Category: Politics-Korea

This is the Korean version of a filibuster:

Following a violent protest by the main opposition party and its supporters on the premises of the legislature, National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang scrapped a vote Monday on fast-tracked bills. 

“I will not open a plenary session today because it won’t be possible to smoothly operate a session,” Moon said in a statement. “The ruling and opposition parties must reach an agreement on contentious bills, designated as fast-tracked items, as soon as possible.” 

The Liberty Korea Party (LKP) started a rally in front of the National Assembly’s main building around 11 a.m. to criticize the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and its legislative allies for attempting to railroad through bills revising the electoral system and weakening the prosecution’s powers. 

The National Assembly turned into mayhem after a violent scuffle took place between protesters and police at a rally hosted by the LKP. The party’s Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn, floor leader Rep. Shim Jae-cheol, chief policymaker Rep. Kim Jae-won and other lawmakers attended the rally. Thousands of LKP members and supporters also participated. 

Before the rally started, LKP lawmakers complained that the National Assembly’s security team was restricting entry to the premises. LKP Secretary General Rep. Park Wan-su lodged a formal complaint to National Assembly Secretary General Yoo In-tae, and the legislature decided to open the main gate. 

Thousands of LKP supporters rushed in along with members of conservative groups and ultra-conservatives who support impeached President Park Geun-hye known as the “Taegeukgi Troops,” for the Taegeukgi, or the Korean national flag, they always wave. 

“Your rage will impact the National Assembly,” Hwang told the protesters in encouragement. “You’ve already won a victory.” 

The protesters waved Korean and American flags and shouted slogans such as “Let’s kill Speaker Moon Hee-sang” and “Let’s destroy the National Assembly.” Although the LKP repeatedly told the participants they must not enter the Assembly building, some rushed the doors. As the police tried to block them, violent scuffles took place. The main entrance doors were partially broken in the scuffles. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

How many corruption cases is Cho Kuk involved in? I am losing count:

– Cho Kuk, former justice minister and presidential secretary, on Monday attended a questioning over bribery allegations involving the former vice mayor of Busan.

Cho appeared at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors Office on Monday morning to attend the questioning, the first time he was called in regarding the bribery case.

Cho was the head of the presidential office’s civil affairs division that oversaw a special inspection of the vice mayor’s bribery allegations.

Yoo Jae-soo, Busan’s former vice mayor of economic affairs, was recently indicted for allegedly receiving bribes worth 49.5 million won (US$42,224) during his term at the state financial regulator.

While he was under surveillance by Cheong Wa Dae’s special inspection team in 2017, he avoided punishment for an unknown reason and became Busan’s vice mayor in 2018.

The string of developments raised suspicions that some Cheong Wa Dae officials may have engaged in a cover-up of the bribery case.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It only makes sense that with a left wing government in power these former convicted spies would seek to have their records purged:

Seven leaders of a now-disbanded left wing party filed for a retrial of a North Korea-affiliated treason case that rattled the nation six years ago, Wednesday, claiming the ruling was rigged by misleading evidence and corrupt ties between the judiciary and the former administration.

Lawyers for former lawmaker Lee Seok-ki and six other former members of the United Progressive Party (UPP) submitted the application for the retrial to the Seoul Central District Court.

The seven were arrested in 2013 on charges of plotting a pro-North Korean rebellion, and were sentenced to jail terms of two to nine years in August 2014 for “inciting” an armed rebellion during two gatherings with dozens of followers in May. Later that year, the Constitutional Court ruled to disband the UPP, saying the small leftist party with five parliamentary seats was a risk to national security due to its “violent” communist motives.

Korea Times via a reader tip

You can read much more at the link.

I always suspected that the claims the NIS made of the spy ring plotting to overthrow the government were exaggerated.  However, this does not explain why Lee Seok-ki was requesting classified documents and then leaking them in an effort to harm the US-ROK alliance.  Why was Lee also trying to get his hands on US-ROK war plans?  As I said before Lee and the UPP are just a political extension of the North Korean stooges in the Korean left that inhabit organization such as the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Korea Teacher’s Union.

These organizations have long been pro-North Korean and anti-US.  That is why I said this whole UPP spy scandal is just a continuation of the Ilshimhoe Spy Scandal and not some new organization trying to overthrow the government.  These groups coordinate with North Korea in order to cause political and social unrest within South Korea.  That is why I said at the time that the UPP should not be banned in South Korea.  By having the UPP all the pro-North Korean politicians all in one party and you know who they are. 

