Tag: Park Geun-hye

I don’t think too many world leaders would want to have a photo op with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un; so I can’t blame President Park for turning down this invitation:

South Korean President Park Geun-hye is not expected to attend Russia’s World War II victory anniversary celebration next month, an event North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is scheduled to show up at.

Instead, Park will dispatch a special envoy to Moscow, the ruling Saenuri Party’s Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday.

There was anticipation of a possible summit between the North and South Korean leaders at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II on May 9 should Park have chosen to accept the Kremlin’s invitation.

Russia invited world leaders, including Park and Kim, to the event last December. North Korea’s Kim accepted the invitation last month, according to Russian officials.

Kim, should he visit Russia next month for the event, would be embarking on his first foreign trip after succeeding his father in December 2011. It would mark the first time a North Korean leader did not visit China as his first overseas destination.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

President Park Geun-hye (R) meets with Sweden’s crown princess, Victoria, at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on March 24, 2015. (Yonhap)

President Park Geun-hye (R) visits U.S. ambassador Mark Lippert at Severance Hospital in Seoul on March 9, 2015. Park went to the hospital as soon as she came back from a nine-day Middle East tour to encourage Lippert. The U.S. envoy underwent face surgery for 80 stitches last week after an anti-U.S. activist attacked him with a knife at a function in Seoul. (Yonhap)

President Park Geun-hye hugs a female noncommissioned officer at a port in Abu Dhabi on March 6, 2015. Park toured the South Korean destroyer Daejoyeong, which is docked at the port as part of its multinational anti-piracy operations. (Yonhap)

It looks like the Park administration is upset with some of the details included in former President Lee Myung-bak’s book about his time in office:

The Blue House expressed its annoyance with the memoir released by former President Lee Myung-bak Friday, saying it would not help national interest.

A senior Blue House official speaking on the condition of anonymity said Lee’s revelations of behind-the-scenes talks with North Korean officials in particular would not improve current inter-Korean relations.

The official also said that Lee’s claim in the book about President Park Geun-hye’s real motives for opposing Lee’s plan to scrap the relocation of the central government to Sejong City was based on a “misunderstanding.”

The Blue House’s response, although unofficial, was clear annoyance as the release of the former president’s memoir was brought forward to Friday, three days ahead of its original schedule.

The memoir comes out at a time when President Park’s approval ratings have hit 29 percent, the lowest level since she took office two years ago.

Media reports on leaked manuscripts of the book said that Lee thought Park objected to his revisions to the Sejong City plan because she was worried that former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan, who led the campaign on behalf of the Lee government, could emerge as a threat to her presidential ambitions.

In a press briefing held by Kim Du-woo, former presidential secretary for public relations at the Lee Blue House who participated in writing the memoir, the former president tried to exclude experiences that could trigger political controversy. Kim said the current Blue House occupants would understand Lee’s true intentions once they read the entire book. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

It really wouldn’t be surprising if a politician was concerned about another politician gaining advantage over them, so nothing shocking there.  I do not understand why the Park administration would be upset with this assessment that only the most partisan wacko leftist will not admit to being true:

In the memoir entitled “The President’s Time,” Lee touches on inter-Korean relations with a highly critical view of the engagement policy carried out by the two liberal governments that preceded him. Lee said North Korea misused the good intentions of the Seoul government and pursued nuclear weapons development with the financial assistance and economic cooperation provided under Seoul’s “Sunshine Policy.”

You can read more at the link, but Lee’s book has reportedly also made the claim that the North Koreans wanted $10 billion to hold a summit between the two nations.  The book will also be translated into English which means I will have to add this to my reading list.

President Park is continuing the trend of Korean Presidents quickly becoming unpopular with the public after they do not live up to their promises:

President Park Geun-hye’s approval rating has gone down to 30 percent, the lowest since she took office on Feb. 25, 2013, according to a survey released Friday.

The record low rate appears to have been prompted by the fiasco involving the government’s new tax settlement scheme coupled with Park’s no-compromise stance, experts said.

Gallup Korea conducted a poll of 1,001 adults between Tuesday and Thursday, which shows Park’s rating at 30 percent, down from 35 percent the previous week.

Respondents who negatively evaluated Park’s management of state affairs reached 60 percent, up from 55 percent. Among them, 17 percent accused Park of poor communications, while 15 percent cited the possible tax boost amid lingering controversy over the bungled tax policy.

“Last week’s falling popularity could be attributed to her New Year speech that only showed a gap between her perception and public expectations,” Gallop said in its statement. “The continuous decrease this week can be attributable to furious employees over income tax.”

More than 15 million employees are upset over a possibly increased amount of tax payment in their year-end tax filings, despite the government’s explanation that only high-income earners would have to pay more tax.

