Category: Politics-Korea

Is anyone surprised that the person who assigns prosecutors was not found of any wrong doing?:

The prosecution on Monday cleared Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae of allegations that she had abused her power to arrange special treatment for her son while he was serving the military in 2017.    
   
The Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office announced Monday it found no grounds on which to indict Choo, her son or her former aide after a monthslong probe into the allegations.    
   
Choo and her family have been battling accusations that her son, surnamed Seo, had received special treatment when he was serving in the Korean Augmentation to The United States Army, or Katusa, from November 2016 through August 2018. At the time, Choo was the chairwoman of the ruling Democratic Party (DP).   (…….)

The prosecution added that Seo had asked Choo’s aide to inquire the military about the extension, not his parents.    
   
The prosecution also dismissed the suspicion that Choo or her husband had asked the Ministry of National Defense to arrange the extension. Although a document purported to be a military record created by Seo’s commander on June 15, 2017 said that Seo’s parents had made a request to the ministry, the prosecution said it failed to find any record from the ministry to corroborate it.   

Joong Ang Ilbo via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but since Choo’s aid supposedly helped her son that makes it okay then?

I don’t think this is going to get much traction considering the control of most of the media the Moon administration has, but I am sure South Korean conservative politicians are enjoying this payback after what former President Park went through:

In response to the controversy over the reporting time to Moon, Kim Chong-in, interim leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), said the incident is a national disaster due to the Moon administration’s lackluster security awareness.

“The Moon administration’s rosy prospects have led to the loss of a precious life of a South Korean citizen,” he said. 

“President Moon needs to explain what he did for three days from Monday.” 

He added that the government may have wanted to hide something from the public by disclosing the incident three days later.

The current situation leaves Moon in a similar situation to that faced by his predecessor in the wake of the Sewol ferry sinking in 2014. While the ferry carrying more than 300 passengers was sinking, the rescue operations were bungled, causing people to speculate on what then-President Park was doing for the first critical seven hours. Many still question the claims of presidential aides that she was receiving updates at her residence.

Rep. Joo Ho-young, the PPP floor leader, said President Moon should have attended the ministerial meeting on early Wednesday morning considering the severity of the incident.

“It is questionable about President Moon’s follow-up measures. It is not comprehensible whether President Moon was unaware of the incident or he ignored it,” Joo said.

Korea Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link.

A whole bunch of friends of President Moon have been illegally receiving monthly government checks:

Close associates of President Moon Jae-in received illegal monthly payments while serving in top posts of presidential advisory groups, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said Thursday.    
   
According to the BAI’s latest audit of the Blue House, the Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development paid 4 million won ($3,400) in monthly salary to Song Jae-ho from January 2019 to last January. Song was head of the committee during the period, and he received 52 million won in total.    
   
The committee chairman is a part-time position, so Song was not eligible for a monthly salary. The committee explained to the BAI that it paid the monthly salary to Song because he served full-time as a consultant.    
   
The BAI concluded the payments violated the law governing the committee, which prohibited any routine payment of a fixed consulting fee to the chairman. 

Joong Ang Ilbo via a reader tip

You can read more about other friends of President Moon that were given so called advisors jobs and received illegal monthly payments. Apparently the Blue House is very upset with the new BAI Chairman Choe Jae-hyeong, for uncovering this scheme:

The audit report was announced amid escalated tensions between BAI Chairman Choe Jae-hyeong and the administration.   

After Choe took office in 2018, the practice of going easy on the Blue House ended. For the first time in 15 years, the BAI conducted aggressive audits on the Blue House. Eight audits were conducted in 2018 and seven in 2017.   

In recent months, the BAI went further and conducted audits on four presidential committees for the first time since Moon took office.    
   
The BAI’s report also said the Blue House had violated the law governing contracts involving the government when it created a video clip to celebrate Children’s Day in May. The BAI said the Blue House paid a subcontractor 50 million won without following proper legal procedures.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

At the link you can read how the Blue House is upset with Choe for not ruling favorably on nuclear project; they then were pressuring him to step down. When he wouldn’t they then tried to get a ruling party confidant appointed to the BAI board which Choe refused. Choe said he wants a neutral candidate to fill the opening. The audit of the Blue House is believed to be Choe’s counterattack against the ruling party’s attempts to remove him.

It will be interesting to see if anything happens to all these people that received illegal government payments. It seems at a minimum they should have to pay it all back.

Here is the latest on the ruling party’s attempt to defend the ROK Justice Minister meddling to receive preferential treatment for her KATUSA son:

In particular, DPK spokesman Rep. Park Sung-joon’s remarks, in which he compared Choo’s son to the late independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun, have brought strong criticism from the opposition and the public. (……….)

Citing Choo’s account, Rep. Park said in a statement, Wednesday, “Choo’s son lived up to what independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun said: ‘it is soldiers’ duty to sacrifice themselves for the country.'” (……….)

Seo served as a member of the Korea Augmentation Troops to the United States Army (KATUSA), a position that Rep. Woo Sang-ho was apparently derogatory about in describing the “easy” duty of such soldiers when he tried to defend Choo against the allegations that she used her influence to have him assigned to an “easier” post.

“Serving as a KATUSA is an easy posting itself, so the dispute is meaningless,” Woo said in a media interview, Sept. 9. “Taking leave or not, or having a post or another ― these are meaningless as a KATUSA.”

His remarks led KATUSA reservists calling for an apology.

