Tag: Moon Jae-in

This is another example that there is not freedom of speech in South Korea:

 Police said Monday they began a preliminary probe into North Korean-style posters that appeared on walls at several universities nationwide lampooning the current Moon Jae-in government over its key policies. 
The National Police Agency said it is gathering facts on a number of 112 calls made since Saturday with regard to the anti-government posters found hanging on bulletin boards at least 30 colleges in Seoul, Busan, Gangwon, as well as the southern Gyeongsang and Jeolla regions. 
“We will see if the content of the posters carry expressions that can be deemed defamation or contempt,” a NPA official said. 
The 55-by-80 centimeter, two-page poster, entitled “A Letter to South Korean Students,” blasts President Moon Jae-in’s key policies, such as income-led growth, his push to phase out nuclear power and the policy of engagement with North Korea. 
The poster is printed in the unique typeface North Korea often uses in its propaganda and appears intended as ridicule of the government. 
It calls for the overthrow of the liberal Moon administration and ends with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s signature, by his official title as chairman of the DPRK State Affairs Commission. 
The DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 
The poster, claiming to be written by Jeondaehyup, calls for students to join a massive rally slated for Saturday at a public park near Seoul’s Hyewha Station. 
Jeondaehyup is an abbreviation for the now-disbanded hard-line national student activists’ association that led key democracy movements in the 1980s. The association had been attacked by South Korea’s conservative bloc for its pro-North Korea tendencies.

Yonhap

The Moon administration has been very active squelching freedom of speech in South Korea, but remember that the prior Park administration took legal action against political posters as well. However, a loop hole is to call a political poster a work of art and then it is apparently legal.

Moon Jae-in's body guard shows a machine gun, looks to be an MP-7. His hand positions indicate he's ready to engage. Brandishing a weapon like that is extremely odd. It's usually hidden. This is at a busy market place in Daegu. If he uses it, it would create a lot of casualties. pic.twitter.com/DNZCkawoLA

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) March 23, 2019

All this stuff coming out of Pyongyang is test-balloon launching right now…

But maybe it’s time for @TheBlueHouseENG to finally use Moon’s hotline to KJU and actually make a call?

(I understand this has never actually been used).

Maybe Moon cld share the line w/ Trump, too.. https://t.co/TqbqhKtmxN

— Chad O'Carroll (@chadocl) March 15, 2019

Notice how President Moon is not using the term “peace regime” like he usually does, he now is saying “peninsular regime”. Is he signaling that he wants his confederation with North Korea without an agreed upon peace treaty between the US and North Korea?:

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in laid out his vision for a “new Korean Peninsula regime” Friday, calling it a community for peaceful and economic cooperation that breaks with the country’s checkered history of conflict and ideological divide.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the centennial anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement against Japanese colonial rule, Moon said that the regime will create a peaceful order in the coming century in which “we will take on a leading role.” (…..)

Moon said the new peninsula regime will be a new community of economic cooperation. For this, he said his government will consult with the U.S. on ways to resume stalled tours to Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast and the operation of the joint industrial complex in the North’s border city of Kaesong.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I recommend reading my prior posting on Moon’s confederation idea with North Korea.

It will be interesting to see what the US reaction would be if Moon decides to unilaterally break sanctions by restarting the tourism project or the Kaesong Industrial Park. Moon is probably under enormous pressure from North Korea now to do something to relieve sanctions since the 2nd Trump-Kim Summit failed to do so.

Dr. Tara O has an article published over at the East Asia Research Council that digs into the Sohn Hye-won Real Estate Scandal. ROK Heads may remember that Sohn is the ruling party parliament member who used insider knowledge to benefit financially in real estate transactions in Mokpo.

Sohn’s supporters ask what is wrong with her buying properties and making a profit?  Buying properties and making profit is normal under free market capitalism. What is wrong, and illegal, is benefiting from privileged insider information, the abuse of authority, and using false names to purchase properties.

1.  Sohn Hye-won is on the National Assembly’s Culture and Tourism Committee (국회 문화체육관광위) as the ruling party’s assistant administrator.  As such, she had access to information about which areas would be designated as “cultural heritage” zones. She also has influence on which areas may receive the designation.  Such a designation usually increases the value of properties in the zone. Using insider knowledge to gain in itself is illegal, but it also is an abuse of her position and authority. (…….)

Using another person’s name to buy property, open a bank account, or otherwise conduct transactions in another person’s name are illegal in South Korea.  It is even worse when a lawmaker breaks the law.

Regarding the property that is in the name of Sohn Hye-won’s nephew (her younger brother’s son), the nephew did not even know there was a property under his name, according to the Kakaotalk chat between him and his mother.  It stated “I invested in a property?  A mere 23 year old conscript in the military?  I don’t know anything about real estate. I supposedly invested in real estate?  Me? It was given to me?” He was serving in the military at that time and only found out when the news broke.

East Asia Research Council

I have always found it interesting how the Moon administration is busy throwing every conservative or even liberal rivals into jail, but for some reason are not going after Sohn.

So what leverage does she have that they are not going after her?

Well Dr. O has found out that Sohn is close friends with Moon Jae-in’s wife Kim Jung-sook since they went to high school together. This close connection led the Moon administration to give the National Medal of the Order of Merit for National Foundation to Sohn’s deceased father in 2017.

Sohn’s father served in the Communist Youth League opposed to the Republic of Korea, but regardless was recognized by President Moon with the medal. This is more than a medal though, recipients and their family members receive a large financial stipend from the government:

This designation not only offers a recognition and national gratitude, but also allows Sohn Yong-woo’s wife to receive 1,518,000 won (~$1,400) per month plus other benefits from the government.  It also provides  1,483,000 won ($1,325) per month and other benefits, such as priority in housing, education, and government jobs, to the family members other than the spouse, which includes Sohn Hye-won and her five siblings plus all of their respective children (Sohn Yong-woo’s children and grandchildren). 

You can read much, much more at the link, but what else I found of interest is that Sohn owns a powerful marketing company. It makes me wonder how involved this marketing company was in creating the many false narratives used to take down former President Park Geun-hye and promote President Moon?

There has to be something to the current scandals that the Blue House has been denying considering that President Moon has replaced Im Jong-seok:

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday replaced his chief of staff and two other senior secretaries in what was widely seen as a move to put behind a scandal that is apparently hurting his approval rating.
The president named Noh Young-min, currently the ambassador to China, as his new chief of staff.
Noh is a three-term lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party who also served as a co-chair of Moon’s election camp in the 2017 presidential race.
The new chief of staff said he will work to make up for his shortcomings by listening to what others have to say.
“The fact is I am a person who falls short in many ways. That is why I am also afraid (of taking the job). I plan to make up for my shortcomings by listening. I promise to listen to anyone, about any subject and any policy,” he told reporters.
The 61-year-old will replace Im Jong-seok, also a former lawmaker of the ruling party.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but ROK Heads may remember Im Jong-seok has a prolific communist and pro-North Korean past.  You can read a detailed background about how immersed Im is in communist ideology was at this link.  Im was also less than a decade ago collecting royalties for the Kim regime.

The fact that Moon removed someone highly trusted by North Korea shows that there must be something to the accusations of domestic spying, meddling in private business affairs, and manipulating the national debt.

Kim Jong Un wrote a two-page new years letter to Moon Jae-in today. In it he:

– Expressed regret for not visiting Seoul in 2018
– Said wanted to meet Moon 'frequently' in 2019
– Would work w/ Moon for "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula together"https://t.co/QJqMKnMg5e pic.twitter.com/8cJahPQar5

— Chad O'Carroll (@chadocl) December 30, 2018