It was noted that a considerable number of those aged over 50, Park’s main support base, seem to have withdrawn their support.

The results show that only 38 percent of those over 50 still support the daughter of late President Park Chung-hee, while her over-60 supporters was reduced to 53 percent from 62 percent.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but I think this is the backlash from making campaign promises to get elected and then having to deal with reality when in power.  A perfect example of this is the promise not to raise taxes, but the government found a back door way to take people’s money without raising taxes by instead eliminating deductions.

If Kim Jong-un does go to Russia for this trip I would not be surprised if one of the preconditions is that the South Koreans are not invited:

Russia’s foreign minister said Wednesday North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has given a “positive” response to President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to visit Russia in May for the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.

But Seoul has yet to decide whether President Park Geun-hye will also go.

“The president’s schedule for May has not been fixed and many other events are set to take place,” said Blue House spokesman Min Kyung-wook in a briefing Thursday. “We will be reviewing [whether or not to accept Russia’s invitation] under such circumstances … We are not in a situation yet to rush to come up with a stance.”

On Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Kim Jong-un’s response had been “positive, as a first signal.”

Ever since December, when Moscow invited the leaders of both Koreas to an event it plans to hold in May, keen attention has been paid to whether Park and Kim would come face to face for the first time.

If Kim goes to Moscow, it will be the first foreign visit by the 32-year-old ruler since he assumed power in 2011 and his debut on the stage of international diplomacy.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I guess this is a chance to see if Kim Jong-un is going to try some different diplomacy compared to his father.

This has always been a strange murder suicide case and the speculation from this reporter a court has decided is not slander:

A Seoul appellate court acquitted a reporter on Friday of falsely claiming that the younger brother of President Park Geun-hye may have been behind the murder of his nephew.

In 2013, a lower court had cleared Joo Jin-woo, a reporter of the monthly news magazine Sisa IN, of charges that he spread false information about Park Ji-man in an article published in December 2012.

At the height of President Park’s presidential campaign, Joo’s article revisited a 2011 case in which the body of Park’s nephew was found on a hiking trail near Mount Bukhan in northern Seoul. Just three kilometers from the scene, another one of her nephews was found hanging from a tree.

Police concluded that one of the nephews had murdered the other after getting into a financial dispute, and then hung himself.

But Joo alleged that Park Ji-man may have ordered the murder, citing a legal dispute between Ji-man and his brother-in-law, who is the father of the two nephews.

Joo also faced charges that he slandered the president’s late father, former President Park Chung-hee, during a book event in 2010.

Upholding a lower court ruling, the Seoul High Court said Joo was not guilty of spreading false information since he’d tried his best to uncover the truth behind the murder.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The Park administration document scandal has gotten even more interesting with the revelation that the document in question was a forgery:

A presidential document claiming a former aide to President Park Geun-hye tried to exert undue influence on state affairs was fabricated by a senior police officer, prosecutors said Monday.

The document centers around allegations that Jeong Yun-hoe, who was President Park’s adviser before she was elected, pulled strings to try and replace the president’s current chief of staff, Kim Ki-choon.

Announcing the interim outcome of their probe, investigators at the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office said that they have concluded that Supt. Park Kwan-cheon authored and leaked the document.

The document was then handed over to the president’s younger brother, Ji-man, who is also the chairman of EG Group, an electronic materials producer, under the orders of former presidential secretary Cho Eung-cheon.

Cho was indicted on charges of leaking confidential information, and violating the Presidential Records Management Act, prosecutors said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but considering how this document was intended to take out Jeong Yun-hoe it is pretty clear that he must have been still providing advice to the President which others around Park must not have liked.

Something I really like about Korean political leaders is how much they focus on setting quantifiable goals to improve their economy:

President Park Geun-hye started off her New Year’s address wishing all Koreans a healthy and happy 2015, in the Year of the Sheep. She said her top priority over the coming year was reinvigorating the economy.

“The government will endeavor to change the fundamentals of the economy so that it is centered on creativity and innovation, ushering in an era of $40,000 per capita GDP.”

President Park also addressed national security matters, promising to open an era of unification for the two Koreas.

“I will work to put an end to the 70-year-long division by building up trust with North Korea and urging change. The government will establish substantial and specific groundwork to achieve unification.”

She also promised to root-out irregularities in society to make Korea a safer place to live.
President Park said due to the spirit of the Korean people, she was confidant that Korea would be able to overcome any difficulty or challenge in the new year.  [Arirang News]

When was the last time you heard prominent American politicians set quantifiable economic goals like this?  And even if they did how many Americans even know what per capita GDP is?