The left in the US continues to make the claim that President Park Geun-hye is becoming a dictator like her father. They rhetoric is clearly meant to be inflammatory and draw a response and the Korean consulate in New York City was stupid enough to take the bait:
Tim Shorrock
The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy on Monday demanded the government offer an apology for a claim by a U.S. weekly that the South Korean consul general in New York protested an article criticizing President Park Geun-hye.
The newspaper, the New York-based Nation, ran a story last week lambasting the Park administration’s crackdown on antigovernment protesters, likening her approach to the authoritarian rule of her deceased father and late strongman, Park Chung-hee.
The writer, Tim Shorrock, since wrote a post on his Facebook account on a “spate of phone calls” that he received from his editor about a complaint lodged by the consulate general, saying officials there wanted to have a meeting “to discuss” his article.
“What a disgraceful self-portrait of Korea. I have to question if they are trying to export a Korean-style censorship to the U.S.,” NPAD floor leader Rep. Jun Byung-hun said at a senior members’ meeting. “As it is not a matter borne out of the consulate general, I demand a proper explanation and grave apology from the government.”
NPAD lawmaker Jung Cheong-rae also said: “It’s a shame that the reporter exposed via Facebook that the consulate general officials called the newsroom to complain about the story and requested a meeting with the editor. We’re urging a probe into the consulate general officials.” [Korea Herald]
You can read the rest at the link, but how stupid can you be to take the troll bait coming from a publication like The Nation? Anyone that follows the news in the US knows not to expect any unbiased reporting in The Nation. This is like complaining to Sean Hannity about not having unbiased reporting on President Obama. Anyway here is the link to the article in the Nation by Tim Shorrock which continues the leftist claims of South Korea becoming a dictatorship again which as I have explained before is absolutely ridiculous.
I sure don’t remember the left complaining that South Korea was becoming a dictatorship when President Roh Moo-hyun was busy putting down protests around Camp Humphreys or in Incheon around the MacArthur Statue which featured Braveheart style battles. The claim is as stupid as the people who claim President Obama is setting himself up to be a dictator. It is just propaganda best left to echo chamber media and not taken seriously.
The Washington Post unsurprisingly glossed over the real issue with its claims of dictatorship coming back to South Korea. You can claim President Park is a dictator when people begin to disappear to never be seen again or in the case of Kim Dae-jung kidnapped and nearly thrown overboard on a boat before being rescued by a US intervention. The real issue here is not dictatorship, but Korea’s libel laws. The libel law has been used for years to shut people up and that is what is going on here. Heck Kim Jong-un’s own aunt is using South Korea libel laws to try and silence North Korean defectors. What is going on in South Korea is nothing new and hardly a sign of impending dictatorship:
South Korean protesters attend an anti-government rally in downtown Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. Wearing white half-masks and carrying flowers and banners, thousands of South Koreans marched in Seoul on Saturday against conservative President Park Geun-hye, who had compared masked protesters to terrorists after clashes with police broke out at a rally last month.
Hwang Yun-joo couldn’t make it to the huge anti-government protest that rocked central Seoul in the middle of November because he had to work in his woodshop. So he did what he thought was the next best thing: He printed out some posters he found on Facebook and displayed them in his shop window.
“It’s too much! We can’t take it anymore!” one declared. “Dictator’s daughter,” read another, under a picture of President Park Geun-hye, whose father, Park Chung-hee, seized power in a military coup in 1961 and served as president for almost two decades. The word “daughter” was crossed out, suggesting that Park Geun-hye was not just the daughter of a dictator, but one in her own right.
Then, last weekend, a police vehicle pulled up, and at least five officers got out and started taking photos of Hwang’s shop and its posters, Hwang recounted in an interview last week. They came in and told him the posters included false information and libeled the president, he said.
“When an officer took off one of my posters, I got very angry, so I told them to leave,” said Hwang, 44. He said he put up the posters partly because he was angry about Park’s plan to replace the array of history textbooks for middle- and high-school students, written by independent scholars, with one authorized text, as was the practice during her father’s time.
Critics say that does not allow for multiple interpretations of South Korea’s recent past, and some allege it is an attempt to rewrite history, including the draconian period during which Park’s father brutally suppressed dissent while bringing about the astonishingly fast industrialization of South Korea.
“I’m frustrated with the immaturity of democracy in South Korea,” he said. [Washington Post]
This sounds like an off the cuff remark that President Park should not have said because as bad as the KCTU is they are not ISIS. With that said if the KCTU would not hold violent protests there would be no need for masks in the first place:
South Korean President Park Geun Hye on Tuesday (Nov 24) called for a ban on masks at demonstrations, less than two weeks after huge anti-government protests rocked Seoul, as she warned “terrorist elements” may infiltrate demonstrations.
The president also drew parallels between masked protesters and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – prompting organisers of the recent rally to say her comments had left them “speechless”.
