Category: Politics-Korea

The Chun Doo-hwan may have considered cheating in the 1987 election, but there is no evidence they actually did:

Newly declassified US intelligence reports that were originally submitted during South Korea’s 1987 presidential election campaign have confirmed that – as was widely suspected at the time – the military-backed ruling party considered using “black propaganda and dirty tricks” against the opposition, the South China Morning Post reported.

However, “it is unclear to what extent the ruling camp followed through on its plans to cheat in the election,” the newspaper concluded in its weekend report, saying it had obtained the reports through a Freedom of Information Act filing.

As the election turned out, ruling party candidate Roh Tae-woo, who’d been chosen by dictator Chun Doo-hwan, won handily thanks to a split opposition. He drew 37% of the vote as against 28% and 27% for Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, respectively. Each of the two Kims had refused to withdraw in favor of the other.

In the end – this reporter covered it – the election was generally viewed as having been honestly conducted. While dirty tricks would not have surprised anyone at the time, evidence that the former generals had employed them failed to materialize in any major way.Newly declassified US intelligence reports that were originally submitted during South Korea’s 1987 presidential election campaign have confirmed that – as was widely suspected at the time – the military-backed ruling party considered using “black propaganda and dirty tricks” against the opposition, the South China Morning Post reported.

However, “it is unclear to what extent the ruling camp followed through on its plans to cheat in the election,” the newspaper concluded in its weekend report, saying it had obtained the reports through a Freedom of Information Act filing.

As the election turned out, ruling party candidate Roh Tae-woo, who’d been chosen by dictator Chun Doo-hwan, won handily thanks to a split opposition. He drew 37% of the vote as against 28% and 27% for Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, respectively. Each of the two Kims had refused to withdraw in favor of the other.

Asia Times

You can read more at the link.

A political rival to President Moon has survived an attempt to send him to jail:

A Suwon court cleared Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung of all charges of abuse of power and violating election laws on Thursday. 

The Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Court found Lee not guilty on the four charges brought against him. Three were related to spreading false information during election campaigns and one was on abusing of his political power to commit his brother to a mental institution.

Lee, who previously served as mayor of Seongnam and was elected Gyeonggi governor in June last year, was indicted in December. 

Prosecutors accused Lee of using his influence as Seongnam mayor to forcibly institutionalize his now-deceased older brother, Lee Jae-sun, seen to be a political liability, at a mental hospital in the Gyeonggi city in 2012. 

Gov. Lee has also been accused of violating the national election law by making false claims leading up to the local elections last June. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but ROK Heads may remember his wife was also accused of spreading libel against political rivals on Twitter. She was also cleared of defamation charges.

Though Governor Lee had the charges dropped the negative publicity may meet the intent of politically damaging him as a rival to President Moon.

Who would choose this new political police force, & on what criteria? Who would they report to? Could Koreans believe in its objectivity when the courts are being re-packed, & have never applied either rules of evidence or precedents? https://t.co/N8hMKVXDms via @scmpnews

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) May 4, 2019

It looks like the Moon administration is a step closer to further consolidating control of the government and getting additional powers to go after their political enemies. In a rare statement, South Korea’s Prosecutor General came out against the bill:

Highly contentious bills on electoral reform and the establishment of an independent investigation agency were fast-tracked at the National Assembly late Monday by two special parliamentary committees. 

After a week of bitter partisan fighting that, at times, turned physical, the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and three allied parties pushed the bills through two special parliamentary committees on political and judicial reform at around 11 p.m. in spite of vocal opposition by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP).

In the process, the heads of both committees had to exercise their rights to send bodyguards into the meetings to restore order after LKP lawmakers tried again to physically obstruct votes from taking place. 

The bills included one on electoral reform, which would change the number of single-member districts and proportional representation seats in the legislature, and three on judicial reform, including a proposal to create a new agency to investigate corruption by high-ranking civil servants and another to adjust powers between the police and prosecutors. 

Prosecutor General Moon Moo-il on Wednesday openly voiced his opposition to the judicial reform bills in a rare show of disagreement with policy issues.

“Law enforcement procedures must function in accordance to democratic principles,” Moon said, according to a release by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. “But the bills that were fast-tracked at the National Assembly currently go against the democratic principle of checks and balances.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but this bill moves indictment powers from prosecutors and moves them to a special unit. If this special unit is staffed with political allies this would allow the Blue House to control who gets indicted and thus why this bill is so controversial.

So does anyone think this bill is intended root out corruption or people that don’t agree with the politics of the Moon administration?:

he ruling Democratic Party (DP) decided Monday to fast-track two bills on establishing a special investigative unit tasked with probing allegations of corruption by high-ranking officials.
Earlier in the day, the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party (BP) proposed a separate bill on limiting the authority of the probe unit and fast-tracking both its bill and a relevant measure proposed by it and three other parties last week.
The National Assembly faces heightened tensions as the DP and three minor parties agreed last week to fast-track four bills linked to electoral reform and the establishment of a unit to investigate alleged corruption by high-ranking government and public officials. (………)

The BP bill calls for setting up a panel to review the appropriateness of charges filed by the probe unit, a tool aimed at preventing it from wielding excessive authority for indictment. Under the four parties’ deal, the unit will be able to indict only judges, prosecutors and high-ranking police officers, an institutional tool that can keep prosecutors in check.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is the largest conservative protest I can remember in quite some time if the 50,000 number is accurate:

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) took to the streets Saturday to launch an all-out protest against a joint move by ruling and other rival political parties to fast-track key bills, including an electoral reform.
LKP legislators and party members, wearing red T-shirts with the message, “We will fight till the end” written on them, gathered in central Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square for the demonstration.
The LKP put the estimate of attendees at Saturday’s rally at 50,000. 
LKP leader Hwang Kyo-ahn took the podium and made a resounding speech lashing out at the liberal Moon Jae-in government and the ruling Democratic Party (DP) as those who “try to use the fast-track to their own advantage” so as to gain an upper hand in next year’s parliamentary elections. 
“We’re waging a fair struggle so as to derail this barbaric fast-track action,” he said.
LKP floor leader Na Kyung-won also had her turn at the podium, condemning the move as “an act by the leftists that gravely undermines parliamentary democracy and the Constitution.”

