Doing well&in great spirits! Robyn, Sejun, Grigsby & I – deeply moved by the support! Will be back ASAP to advance US-ROK alliance! 같이 갑시다!
— Mark Lippert (@mwlippert) March 5, 2015
Best wishes to US Ambassador Mark Lippert as he recovers from the cowardly knife attack by a Korean leftist:
A knife attack Thursday that injured the U.S. ambassador to South Korea is the latest act of political violence in a deeply divided country where some protesters portray their causes as matters of life and death.
The slashing of Ambassador Mark Lippert’s face and arm, which left deep gashes and damaged tendons and nerves, was an extreme example, but America infuriates some leftist South Koreans because of its role in Korea’s turbulent modern history.
Washington, which backed the South during the 1950-53 Korean War against the communist North, still stations nearly 30,000 troops here and holds annual military drills with Seoul. That’s something anti-U.S. activists view as a major obstacle to their goal of an eventual reunification of the rival Koreas.
Purported U.S. interference in Korean affairs appeared to be the main grievance of the man police named as the assailant, Kim Ki-jong, 55, who has a long history of anti-U.S. protests.
“South and North Korea should be reunified,” Kim shouted as he slashed Lippert with a 25-centimeter (10-inch) knife, police and witnesses said.
The attack left a gash on Lippert’s face that started under his cheekbone and extended diagonally across his cheek toward his jawbone. He received 80 stiches to close the 11-centimeter (4-inch) wound, Chung Nam-sik of Severance Hospital told reporters. Lippert, 42, also had surgery on his arm to repair damage to tendons and nerves and was in stable condition at the hospital. [Associated Press]
The leftist Kim Ki-jong who was involved in the attack has a long history of violence to include attacking the Japanese ambassador to Korea with a concrete block. He says he attacked Lippert because of the ongoing US-ROK Key Resolve military exercise:
Kim is well-known among police and activists as one of a hard-core group of protesters willing to use violence to highlight their causes. Such protesters often speak of their actions in terms of a war, of a struggle to the death.
Kim told police that he attacked Lippert to protest U.S.-South Korean military drills that started Monday — exercises that the North has long maintained are preparations for an invasion. Kim said the drills, which Seoul and Washington say are purely defensive, ruined efforts for reconciliation between the two Koreas, officials at Seoul’s Jongno police station said in a televised briefing.
Here is what North Korea had to say about the attack:
North Korea’s state-controlled media later crowed that Kim’s “knife slashes of justice” were “a deserved punishment on war maniac U.S.” and reflected the South Korean people’s protests against the U.S. for driving the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war because of the joint military drills.
The real question is if any of the North Korean spies within South Korea sent Kim to conduct this attack or not? Another question is what was the security like around the Ambassador to allow this leftist loon to get access to the Ambassador? You would think they would have increased security for him during the Key Resolve exercise?
Also keep in mind this is the not the first political knife slashing to happen in recent years. In 2006 current President Park Geun-hye was slashed across the face by a knife wielding man:
Image via the BBC.
Park needed 60 stitches to seal the cut. Ambassador Lippert’s wound looks much worse. Anyway the person convicted of slashing President Park received 11 years in jail. I think Kim Ki-jong’s days of protesting the US are over because he will likely receive a very long sentence to send a message to these leftist loons. South Korea also needs to take a stronger stance when people commit violent acts against the Japanese embassy in South Korea as well. As this attack shows these loons get emboldened when they are not properly punished after committing violent acts against the Japanese embassy.
It will be interesting to see where this goes in regards to for example members of the media being covered by this bill even though they are not public servants:
Admitting to hastiness and poor preparation, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle vowed Wednesday to revise the controversial anti-graft law they passed only one day earlier.
The National Assembly Tuesday passed tough anti-corruption legislation after years of debate despite concerns that it would surely face constitutional challenges for its vagueness and overly wide scope.
On Wednesday, even lawmakers who voted the bill into law admitted a need for revisions. “We will listen to all the voices pointing to shortfalls with a humble attitude,” said Rep. Yoo Seong-min, floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party who participated in the negotiations with the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) over the law. “During the one and a half years of grace period before it takes effect, we will make necessary modifications.” According to the law, a public official will face criminal punishment for receiving money or favors worth more than 1 million won ($912) even if they are unrelated to his or her job. Beyond bribes, entertainment like expensive meals, golf games and paid vacations is also covered by the law. A wide range of professions including civil servants, legislators, teachers at private schools and employees of media companies are covered because the law considers the nature of their work “public.” Their spouses will also be covered.
In media companies, both journalists and people in non-journalism related jobs will be covered. NPAD Rep. Lee Sang-min, chairman of the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee, called the law “unconstitutional” and “unreasonable,” promising to make speedy revisions.
“Almost all lawmakers pointed to the law’s problems and they said it seemed unconstitutional,” Lee said in an interview with CBS radio. “The scope of the law was expanded unreasonably to the media and the private sector. The law was too ambiguous and it is destined to create many innocent victims.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but the golf course and massage parlors in Korea must be in a panic about now.
This speech was probably not a good idea:
Washington said on Monday that there has been no change in U.S. policy, part of an attempt to rectify controversial remarks made by an American diplomat that seemed to position the United States with Japan on historical issues with its neighboring Asian countries.
On Monday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf expressed surprise over how Seoul had interpreted comments made by Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs.
