Category: Korean Government

Dr. Tara O over at the East Asia Research Center has another very interesting article published about how government compensation payments to “meritorious persons” from the Gwangju Uprising are so much higher than those given to Korean and Vietnam War veterans:

The Gwangju Incident that began on May 18, 1980 is referred to as “5.18” in Korea.  Those designated as 5.18 Yugogja (5.18 “Meritorious Persons”) and their families receive extensive benefits from the South Korean government.  Unlike Korean War and Vietnam War veterans, whose status is determined by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans, the 5.18 Yugongja is determined in Gwangju.  While technically it falls under the Prime Minister’s office, de facto, the process and the decisions are made at the local government level.  However, it is the national government that pays the benefits.

East Asia Research Center

Below is an excerpt of a chart that shows the differences in compensation. Click the link to see the full chart:

Besides the extreme difference in compensation here is what makes this issue even more controversial is that the lists keeps growing. Plus politically connected people who were not even at Gwangju are now being selected as “meritorious persons” and getting the free cash and benefits:

For an event that occurred 39 years ago, it seems the number of 5.18 Yugongja should fall over time.  However, the number has been increasing, especially in recent years. In 1990, the first year the 5.18 Yugongja designation occurred, the number was 2,224.  As of August 2018, the number was 4,403.  In 2017, the number was 4,377, so it has increased by 26 in 8 months.  How is this possible?

It includes even those who were not present in Gwangju.  National Assemblyman Lee Hae-chan, the leader of the Deoburreo Minju Party, publicly admitted, “I became a Gwangju democracy Movement Yugongja, although I hadn’t even gone to Gwangju (then).” (0:30).  Lee Hae-chan was the former Prime Minister under Rho Moo-hyun and Education Minister under Kim Dae-jung. At least 30-40 other politicians are thought to be designated as 5.18 Yugongja.

This has caused conservative politicians to demand the release of the names of this growing list, but unlike the list of Korean and Vietnam War veterans this list is being kept secret. I think it is fair to say that certain people do not want the list released because it will show how it has become a way to reward politically connected people, thus why it keeps growing.

This “meritorious person” list reminds me of the National Medal of the Order of Merit for National Foundation where politically connected people are given generous stipends for this medal.

I am trying to think of an equivalent of politically connected corruption in the U.S. using a national medal of designation and I can’t think of one. The Presidential Medal of Freedom has long been given to politically connected people, but they are not getting huge payouts like in the ROK. Can anyone think of equivalent in the U.S. where politically connected people are getting huge payouts for an award or designation?

Here is the most hypocritical thing I have read all week:

Japan’s emperor should hold hands with women forced to work in the country’s military brothels and make a personal apology if Tokyo wants to end the decades-old dispute, South Korea’s top lawmaker said.

National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang said in an interview Thursday that Japanese Emperor Akihito — as the “the son of the main culprit of war crimes” — should deliver the apology before his planned abdication in May. Moon was asked how the two U.S. allies could resolve a worsening diplomatic feud fueled by disagreements over Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of the Korean Peninsula, much of it under the emperor’s late father, Hirohito.

“It only takes one word from the prime minister, who represents Japan — I wish the emperor would do it since he will step down soon,” said Moon, South Korea’s No. 2 elected official and a former presidential envoy to Japan. “Isn’t he the son of the main culprit of war crimes?

“So, if a person like that holds the hands of the elderly and says he’s really sorry, then that one word will resolve matters once and for all,” he said.

Bloomberg

So will Moon Hee-sang next call for Kim Jong-un to hold hands and apologize to the victims of the Korean War, something his grandfather caused that was far more destructive than anything the Japanese ever did to South Korea? Or call for him to hold hands and apologize to the families of South Koreans abducted over the years by North Korea? Better yet will he call for Kim Jong-un to hold hands with the families of the victims of the Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong Island shelling?

Instead of calling for these apologies, South Korea’s left wing politicians like Moon Hee-sang instead want to pay tribute to Kim Jong-un. The Japanese government should call out these South Korean politicians for their hypocrisy.

This is probably not the economic advice that most Koreans want to hear, that they need to leave their country and move to Southeast Asia:

President Moon Jae-in’s economic adviser Kim Hyun-chul resigned Tuesday after drawing public ire for saying that young, unemployed Korean language graduates who can’t find a job here should stop blaming “Hell Joseon” and move to Southeast Asia to become Korean language teachers.

Hell Joseon is a term often used to describe how tough Korea can be on its students and graduates looking for jobs amid fierce competition.

Kim, who also teaches international marketing at the Seoul National University Graduate School of International Studies, made the remark on Monday in a speech to local CEOs at a luncheon hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in central Seoul. The gathering was meant to promote the New Southern Policy, Moon’s ambitious vision of expanding Korea’s influence in Southeast Asia with the promise of treating members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) as diplomatic and economic partners as important to Korea as the United States, China, Japan and Russia. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Meanwhile, Seoul’s new Defense White Paper removes reference to:#northkorea as “enemy”
“THAAD”
“Shared values of free democracy and market economy with Japan”

While it inserts:
“Strong will to defend Dokdo and maintain defense preparedness”

A convergence of clear priorities. https://t.co/NjL9kydUf3

— Sung-Yoon Lee (@SungYoonLee1) January 15, 2019

Via a reader tip comes news that President Moon’s official aircraft was blacklisted by the US for traveling to North Korea: 

President Moon Jae-in’s official airplane has been blacklisted by the U.S. because it had flown him to North Korea, it emerged Wednesday. The official plane even had to be cleared for a visit to the U.S. in September after it was slapped with a 180-day ban. 
One diplomatic source said, “A blacklisted plane can only travel to the U.S. by special permission.” 
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in September 2017 that bans all aircraft that traveled to North Korea from entering the U.S. for 180 days. But exceptions can be made. 
A U.S. government official confirmed that Moon’s plane had to receive authorization even when Moon went to New York on Sept. 24 to attend the UN General Assembly and meet Trump.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but by getting the rail and roads connected with North Korea like President Moon has been pushing hard to do, he can avoid the aircraft blacklisting problem.  

