Category: Politics-Korea

Remember when the election law for proportional representation seats was passed to help the Korean left remain in power in the parliament. Well here is their next phase in ensuring they maintain power, make left wing satellite political parties to increase proportional representation seats for the Korean left:

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has decided to take part in an initiative to form a liberal satellite political party designed to win more proportional representation seats in the April 15 general election. In a vote of all party members conducted last week, about 241,000 members cast ballots and 74 percent supported the move. (……..)

DPK Chairman Lee Hae-chan defended the party’s decision, saying it was an inevitable choice to stop the conservative opposition United Future Party (UFP) from becoming the largest party and blocking reform measures pushed by the Moon Jae-in administration. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it is very clear that the Korean left will use every trick legal or illegal to win the parliamentary elections next month.

Here is the latest on the status of former President Lee:

Former President Lee Myung-bak is set to be released from jail later Tuesday, six days after he was put into custody following a court ruling, as he reappealed against the recent ruling.

The release comes after an appellate court sentenced him to 17 years in prison last week on charges of bribery and embezzlement.

He was taken back into custody after he was released on bail on health concerns in March 2019.

Lee, who re-appealed last week‘s ruling, is known to have cited relevant law to get released.

The 78-year-old, who is currently held at a detention center in Seoul, is expected to be let go at midnight.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The Prime Minister’s message here is making me wonder if they are going to use the coronavirus as an excuse to crackdown on rallies against the ruling government? :

 South Korea’s prime minister called the fast spread of the new coronavirus in the country a “grave” situation on Saturday and urged people to refrain from holding religious events in crowded places.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun issued a special public message to seek the people’s cooperation with the government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Chung urged people to refrain from holding religious events in crowded places and to devise other ways to carry them out.

“In accordance with law and principles, the government will sternly deal with acts that interfere with quarantine efforts, illegal hoarding of medical goods and acts that spark uneasiness through massive rallies,” Chung said in the nationally televised message.

Yonhap

If PM Chung is so concerned about religious services and massive rallies why doesn’t he ban all sporting events then? Better yet shouldn’t he be closing down all the subways and buses in Seoul as well where far many more people use every day than go to an anti-government rally.

The cover up of the Moon administration’s election meddling is continuing:

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae defended herself Tuesday over her controversial decision to stop disclosing the full text of indictments involving President Moon-Jae-in’s close allies, saying it was necessary step.

During a press conference marking her first 40 days in office, the minister also explained her move to separate the investigation procedure from the indictment process. Choo is seeking to create a separate prosecution unit to decide on indictments after it reviews the results of investigations by subordinate prosecutors.

“What I did was a first step to correct wrong practices by giving defendants the benefit of the doubt and the right to a fair trial,” she said during the press conference held at the ministry headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province.

On Feb. 5, Choo ordered the ministry to stop disclosing information to the National Assembly about the indictments of Moon’s allies involved in the 2018 Ulsan mayoral election-meddling scandal.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but don’t be surprised if no one is charged since the Justice Ministers plans to have prosecutors she picks be the ones to decide whether to indict the accused Moon administration officials.

Could you imagine the up roar in the U.S. if the Trump administration chose the prosecutors who would decide to indict anyone investigated by the Mueller investigation. That is essentially what is happening here with little care from the local or international media.

It is going to be interesting to see how this turns out because Thae Yong-ho only has two months to campaign for a parliament seat and he is running on an issue, North Korean defectors, that many in the Korean public are apathetic about:

A high-profile North Korean defector officially announced his bid to run in the April parliamentary elections Tuesday, vowing to work for inter-Korean unification if elected.

Thae Yong-ho, a former senior North Korean diplomat, joined the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) and will run in a constituency in Seoul for the April 15 elections, not for a parliamentary proportional representation seat.

Thae, who defected to South Korea in 2016, said his potential victory could give hope to North Koreans aspiring for freedom and help the two Koreas move toward unification.

“I solemnly promise to devote myself in building a unified Korea through parliamentary activity,” Thae said at a press conference at the National Assembly.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the attempted scuttling of suspected corruption within the Moon administration by its new Justice Minister:

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae’s unprecedented decision to stop full disclosure of indictments of allies of President Moon Jae-in in an election-meddling scandal touched off an uproar on Wednesday. 

“We’ve reached a conclusion that a wrongful custom must no longer be repeated,” Choo told reporters Wednesday morning on her way to the office. “Until now, we have seen a wrongful routine where lawmakers demanded indictment documents, and the media released their entire texts. Due to this practice, the people’s right to a trial was violated, and various fundamental rights were infringed upon during the criminal justice process.” 

Choo was responding to a public uproar after the Ministry of Justice on Tuesday rejected the National Assembly’s request for indictment documents for 13 suspects linked to the 2018 Ulsan mayoral election scandal. The ministry said it withheld the information because it could violate the defendants’ right to a fair trial and privacy. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

She is going after any leakers of these indictment documents as well:

She also ordered an investigation into how the Dong-A Ilbo obtained the indictment documents and reported the details. “We need to check how it was leaked,” Choo said.

The Dong-A Ilbo published Wednesday a series of exclusive reports based on the indictment papers, without revealing the source. According to the newspaper, Song Cheol-ho had a dinner with Ulsan police chief Hwang on Sept. 20, 2017, and asked him to conduct a “more aggressive, concentrated probe” into his rival Kim. 

ROK Heads may remember that the prior Justice Minister, Cho Kuk had to step down due to public protests over the corruption surrounding him and his family. It is pretty obvious that Choo Mi-ae has been brought in to scuttle and silence as much has possible on going corruption probes into Moon administration officials as much as possible before the April 15th parliamentary elections.

What makes the political aspects of this even more obvious is that during the corruption trials of figures in the former Park Geun-hye presidential administration, the indictment documents were all released by the Moon administration. Now that their people are being investigated for corruption, all efforts are being made to scuttle and silence them.