron, was found dead at Osan Air Base, South Korea, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018.
An airman working as an emergency room nurse assigned to the 51st Medical Operations Squadron was found dead at Osan Air Base in South Korea, according to a press release.
Air Force Capt. Joonki Min, 45, a Korean-American from Forest Park, Ill., was found at his on-base residence Monday, the 51st Fighter Wing’s public affairs office said Thursday. It did not provide more details, saying the cause of death is under investigation. [Stars & Stripes]
Even if the person’s email was hacked why was state agencies sending classified documents over an unclassified network to begin with? This is worse than the alleged hacking:
Cheong Wa Dae is looking into possible hacking cases, in which emails intended to create a rift in alliance between South Korea and the United States have been sent out using the accounts of at least two senior officials.
Citing recipients of these emails, the presidential office said this is to either steal classified information on North Korea policy or drive a wedge into the South Korea-U.S. alliance by using fake documents.
“We take each case very seriously and asked the National Police Agency to look into them thoroughly,” a presidential aide said asking not to be named.
The latest cases increased concerns over fake news at an alarming rate. This was because vernacular newspaper The Asia Business Daily, after obtaining a fake document on the U.S. mistrust of South Korea, published a related story on Nov. 27.
“It is way beyond a misreport and what we’re facing is the most malicious case in journalism history,” said Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom. “The way false information has been produced and disseminated is very elaborate.”
He added Cheong Wa Dae will “hunt down those who are responsible,” claiming the information itself was aimed at creating a rift between the two allies and therefore is anti-governmental.
In the first case, someone who pretended to be Presidential Secretary for State Affairs Yun Kun-young sent mails at the beginning of this year to multiple ministry officials.
The suspect then demanded recipients to hand over digital documents related to North Korea policy.
It remains uncertain how many shared classified information with the suspect.
One of the recipients raised a question over why such sensitive content was sent through Yun’s private email address, and not the one created by Cheong Wa Dae. He called Yun to confirm accordingly. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but they don’t know who conducted the alleged hacking. Considering that the alleged hacking was done with the purpose of creating a rift in the US-ROK alliance, China or North Korea seem like likely suspects.