If politicians in the U.S. want to know what real election meddling looks like they should read this article from ROK Drop favorite Dr. Tara O about the alleged meddling going on in South Korean elections by the Blue House:

A former Blue House inspector Baek Jae-young (백재영) was found dead on December 1, 2019 just hours prior to the time he was due to appear at the prosecutor’s office to answer questions.  He was a key witness in the ongoing investigation about the alleged Blue House manipulation of the election in Ulsan Metropolitan City in 2018.

Baek Jae-young, a prosecutor, was seconded to the Blue House, and worked under Baek Won-woo (백원우) (the same last name, but not related) during the time when the Blue House is suspected of ordering an investigation against the Ulsan mayor Kim Gi-Hyeon (김기현), Liberty Korea Party, during Kim’s mayoral election campaign in 2018.  The grounds for this investigation appear questionable, and while Kim Gi-Hyeon was ultimately found innocent, the investigation appears to have prejudiced voters against Kim, who was ahead in the polls prior to the investigation, and played a role in his defeat.  Other conservative mayoral candidates in the province faced similar criminal investigations.

East Asia Research Center

You can read more at the link, but this alleged election interference in Ulsan is just the latest example of how the Korean left interferes in election. ROK Heads may remember the Druking Scandal to rig online opinion for Moon in the last ROK Presidential election. President Moon’s close friend was sentenced to jail for two years and then quickly let out.

This is on top of the irregularities involving the tablet computer that led to the impeachment of former ROK President Park Geun-hye that caused the last presidential election to occur.

President Moon has to get someone appointed as the Justice Minister to slow down all the corruption investigations into the Blue House:

Choo Mi-ae, a five-term ruling party lawmaker, has been nominated for the position of justice minister, Cheong Wa Dae announced Thursday amid keen attention to her role in the South Korean government’s push for prosecution reform.

President Moon Jae-in picked Choo to fill the post that has been vacant for several weeks since Cho Kuk stepped down in the face of state prosecutors’ probe into alleged irregularities involving his family. (……..)

For Moon, the choice of Choo is viewed as a card to counter the prosecution’s thinly veiled pressure on Cheong Wa Dae with intensive probes into high-profile corruption suspicions, involving longtime confidants to the president, under the leadership of Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this is what the Joong Ang Ilbo is speculating she will do once in charge of the Justice Ministry:

Speculation is running high that Choo will shake up the prosecution as soon as she becomes minister. As of now, the prosecution is carrying out at least three investigations that involve allies of President Moon. Probes are ongoing into an allegation that the Moon Blue House carried out a political operation to influence the 2018 local election; the suspicious suspension of a Blue House probe into Moon’s associate Yoo Jae-soo; and the continuing investigation of corruption allegations involving Cho Kuk and his family. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but she is essentially expected to help cover up the corruption allegations surrounding the Blue House.

Gallup Korea had President Moon’s approval rating decreasing to 39% while Realmeter has it rising to 45%. So which poll should people believe?:

 President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating has bounced back to 45 percent after Cho Kuk’s resignation as justice minister, a weekly poll showed Monday.

According to Realmeter, the rating gained 3.6 percentage points on-week to 45 percent. It conducted the phone survey of 2,505 people nationwide, aged 19 or older, for the five business days last week. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

It marked Realmeter’s first weekly poll of Moon’s approval rating since Cho stepped down last Monday after months of controversy over whether he’s suitable for the Cabinet post.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone:

If the government pushes ahead with its expanded welfare spending plans, Korea’s fiscal debt will rise W360 trillion above the government’s original target by 2028 (US$1=W1,181). 

According to an estimate by the National Assembly Budget Office on Thursday, Korea’s fiscal debt will reach W1,491 trillion by 2028, while the government debt ratio will reach 56.7 percent of GDP. 

Just last year, the office estimated Korea’s fiscal debt at W1,130 trillion by 2028 or 48 percent of GDP. But within less than a year, the projection has risen a whopping 31.9 percent and the government debt ratio 8.7 percentage points. (……..)

Cho Dong-geun at Myongji University said, “Welfare policies aimed at winning votes are casting a long shadow over the future of Korea when the economy is already losing steam. The government is committing a serious offense against future generations.”  

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The polling for President Moon just continues to get worse:

The approval rating for South Korean President Moon Jae-in hit a record low in a poll released just days after he issued a public apology for the resignation of a scandal-tainted minister who was a close political ally.

The support rate for Moon’s government was at 39%, according to data released Friday by Gallup Korea, which conducts regular tracking polls. The resignation of Cho Kuk — a former justice minister who resigned just five weeks after taking the job — added to Moon’s woes that include a tepid economy, a trade war with Japan, and North Korea snubbing his overtures for talks.

Bloomberg

You can read more at the link, but expect Moon to play to nationalism by promoting anti-Japanese sentiment and maybe even eventually anti-US sentiment depending on how cost sharing and North Korean denuclearization talks go.