“The leftists are trying to wipe out this country’s free democracy. They have humiliated the National Assembly that represents our people,” she shouted. “The electoral (reform) bill is a tool they need to extend their terms in power for as long as they want.”
Four parties, not including the LKP, agreed Monday to a package deal to fast-track bills on electoral reform, the establishment of a special unit to investigate alleged corruption by high-ranking public officials and enhancement of the police’s authority to conduct probes.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if the 50,000 number is true the conservative protests are getting larger, but I believe that only if they get over 100,000 does it mean that the general South Korean public is turning on the Moon administration.

South Korea’s conservatives are going to need much more than a 20,000 person protest to stop President Moon’s pro-North Korea policies. By Korean standards this is a small to medium size protest. If they get over a 100,000 than I think they would really send a message to the Blue House:

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) on Saturday held a massive rally in Seoul to protest President Moon Jae-in’s personnel appointments.

In the rally held at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, LKP lawmakers and party members also strongly criticized the Moon government’s major economic and diplomatic policies.

LKP Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn and Floor Leader Na Kyung-won blasted the Moon government’s North Korea policies, calling Moon a spokesman of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Moon’s government a pro-North Korea government.

The party chief then declared a war against the Moon government to stop its leftist dictatorship.

The party estimated about 20-thousand people participated in the rally.

KBS World Radio

I am really not surprised at all by this decline, it was actually very predictable considering his economic and North Korea policies had little chance of ever working:

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating has hit the lowest level of his presidency while his disapproval rating reached its highest point, according to a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday.

According to the weekly poll, Moon’s approval rating was 41 percent and 49 percent gave negative responses to Moon’s performance. 

Moon’s approval rating, which skyrocketed in his early months of the presidency, has now dropped to the level of the share of votes he won in the presidential election two years ago. Moon has lost additional supporters, mostly moderates, that he had attracted since he first took office.

Moon started his presidency in May 2017 with an over 80 percent approval rating and maintained strong figures throughout his first year. In May 2018, shortly after Moon’s first summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, his approval rating was 83 percent, according to Gallup Korea.

Joong Ang Ilbo

Keep in mind that President Moon’s approval rating dropped to 41% even though he forcibly took control of most of the major media in South Korea and has been imprisoning opposition journalists.

Another ruling party and Moon administration official caught up in a scandal:

A real estate investment by presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom has prompted accusations that he is guilty of real estate speculation – which the administration has done its best to crack down on.

On Thursday, the Government Ethics Committee’s Public Service Ethics Program released this year’s report on assets of senior public servants, including Blue House aides and cabinet ministers. According to the report, Kim purchased a building in Heukseok-dong, southern Seoul’s Dongjak District, for 2.57 billion won ($2.26 million won) last July, just weeks before the government announced strong antispeculation measures that applied to that neighborhood. 

“Throughout the morning meeting, we discussed concerns over Kim’s purchase,” an official of the Blue House told the JoongAng Ilbo on Thursday. “We wonder if the public will accept the fact that he borrowed 1.6 billion won to make an investment in a redevelopment zone when the government was strongly pushing its policy to stabilize the real estate market.” 

To purchase the building, Kim borrowed over 1.02 billion won from Kookmin Bank. He borrowed another 360 million won from individuals. In total, he took out over 1.6 billion won in loans to purchase the building.

The property is located inside the Heukseok 9 redevelopment district, one of the hottest redevelopment projects in Seoul. Lotte Engineering and Construction will redevelop the area to build 11 buildings that will house 1,536 apartments under the name Heukseok Signature Castle. A realtor in the neighborhood said the project is considered to be highly profitable to investors depending on when they got in. (…..)

“It is common sense among ordinary people that you shouldn’t take out a huge loan and invest unless you are certain that the building will soon be redeveloped,” said another Blue House official. “If accusations are made that Kim used information he obtained as the presidential spokesman and made the investment, the situation can be uncontrollable.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The fact that former President Lee Myung-bak has been released on bail after being in jail for a year makes me wonder if judges are now more willing to go against the Moon administration dues its increasing unpopularity with the Korean public?:

Former President Lee Myung-bak was released on bail Wednesday after almost one year of detention on corruption charges.
Lee, president from 2008-2013, was sentenced by a lower court in October to 15 years in prison on conviction of bribery and embezzlement. He appealed the decision. 
The Seoul High Court approved the bail request that Lee made on Jan. 29 on the grounds of deteriorating health and other reasons. 
For the 1 billion won (US$886,130) bail, the court ordered him to stay in his registered residence and meet or communicate only with his immediate family members and legal representatives. Lee accepted the conditions.
Lee also requires court approval for hospital visits and must report his return to the court. Submission of logs on daily activities is also part of the requirements.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is going to be interesting to see what happens with Lee Myung-bak’s appeal case.