President Moon’s approval rating continues drop despite near complete control of the government, media, and the ability to silence to critics through legal action:

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating dropped below 50 percent for the first time since he took office in May 2017, the latest Realmeter presidential poll showed Thursday.

Moon’s approval rating hit 48.8 percent in its ninth straight week of decline.

Analysts blamed the decline on Korea’s stagnating economy and Moon’s preoccupation with inter-Korean relations. Denuclearization talks with the North have stalled recently.

The approval rating of the ruling Democratic Party also dipped to 37.6 percent in the same Realmeter poll, 1.6 percentage points lower than the previous survey. It also declined for the past nine weeks.

In contrast, the main opposition Liberty Korea Party reached its highest popularity rating since the infamous Choi Soon-sil scandal broke out in October 2016, which led to former President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment.

The party had an approval rating of 26.2 percent in the latest poll, 3.3 percentage points higher than the previous survey and the highest since the third week of October 2016, when it was 29.6 percent.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It seems like President Moon is in a race to get sanctions dropped, a peace treaty signed, and loads of free cash to North Korea before his approval ratings drop so low he politically cannot move forward with his agenda:

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating has dropped for the seventh consecutive week.

According to a new Real Meter survey of one-thousand-500 adults nationwide conducted between Monday and Wednesday, 53-point-eight percent of respondents answered that the president is doing a good job, down one-point-six percentage points from last week.

Over 39 percent of respondents had negative assessments about Moon’s performance, up one-point-one percentage points.

Real Meter attributed the falling approval rating to public concerns about the economy fanned by news of worsening economic indicators and the government’s failing economic policies.   [KBS Global]

You can read more at the link.

The economy is continuing to slump in South Korea and President Moon appears to be trying to show he is doing something to address it:

President Moon Jae-in sacked the finance minister and his chief policy adviser Friday after the two top economic policymakers openly displayed a serious rift over how to handle the slumping economy.

Moon named Hong Nam-ki, an economic technocrat who is currently serving as chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination under the Prime Minister’s Office, to replace Kim Dong-yeon as finance minister and deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Cheong Wa Dae said.

Moon also sacked Jang Ha-sung, presidential chief of staff for policy, and named his senior social affairs secretary Kim Soo-hyun to succeed him. Jang is the architect of Moon’s trademark “income-led” growth policy.

Kim and Jang have publicly displayed wide differences over how to revitalize the sluggish economy, with Kim voicing a need to alter the “income-led” growth policy and Jang insisting on sticking to the distribution-centered policy.

Their replacement was seen in part as aimed at revamping the economic team as they failed to produce tangible results in revitalizing Asia’s fourth-largest economy. Their sacking was also seen as a measure to hold them responsible for failing to work in concert with each other.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Could you imagine the precedent this would set for the tech companies if they have to pay taxes to every country where citizens use its services?  Users are already paying a fee to the Internet provider in the country that is being taxed:

South Korea is considering launching probes into global tech companies that have come under suspicion for not paying their dues, the government here said Wednesday.

The move comes amid growing criticism that global tech giants, including Google Inc. and Facebook Inc., have not properly paid their taxes to local authorities while generating profits every year.

“The government is aware that it is a problem that needs to be more actively addressed,” ICT Minister Yoo Young-min said during an annual audit with lawmakers. “The ministry is mulling over the launch of a joint investigation with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Financial Services Commission and the Fair Trade Commission.”

The lawmakers at the gathering argued that the government should come up with countermeasures to properly deal with alleged wrongdoings by the multinationals if they do not follow local regulations.

“It is vital that an organization should be set up to come up with joint countermeasures against global companies that may not be paying their taxes here,” said Rep. Kim Kyung-jin, adding that it’s important to find out how much foreign companies make.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I think Dr. Tara O may be on to why the ROK government is looking at going after the tech companies:

Park Kwang-on, Deoburreo Minju Party, “asked” Google to remove 104 YouTube cases. When Google didn’t, he called Google Korea head for questioning re alleged tax evasion& alleged fake YouTube. High pressure tactics to suppress voices for freedom, rule of law, pro-ROK-US alliance https://t.co/QKZcsRkRaY

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) November 6, 2018

You can read more about the Moon administrations’ attempt to suppress conservative critics in South Korea at the below link.

https://www.rokdrop.net/2018/10/gordon-change-gives-address-to-the-national-press-club-on-south-korean-governments-attacks-on-freedom-of-speech/

I'm sure it happens all the time in the Middle East and in former Soviet republics, but I never really put South Korea in the same category until recently.
This is the hallmark of an authoritarian state. Democracies don't behave this way. https://t.co/nYABICUFPs

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) October 27, 2018