Category: Politics-Korea

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.

What is incredible is that Im is claiming this is a political prosecution against him by Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl when Yoon was hand selected by President Moon just back in July for the position. So how bad must the corruption be when Yoon is moving forward with this prosecution after being hand selected by President Moon and then having his deputy prosecutors replaced by the Moon administration in an effort to cover this up?:

Im Jong-seok, President Moon Jae-in’s former chief of staff, voluntarily faced the press on his way to be questioned as a criminal suspect Thursday and attacked Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl for conducting a politically motivated investigation of him. 

Im, who served as Moon’s chief of staff from May 2017 till January 2019, arrived at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in southern Seoul around 10 a.m. and addressed the press before entering the building. Im was questioned by prosecutors about an allegation that top Blue House officials abused their power to influence the Ulsan mayoral election in 2018. 

The presidential office is accused of masterminding a police probe against then-Ulsan Mayor Kim Gi-hyeon of the opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) in order to help Moon’s friend, Song Cheol-ho, win the race. Song and 12 others were indicted on Wednesday on charges of election law violations. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but Im must be livid because he was supposed to be getting away with all this with the people President Moon hand selected in the prosecution. Before anyone starts shedding any tears for poor Im remember he is the one that led a group that tried to bomb the U.S. embassy in Seoul and once served as the bagman for the Kim regime in North Korea.

This is just another example of how South Korea is a rule by law country instead of a rule of law country:

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae expressed intent on Thursday to order an internal probe into prosecutors that brought charges against a presidential secretary for suspected misconduct, calling it a rash move that did not follow due process.

Choo delivered her message to the press after an anti-corruption team at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office earlier in the day indicted Choi Kang-wook, a presidential secretary for public office discipline, for fabricating an internship certificate for former Justice Minister Cho Kuk’s son. 

The prosecution team reportedly bypassed its boss, Lee Seong-yun, head of the Seoul prosecution office, as he refused to sign off on the indictment, and went ahead with filing the charges with the approval of Prosecutor-General Yoon Seok-youl.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Even though this is about as minimal military support the Blue House could have provided to the U.S. for the Strait of Hormuz mission, the Korean left is still predictably upset about it:

The progressive Justice Party made clear its firm opposition to the government’s decision.

“The deployment of the Cheonghae unit to the Strait of Hormuz can lead to hostile relations with Iran, so I cannot agree with it. In addition, the decision means the unit’s mission has changed, so the National Assembly has to decide whether to approve the plan,” Justice Party Chairwoman Sim Sang-jeung said.

Party for Democracy and Peace Spokeswoman Rep. Park Joo-hyun also said, “The dispatch means Korea will join a war between the United States and Iran without any justification and it will eventually end up with hostile ties with traditional ally, Iran.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but when did Iran become an ally of South Korea? Iran has an important economic relationship due to its oil, but is hardly an ally that would defend South Korea. In fact Iran has had an important military relationship with North Korea for many years; the very country that tried to destroy the ROK during the Korean War and continues to be committed to the overthrow of South Korean democracy.

Then again to some members of the Korean left anyone assisting North Korea is considered an ally.

The Moon administration is claiming they are not socialists:

Many foreign experts, in particular, have criticized Seoul government for tipping the balance of economic policies toward socialism, which they claim violate free market principles and will eventually lead to an exodus of foreign capital.

The nation’s top economic policymaker, however, strongly refutes this criticism describing the Moon administration’s income-led growth policies as an inevitable choice to tackle the ever-deepening issue of polarization and to ensure sustainable growth.

“I would disagree with such an argument,” said Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki in an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at the government complex in central Seoul, Jan. 10.

“I believe they have gone too far. In an era of per-capita income of $30,000, it will be difficult for Asia’s fourth-largest economy to move forward without addressing such issues as polarization and the fair distribution of wealth,” he added.  (…….)

This means that the government is pursuing a two-pronged strategy ― on one hand, boosting growth potential through innovation, and on the other hand, narrowing economic inequalities by enhancing social safety nets for the underprivileged. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I guess to President Moon reform means that prosecutors should not look into corrupt activities surrounding the Blue House:

President Moon Jae-in pressed Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl to take more control of reform Tuesday, issuing a public warning that the right to appoint prosecutors belongs to the president and minister of justice. 

“Prosecution reform is only possible when the prosecutors themselves act as main agents,” Moon said in a New Year’s press conference. “And the prosecutor general must spearhead the reform in order to bring about changes in not only the customary way of conducting investigations, but also the organizational culture.” 

Moon’s remarks followed a series of unprecedented measures taken by the Blue House, Ministry of Justice and the ruling party on the previous day to chip away at the power of state prosecutors.

On Monday, the Blue House asked the National Human Rights Commission of Korea to consider a petition that the prosecution should be investigated for alleged rights abuses when it probed corruption allegations surrounding former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and his family. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but it is amazing how no one in the media is challenging Moon on suppressing investigations into corruption inside his administration.