“We were, frankly, a little surprised to see that some interpreted her remarks as being directed at any particular leader in the region,” she said.
On Friday, Sherman stated in an address at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington that, “It’s not hard for a political leader anywhere to earn cheap applause by vilifying a former enemy,” words that seemed to be directed at South Korean President Park Geun-hye or Chinese President Xi Jinping, though the Asian leaders were not specifically identified.
Sherman’s remarks, which appeared to trivialize sensitive historical issues, were met with strong backlash in Seoul over the weekend, namely her claim that Seoul and Beijing “have quarreled with Tokyo over so-called comfort women from World War II.”
“There are disagreements about the content of history books and even the names given to various bodies of water,” she continued, likely referring to the dispute over the name of the body of water between Korea and Japan, designated as the East Sea in Seoul and the Sea of Japan in Tokyo. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but publicly calling out leaders like this is sure to backfire and entrench their positions. Something as sensitive as the comfort women issue I think requires more quiet back room diplomacy. The Chinese government is never going to stop using historical issues to drum up anti-Japanese sentiment to turn attention away from major domestic issues when needed. The South Korean government does this as well, the best example is when former President Lee Myung-bak was plagued by scandals so he took a trip to Dokdo to bash the Japanese and his poll numbers rose. However, if the Japanese right wing would stop making provocative statements in regards to this issue more traction in regards to reconciliation between Korea and Japan could happen.
It seems the police probably should have caught this woman sooner, but fortunately now she has been arrested:
A 44-year-old woman has been detained by police for questioning over whether she fatally poisoned her ex-husband, current husband and mother-in-law from 2011 to 2013.
The suspected black widow living in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi, is also alleged to have fed her own daughter a non-lethal dose of poison to make her sick and get insurance money.
“We believe she killed the victims because of conflicts or to earn death benefits,” said a police officer at the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency on Tuesday. “The investigation was launched after insurance companies tipped off the police that her family members died and she received huge sums in insurance.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link.
An electric vehicle carries tourists at Biseul Mountain Park in Dalseong County of Daegu on Feb. 27, 2015. (Photo courtesy of Dalseong County Office) (Yonhap)
It is sad that it took a major tragedy like the sinking of the Sewol to expose just how the corruption of public officials in South Korea had become a major safety hazard:
The National Assembly of South Korea passed an anticorruption law on Tuesday that calls for up to three years in prison for journalists, teachers and public servants who accept single cash donations or gifts valued at more than a million won, or about $910.
Passage of the law signaled a milestone in the country, where bestowing and receiving envelopes of cash and other gifts have long been part of the culture — and a suspected channel of bribery.
In South Korea, businesspeople, politicians and senior government officials often host expensive dinners, send gift sets during holidays and make cash donations at weddings and funerals, making it difficult to determine what amounts to corruption and what should be accepted as part of social etiquette.
Until now, people have been punished for graft only when it was established in court that they had accepted a gift in return for doing a specific favor, like helping the gift-giver obtain a government license or school admission.
Such a stringent legal requirement has raised concerns that much of the corruption in the country has gone unpunished, especially the so-called sponsorship relationships that some businesspeople and politicians were said to maintain with prosecutors, government officials and journalists. Under that arrangement, the “sponsors” would wine and dine the recipients, as well as provide them with financial support, not necessarily for any immediate favor but for long-term collusive ties.
Under the new law, which is to take effect in October 2016, public servants, teachers and journalists will face fines or prison terms of up to three years for taking such gifts exceeding about $910, regardless of whether there is evidence of bribery or influence-peddling.
They will face similar punishment if their spouses receive such gifts from people that involve conflicts of interest. (Those who report their spouse’s gifts to the authorities will be exempt.) Those who receive gifts valued at less than the designated amount may be fined if those gifts involve a conflict of interest. [New York Times]
You can read more at the link,but I wonder how long before the Korean politicians discover campaign contributions as a way around anti-corruption laws?
You can also read more about this topic over at the Marmot’s Hole.
How do you forget to do something as basic as hooking up a harness to somebody going on a zip line? This is like telling someone to jump out of a plane without giving them a parachute:
A 12-year-old boy died in a 24-meter (78-foot) fall from the starting point of a zip line, an adventure sport in which people slide down a cable using a pulley, in Boeun County, North Chungcheong, on Saturday, raising concerns about Korea’s lack of safety standards for leisure activities.
The police think a worker at the zip line didn’t properly attach the victim’s harness to the pulley. The worker was a 23-year-old university student on a leave of absence. The boy, who lived in Cheongju, an adjacent city, was on a group outing.
“We believe the employee did not do his job, which is to attach the pulley to the rider’s harness before the jump,” said a police officer. “The employee stated in the investigation that he thought he connected the wire to the boy before he departed.”
The operator of the park immediately suspended operations and took the boy to a nearby hospital, but the victim died of excessive bleeding later that day. The police are planning to charge the employee for involuntary manslaughter due to professional negligence, while they investigate other kinds of negligence in the operation and maintenance of the park. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but condolences to the family of the boy.
A model demonstrates pole dance during the Seoul International Sports & Leisure Industry Show at COEX in southern Seoul on Feb. 26, 2015. (Yonhap)
Children join an event in Seoul on Feb. 25, 2015, to commemorate the Independence Day from Japanese colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945, which falls on March 1. (Yonhap)
