Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom denies spying on private citizens on Tuesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]
Accusations that the Moon Jae-in Blue House spied on private citizens broadened on Tuesday after a local broadcaster reported that the presidential office’s special inspection bureau looked into a corruption allegation about Airport Railroad, a private operator of trains connecting Incheon International Airport and downtown Seoul.
After Channel A ran a report on its evening news show on Monday, the Blue House said it was a mere mistake: The bureau’s head erroneously thought the firm was a public company due to its “name and characteristic of work.”
Opposition parties aren’t buying that explanation. The Liberty Korea Party threatened to bring the case to the National Assembly for a parliamentary investigation unless the Moon Blue House clears everything up – instead of blaming mistakes or rogue elements.
You can read more at the link, but the only thing that I would surprised by is if anyone in the Moon administration is held accountable for the domestic spying. As we have seen with other Moon administration scandals they will go to great lengths to defend their allies.
As we have seen repeatedly the Moon administration is willing to go great lengths to protect their friends and punish their enemies. Now they are targeting a corruption whistleblower and letting the media know they will go after them as well if they continue to report his claims:
A former investigator with the Blue House special inspection bureau accused President Moon Jae-in’s top aides of covering up bribery allegations against Korean Ambassador to Russia Woo Yoon-keun and said he was kicked out of the prestigious Blue House team for looking into the case.
Kim Tae-wu, an investigator with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office who was temporarily dispatched to the Blue House last year to work for the special inspection bureau, told local media on Saturday that he was victimized for targeting Woo, a high-profile figure in Korean liberal politics who formerly served as a lawmaker in the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and has close ties with Moon. In an email to several media outlets, Kim said he wanted to shed light on the truth and recover his tarnished reputation.
Both the Blue House and Woo adamantly denied Kim’s claims that the envoy was bribed. In scathing remarks, Yoon Young-chan, Moon’s senior secretary for public affairs, referred to Kim as a “loach” in a written statement issued to Blue House correspondents on Saturday, saying the investigator was “completely muddying stream water” now that he’s been cornered.
Yoon added that the truth will soon be revealed and the Blue House will “certainly” press legal charges against Kim for the spread of false information and defamation. Yoon went on to express “deep regret” for the local media outlets who were writing stories based on “unilateral claims” from Kim. Kim was one of 20 to 30 members of the so-called special inspection bureau under the office of Cho Kuk, presidential senior secretary for civil affairs.
These drug smugglers must have forgot to pay someone off in the Mexican government to have this tip called in against them:
The Korea Customs Service announced Monday that they confiscated 63.88 kilograms (140.8 pounds) of cocaine that was smuggled into the Port of Busan. [NEWS1]
The Korea Customs Service announced Monday it confiscated a record amount of cocaine shipped into the Port of Busan.
According to customs officials, 63.88 kilograms (140.8 pounds) of cocaine was smuggled into the port, the largest amount of drugs found since the opening of Busan Harbor. Authorities estimated that market value was about 190 billion won ($168 million).
Customs authorities said the cargo left Mexico 20 days ago, arrived in Busan on Dec. 14 and was head to Tianjin, China.
Customs was tipped off about the smuggling by Mexican customs officials. The Korea Customs Service was told the drugs were concealed in 22 tons of recyclable copper scraps, packed in small plastic bags that were stuffed into two large black bags.
Charges of libel from Twitter messages from the wife of Gyeongi province Governor Lee Jae-myung have been dropped, but it appears unsurprisingly that Governor Lee was the primary target of the prosecutors all along:
Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung will stand trial for telling falsehoods about a series of allegations raised against him and about his family during his election campaign for the governorship. The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Lee without physical detention on charges of violating the national election law, it said. Lee has been under investigation for allegedly lying about his brother’s institutionalization due to a mental illness during his campaign in the runup to the June local elections. He denied when he appeared on TV debates as a governor candidate that he had used his authority as the then Seongnam mayor to have his now-deceased brother institutionalized against his will. The governor also faced accusations after an actress claimed she had an extramarital affair with Lee. Prosecutors decided to not press any charges against Lee, citing insufficient grounds. “It’s what I expected. I’m not baffled,” he told reporters following the prosecution announcement. Lee also hinted that he would not give up his seat over the indictment and will fight the matter in court. “I still am a proud member of the Democratic Party. I will do my utmost to not cause any more trouble for the party,” he said
You can read more at the link, but Governor Lee was a major rival to current President Moon Jae-in during the last election. The Moon administration has effectively eliminated him now as a future political rival.
The judge sentenced all 4 journalists to jail. Byun Hee-jai: 2 yrs, Hwang: 1 yr. Lee & Oh 6 mos. ea.+2 yrs probation+$4,454 fine ea. It was too much to expect a fair trial. Victims of the Moon Jae-in admin’s lawfare. A terrible day for #FreedomofthePress#RuleofLawhttps://t.co/MtPiqqyeuE
It appears that the Blue House is going after anyone remotely connected with former President Park Geun-hye, here is the latest example:
Shin Sung-chul
The president of KAIST, Korea’s top science and engineering university, is the target of a government inquiry that some suspect to be politically motivated.