Korea Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but KATUSAs demanding an apology for being called out for easy service is mildly amusing. Truthfully it really depends on what unit they end up in. I have seen some KATUSAs who were worked very hard by their U.S. military leadership while others did very little. Overall though being a KATUSA is better duty than being a draftee in a frontline ROK Army unit.

Minister Choo claims she did nothing wrong in regards to seeking favorable treatment for her KATUSA son:

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae apologized, Sunday, over snowballing allegations that she abused her power to seek special favors for her son during his mandatory military service.

However, Choo denied the allegations in a Facebook post. She said the prosecution, which has been looking into the case, should fear nothing but the people and “be faithful” in uncovering the truth.

“I am deeply sorry for causing troubles to the people over my son’s military duty at a time when COVID-19 is afflicting every part of society,” she wrote.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on whether or not current ROK Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae did use her influence to get her KATUSA son extended leave:

“(Seo) inquired about ways to extend his medical leave because he has yet to fully recover,” the master sergeant wrote in records of their second meeting, which are summarized in the documents. The records are dated June 15, 2017. The first meeting took place in April.

“(I) had told him before he went on leave that medical leave is permitted up to one month, but (Seo) said he felt bad about asking (me), and while consulting his parents, found out that they had already filed a request,” he wrote.

The master sergeant continued, “I told him that he has nothing to feel bad about and firmly requested that he ask (me) directly next time and resolve his questions that way.”

The records, if true, indicate that Choo and her husband personally made a request regarding their son’s leave with the defense ministry before the first leave ended.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but besides trying to use her influence to extend her son’s leave, she is also been accused of trying to pressure ROK Army officials to give her son a plush assignment in Seoul and having him selected as an interpreter for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Despite all the dirt that is coming out on Cho Mi-ae, since she is the Justice Minister covering up all the illegal deeds around the Moon administration, I doubt anything will happen to her:

When Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae was serving as the ruling party’s chairwoman, someone from her officeasked the Defense Ministry to give preferential treatment to her son, who was doing his military service, former Defense Minister Song Young-moo told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday.    

In an exclusive phone interview with the newspaper on Monday, Song said he recently learned that the military was asked to select Choo’s son as an interpreter for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February 2018.    

Song served as defense minister from July 2017 to September 2018, and Choo served as chairwoman of the Democratic Party (DP) from August 2016 to August 2018. She became justice minister in January 2020.    

“I belatedly received a briefing yesterday that such a request had been made, but [officers in charge of the selection process] rejected it,” Song said Monday. “I was briefed that the request came from the office of the DP’s chairwoman.”    

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) has raised a series of allegations that Choo abused her power to seek special treatment for her son when he was serving his mandatory military duty. Choo’s son, surnamed Seo, served in the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army, or Katusa, for the 2nd Infantry Division of the U.S. 8th Army from November 2016 through August 2018.    

In his latest revelation, PPP Rep. Shin Won-sik, a former lieutenant general who once served as deputy chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that officials in the administration and the National Assembly had tried to influence the selection process of military interpreters for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics to grant a post to Seo.    

Shin quoted a former Army colonel who served as the commander of the Katusa forces at the time, as saying that he was pressured by the office of the defense minister and the liaison office of the National Assembly to dispatch Seo as an interpreter to the sporting event. The colonel said he had resisted the pressure to ensure fairness and selected 65 soldiers for the plum assignments by drawing lots.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but good on this Colonel for resisting the pressure from both the Defense Minister and National Assembly to select Choo’s son for the position.

I don’t see how a mesh mask can do much good at stopping droplet transmission, but according to Rep. Kim Mi-ae, she says the masks stops 97.1% of stopping ultra-fine particles:

The use of face masks for protection against COVID-19 has emerged as a subject of political controversy among supporters of the ruling and opposition parties.

Some politicians have come under fire this week for choosing to wear masks which are seen as not providing adequate protection. 

Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the main opposition United Future Party (UPF), accompanying the party’s interim chief Kim Chong-in, visited the office of Jung Eun-kyeong, head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Osong, North Chungcheong Province, Aug. 21. 

Photos of them sitting side by side across from Jung at her office angered citizens because Rep. Kim was wearing a mesh mask ― a type of mask adopted by some recently because of the hot weather ― but they have not been certified as effective in preventing droplet transmission.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

That is what some political observers in the Korea Times are speculating about:

Some political watchers say signs of a political slump for Moon have already emerged, citing the continuous fall in his approval rating and hints of defiance among his supporters over key policies ― two important characteristics of a lame duck presidency.

The support rate for Moon, which hovered over 70 percent in early May following the nation’s good response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s (DPK) landslide victory in the April 15 general election, has been on a steep decline, falling to 39 percent in a Gallup Korea poll, Friday.

The drop has become clearer in recent weeks amid criticism of the government’s latest real estate policy, which produced the opposite result of its intention of preventing speculative purchases and stabilizing the housing market. Public sentiment became even more negative as some senior Cheong Wa Dae officials owning multiple homes were reluctant to sell their properties despite the presidential chief of staff’s recommendation to do so.

Kim Hyung-joon, a professor at Myongji University, pointed to several signs indicating a political slump for Moon.

“The core situation of the political slump in a president’s fourth year is the loss of support from their base,” Kim said. “In Moon’s case, women, people in the capital area and those in their 30s or 40s were his core base, but they have broken away from him because of his policy failures.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.