More than 60,000 people protested against the conservative government’s push for labour reform and state-issued history textbooks in Seoul on Nov 14, in the biggest protest in the country for nearly a decade.
Many scuffled with police, who responded with water cannon and liquid pepper spray, leaving dozens injured and one protester in a critical condition.
Police have come under fire for what critics describe as excessive use of force, while about 200 demonstrators are being investigated after dozens of police buses were damaged.
Park described the clashes on Nov 14 as an “unacceptable” incident and called for “strong measures” against the protesters, especially those in masks.
“At a time when acts of terrorism are taking many lives around the world, some terrorist elements may sneak into such protests and pose a threat to the lives of our people,” she said at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“In particular, masks in protests should not be tolerated. Isn’t that what the ISIS is doing these days, with their faces hidden like that?” she added. [New Straits Times]
I have to agree that even though the Park-Abe summit did not lead to any breakthroughs, just the fact they met was significant considering all the bickering the past few years. Hopefully this will lead to better future cooperation as long as Prime Minister Abe can keep his political team in check in regards to making controversial comments that inflame tensions with Seoul:
South Korean President Park Geun-hye (R) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shake hands prior to their summit talks at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Nov. 2, 2015. (Yonhap)
Experts on South Korea-Japan ties welcomed the results of Monday’s summit between President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, saying the meeting paved the way for better bilateral relations even without producing concrete outcomes.
Park and Abe held their first bilateral talks in Seoul on the sidelines of a trilateral summit with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The format was intended to keep the first South Korea-Japan summit in three and a half years as low-key and practical as possible amid disputes over shared history.
A major stumbling block in the two countries’ relations has been the issue of Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II. South Korea demands Japan offer a sincere apology and compensation to the victims before they all die, while Tokyo insists all issues related to its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula were settled under the normalization treaty of 1965. [Yonhap]
President Park Geun-hye (R) talks with actress Ha Ji-won wearing a “hanbok,” the traditional Korean dress, during a fashion show at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Oct. 21, 2015. (Yonhap)
This was a good way for President Park to begin here visit to the US:
President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday paid tribute to Americans troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War as she began the second day of her visit to the United States.
Park laid down wreaths at the Korean War Veterans Memorial and observed a moment of silence as a military brass band played somber music.
“I came here to convey South Koreans’ mind that (we) will not forget those who helped us when we were in trouble,” Park told a group of surviving veterans and family members of those who served in the war at the ceremony that drew about 120 people.
High-profile participants included Clifton Truman Daniel, the eldest grandson of former U.S. President Harry Truman; and retired Col. Thomas Fergusson, a grandson of Edward Almond, the late commanding general of the U.S. X Corps.
Almond helped about 98,000 North Korean refugees evacuate by deciding to dump all weapons overboard to get more refugees aboard evacuation ships at the port of Heungnam in 1950.
Park also later shook hands with some of the participants.
“You are a true hero. Countless of Koreans are alive today thanks to you,” Park told retired Rear Adm. J. Robert Lunney, who served as a crew member of the S.S. Meredith Victory that brought 14,000 North Korean refugees from Heungnam to South Korea during the war. [Yonhap]
This is why the Kim regime agrees to family reunions, not because they actually care about reuniting their citizens with southern family members, but because they get money from it and it is an additional bargaining chip for them to use. They are now using that bargaining chip in an effort to silence President Park’s criticism of their expected rocket launch:
North Korea lashed out against President Park Geun-hye’s speech at the UN General Assembly on Monday and threatened to cancel planned cross-border family reunions.
South Korea’s “reckless” and “confrontational” behavior means that “the rare reunions of separated families are at stake like being on a thin ice,” a spokesman for the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement.
In her UN speech, Park urged Pyongyang not to go ahead with what it claims will be a satellite launch but is widely seen as an attempt to test long-range missile technology. [Chosun Ilbo]
In fairness in my opinion the Korean media has actually gotten better since its low point in 2008 when they intentionally caused the US beef mad cow crisis that led to weeks of protests and violence all based on media lies:
President Park Geun-hye on Monday stressed the need for media to provide accurate and unbiased information, seemingly backing up the ruling party’s offensives against Korea’s major Internet portals for “prejudicial” delivery of news.
While attending an event hosted by one of the country’s major daily newspapers, Park also highlighted the role of media outlets in pursuing her key initiatives such as labor market reforms.
“The digital revolution brought significant changes to the media outlets … and we are exposed to the danger where inaccurate information could spread out momentarily. In this situation, the media should play a more important role in discerning accurate information and offering it to the public,” Park said.
“Now we are making a big stride toward overhauling the nation. I believe that media outlets play a significant role in steering the nation toward disruption and innovation. I sincerely ask them to serve as a beacon that can act as a guide for the rest of us,” Park added.
Her remarks came shortly after Saenuri Party claims that major Internet search engines such as Naver and Daum Kakao had skewed news coverage from media outlets in favor of the opposition. [Korea Herald]
