So what do you do as President when you don’t like the economic statistics? You fire the person giving you the statistics and replace them with someone who will give you statistics you prefer:
Kang Shin-wook
The Moon Jae-in government is facing backlash for replacing the head of its economic statistics agency, whose reports have shown the economy spiraling downward amid hikes in the minimum wage and the government’s income-led growth strategy.
On Monday, lawmakers from opposition parties criticized the Blue House decision on Sunday to replace the Statistics Korea commissioner.
Floor leader of the Liberty Korea Party (LKP) Kim Sung-tae said the person that should be replaced is not the head of Statistics Korea but Moon’s top economic adviser Jang Ha-sung, one of the architects of the income-led growth strategy.
“It’s like scolding a person who shouted ‘fire’ instead of the person who started the blaze,” said the LPK floor leader Kim.
Ham Jin-gyu, head of the LKP policy committee, stressed that the sacking threatens the independence of the statistics agency.
“Statistics Korea is not a department that sets up policy but rather announces statistics,” Ham said. “It’s worrying to think of what future statistics releases will be, considering that the Statistics Korea commissioner is changed just because they are not happy [with the statistics showing the state of the economy].”
On Sunday, the Blue House announced it was replacing the commissioner of Statistics Korea, Hwang Soo-kyeong. This came as a surprise since she only served 13 months in the job, considerably shorter than the average two years of her predecessors.
There is widespread speculation that Hwang lost her job due to the recent unfavorable reports including the worst jobs report in eight and half years and several reports describing a widening income gap between the rich and poor. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but to make this look even worse is the fact that one of the few women in the ROK government was fired and replaced with a male. It will be interesting to see how much the statistics change.
Well President Moon is the person that said that people need to shake off the “stereotype that the private sector creates jobs.” This is what that belief leads to:
The government spent more than W50 trillion in 2017 and this year on its futile attempts to create jobs (US$1=W1,119). A lawmaker who is among candidates to become head of the ruling party blames the high unemployment on the W22 trillion the Lee Myung-bak administration spent a decade ago to dredge the four major rivers and waterways in the country. But the Moon Jae-in administration has spent twice as much money and only 5,000 jobs were created in July. In the past, when the government did not spend a single penny on job creation, jobs increased by around 300,000. Unemployment now stands above 1 million for the seventh straight month, while a record 1 million small businesses are expected to close this year.
W50 trillion is an astronomical amount of money. Not many countries have a total budget that size. After spending that much, the government needs to show some results, but there has been no progress whatsoever. So where has the money gone?
A closer look at the government’s job-stimulus objectives this year gives a vague idea. The government is paying W6 trillion to support the unemployed, while another W4 trillion is going into measures aimed at prodding the jobless to find work. That means around half of this year’s budget earmarked for job creation has in fact gone into supporting the unemployed and forcing companies to keep workers they do not need. And the W2 trillion allocated for job training is focused on short-term positions.
In fact, most of the jobs the government claims to have created have been short-term positions. About half of jobs it created last year by spending W11 trillion from the supplementary budget were for senior citizens, although the government said it aimed to boost youth employment. And those jobs will vanish as soon as government funding dries up. A study by the Labor Ministry shows that six out of 10 workers who found jobs through government programs quit in less than a year. Taxpayers’ money effectively turned into salaries for the jobless. [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but you have to love how the Korean left is trying to blame former President Lee Myung-bak for high unemployment when he has been out of office for nearly seven years.
The message President Moon should bring with him is very simple, get rid of the nukes if you want sanctions dropped:
South Korean President Moon Jae-in will likely seek to mediate a breakthrough in talks between the United States and North Korea when he visits Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a Seoul official said Sunday.
The presidential aide highlighted the importance of Moon’s role in advancing apparently stalled talks on the North’s denuclearization following the cancellation of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to the North scheduled for this week.
“I believe President Moon’s role has only become greater,” the official from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said when asked about any possible change to Moon’s scheduled trip after U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday abruptly called off Pompeo’s visit.