The Science Ministry on Tuesday issued a request to KAIST’s board of trustees that it suspend Shin Sung-chul, KAIST’s incumbent president, six days after it formally recommended he be criminally charged for embezzlement and breach of duty.
The board will decide whether to suspend Shin after an internal meeting next Thursday.
“I cannot help but feel devastated that such accusations are being brought up now,” Shin said at a press conference at KAIST on Tuesday. “We already received a detailed government audit at DGIST [his former workplace where the irregularities are supposed to have occurred] back in 2016.”
But analysts are claiming political motives are behind the investigation.
Shin’s alleged misconduct dates to his days as the founding president of the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), a lesser known public science and engineering institute located in Daegu.
DGIST signed a memorandum of understanding with an American research institute in February 2012. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) – better known as Berkeley Lab – agreed to provide DGIST with cutting edge research equipment from its Center for X-ray Optics in exchange for research fees from DGIST. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but apparently money from DGIST was sent to Berkeley for the equipment that the government is claiming was public grant money. Shin says the equipment was never supposed to be sent to DGIST for free by Berkeley and that public grants were not used to pay for it.
Here is why the Blue House is allegedly trying to get rid of Shin, he is an old elementary school friend of former President Park Geun-hye:
“Even if the government’s accusations are true, it is unclear how Shin can be accused of embezzlement when he himself did not take the money,” said Lee Byung-tae, a professor at KAIST’s Graduate School of Management. “Science Minister You Young-min himself said the issue was out of his hands, but this recent move looks like it has the Blue House behind it.”
Lee added that Shin’s decision to appoint Lim as a professor was completely within the realm of his discretion as university president. If wrongdoing is indeed clear, the board of trustees at KAIST can easily decide on their own to fire Shin, Lee said.
Shin has refused to step down from his position, saying he would make that decision once the board meets and reaches a conclusion.
An elementary school colleague of former President Park Geun-hye, Shin became KAIST’s president last February amid a controversial selection process in which he was accused of being a political appointment. Shin has not complained of political persecution.
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.
Prosecutors on Tuesday raided Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung’s office and home, apparently to search for his wife’s old mobile phone believed to hold crucial evidence in investigations into her suspected role in political slander.
Prosecutors and investigators from the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office began the raid on Lee’s home in Seongnam, south of Seoul, at around 9 a.m.
About the same time, another group of prosecutors searched Lee’s office in Suwon in the presence of the governor and his lawyer.
The raid was apparently intended to retrieve an iPhone used by Lee’s wife, Kim Hye-kyung, from July 2016 until April this year, when allegations of her involvement in online slandering of Lee’s election rivals surfaced.
Kim, who is suspected of posting slanderous messages on social media sites via her mobile phone, changed her iPhone and phone number in April and told police investigators later that she was not aware of its whereabouts. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but what is ironic about this is that the Moon administration hushed up far worse conduct in the Druking Scandal that they are now going after a political rival’s wife for.
I am not sure what authorities the Defense Security Command had, but if they were conducting illegal surveillance than people should be held accountable:
A special military probe team has indicted four senior uniformed officers, including two general-grade ones, for their alleged role in the illicit surveillance of family members of victims in a 2014 ferry disaster, investigators said Tuesday.
The team wrapped up its monthslong inquiry into the allegations that officials of the now-defunct Defense Security Command (DSC) monitored the victims’ families to minimize the political impact of the tragic incident that laid bare the government’s ineptitude in crisis management.
Investigators indicted and detained a major general, a brigadier general and a colonel for issuing directives for the purported surveillance. Another colonel was also indicted without detention on the same charges.
The ferry Sewol sank in waters off the country’s southwestern island of Jindo on April 16, 2014, leaving more than 300 passengers dead or missing. The bereaved families’ criticism of the government’s response to the disaster worsened public sentiment against the then-Park Geun-hye administration. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration has already “reformed” the Defense Security Command:
Here is another one of these incidents where there is likely more to the story and both sides at fault, but radicals from each side will manipulate facts to push their agendas:
A recent assault case involving three men and two women at a bar near Isu Subway Station in Seoul — better known as the “Isu Station assault” case — has triggered an unexpected gender war online, after the women said they were attacked by men for their feminist choices, while others accused them of fabricating the account.
More than 350,000 Koreans signed an online petition asking for the presidential office to punish the three men after one of the two women claimed online that she and her sister were physically attacked for “not wearing makeup” and “having short hair.”
The woman, who is in her early 20s, said she deliberately chose the look — no makeup with short hair — as part of the “escape the corset” movement, a Korean feminist movement that rejects makeup and the rigid standards of beauty imposed particularly on young women in Korean society. [Korea Herald]