Trump cited a lack of “sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” [Yonhap]
Here is an opinion piece from Professor Sung-Yoon Lee of Tufts University, that discusses how ROK President Moon Jae-in did not mention the role of US forces in Korea’s liberation after World War II and instead implicates the US military’s presence at Yongsan Garrison as being a continuation of Japanese colonialism:
Sung-yoon Lee
Consider South Korea’s presidential Liberation Day speeches. Curiously, the causal effect of the sacrifices of U.S. servicemen in vanquishing Imperial Japan and Korean liberation are not only assiduously accorded the silent treatment, but the role of the U.S. in Korea is occasionally frowned upon. President Moon Jae-in, giving his Liberation Day speech today outdoors in the sweltering heat of Yongsan, Seoul, the site of the pre-1945 Japanese military base and post-1945 U.S. military base, did mention the “ROK-U.S. alliance,” but only in the context of the recent relocation of the U.S. base.
Calling the grounds where he stood “the center of exploitation and subjugation,” Moon remarked that Yongsan, having “long been taken away from us,” now has been “returned to the arms of the people after 114 years” and has “finally become an integral part of our territory.” The implication that the U.S. military presence in Korea was an exploitative continuation of Japanese colonialism or, at least, an unwelcome usurpation of Korean sovereignty, was noteworthy. [The Hill]
Here is what President Moon had to say during his Liberation Day speech:
President Moon Jae-in delivers a speech at a ceremony held in Yongsan, Seoul on Aug. 15, 2018 to mark the 73rd anniversary of Korea’s liberation from the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule. (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday used his Liberation Day address to pitch his Korea peace drive, calling for railway, energy and economic cooperation with the North as a cornerstone for Northeast Asian peace and prosperity.
Speaking at a ceremony marking Korea’s independence from the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule 73 years ago on the day, he renewed his commitment to end the division of the Koreas, saying “true liberation” can only be achieved when the two countries establish a lasting peace and economic community.
“We must overcome such a division for our survival and development. Even though a political unification may be a long way from here, establishing peace between the South and the North and freely visiting each other, and forming a joint economic community is true liberation to us,” Moon added in a nationally televised speech that also marked the foundation of the South Korean government 70 years ago on Wednesday.
Moon insisted the two Koreas were already moving toward peace, noting the countries have halted their hostile acts under an agreement reached at his first-ever summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held April 27. (………)
To this end, South Korea will seek to physically connect its roads and railways with those of North Korea before the year’s end, the president said.
Noting the European Union began with a simple bloc for coal and steel, the South Korean president proposed the two Koreas, together with the United States and four other Asian countries, form what he called a “Northeast Asian railroad community.”
The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae later explained the four Asian countries were China, Japan, Russia and Mongolia. [Yonhap]
The date? Likely early Sept, so Moon can celebrate #NorthKorea's 70th anniversary on 9/9 in Pyongyang, but he has denied #SouthKorea's birthdate of 1948/8/15. Why does SK's own prez deny SK's birthdate, but want to celebrate north's, helping north's claim over the peninsula? https://t.co/sdLqVbtDXO
It looks like President Moon and Kim Jong-un need to have another meeting to determine their next step to get around sanctions since the Trump administration will not drop them for little to nothing in return as they had hoped:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, walks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during the Inter-Korean Summit on Friday, April 27, 2018. INTER-KOREAN SUMMIT PRESS CORPS
The two Koreas have agreed to hold high-level talks Monday to prepare for another summit between their leaders, even as nuclear talks between the North and the United States have stalled.
Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon will lead the South Korean delegation to the meeting on the northern side of the truce village of Panmunjom, which straddles the heavily fortified border, the ministry said Thursday.
The North offered to hold the talks but has yet to announce its chief delegate, a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy. The two sides planned to discuss preparations for another summit as well as review the implementation of agreements made during the first one on April 27.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met again in a more informal summit in late May. Both of those meetings – which were the first inter-Korean summits in more than a decade – were held in Panmunjom. [Stars & Stripes]
President Moon’s approval rating is still very high at 58%, but it has dropped nearly 20 points in the past three months which has to be worrying:
President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating dipped to a record low of 58 percent, the first time the president’s popularity fell below the 60 percent level since he took office in May 2017.
In a poll conducted by Realmeter between Monday and Wednesday of 1,507 adults nationwide, support for Moon declined by 5.2 percentage points to 58 percent from 63.2 percent a week earlier amid controversy over minimum wage hikes that have hurt small business owners and seemingly depressed new hiring across the country. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder what President Moon’s approval rating will be once the Kim regime reneges on its promise to denuclearize?
