Tag: politics

President Yoon should just call these subsidies what they are, political payoffs. What Yoon can’t do though is just end the subsidies to left wing groups and then give them to right wing groups. This just continues the same problem. None of these political groups should be receiving taxpayer money:

President Yoon Suk Yeol called Wednesday for abolishing “nonsense political subsidies” in an apparent reference to subsidies given to civil organizations under the previous administration.

Yoon made the remark while presiding over a national financial strategy meeting with government and ruling party officials ahead of full-fledged planning for next year’s government budget, according to presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon.

“We must get rid of nonsense political subsidies, while keeping economic subsidies alive and making social subsidies more efficient and rational,” Yoon was quoted as saying during the meeting held at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae.

The instruction came after a recent audit of government subsidies given to about 12,000 civil organizations over the past three years found a total of 1,865 cases of irregularities involving about 31.4 billion won (US$24 million).

Earlier, Yoon ordered the implementation of a strict oversight system under which project leaders and the public servants responsible will be held to account in the event of irregularities in subsidized projects.

Yoon took direct aim at the previous Moon Jae-in administration, saying the national debt, which had been kept at 600 trillion won for 70 years, rose by 400 trillion won during its term, increasing the total to over 1,000 trillion won.

Yonhap

Here is the most important statement from President Yoon and I guess we will see in the coming years if he actually means it:

“If we are thinking truly of the nation and the people, and not of political ambition, then fiscal austerity and soundness is inevitable at the moment,” he said. “Our government, unlike the previous government, will maintain a principle of responsible and sustainable fiscal management.”

You can read more at the link.

This has to be the shortest time as a committee member ever:

Lee Rae-kyung, the honorary chair of The Tommorrow, a left leaning civic group, is seen in this undated photo provided by the Democratic Party on June 5, 2023. (Yonhap)

The newly appointed head of a special innovation committee of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) said Monday he is resigning following controversy over his past remarks, including a claim that North Korea’s 2010 sinking of the South Korean naval ship Cheonan was fabricated.

Lee Rae-kyung announced his resignation just nine hours after DP leader Lee Jae-myung said Lee was appointed to head the committee newly formed to help turn around the party’s image amid a slew of scandals.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but how much of a left wing ideologue do you have to be to believe the ROK sunk its own warship which is what some of these loons in the DP believe.

The Korean left has long hated Tae Yong-ho because he is a North Korean defector turned politician who has stood against their attempts to appease the Kim regime and often challenges their dogma in regards to historical issues. So anything with a sliver of truth they will use to discredit him or their ultimate goal to drive him out of office:

Rep. Tae Yong-ho of the People Power Party (PPP) on Wednesday flatly denied allegations that he received an illegal political donation around last year’s local elections amid several other looming controversies surrounding him.

According to a media report, the North Korean defector-turned-lawmaker allegedly accepted political funds from elected councilors of his constituency in Seoul’s Gangnam district, in return for backing their nomination. 

The donations were allegedly split up and given under the names of their families and acquaintances.

“I would like to clarify at this moment that I am confident that there is not a single stain regarding the issue of fundraising,” Tae said in a press conference held at the National Assembly.

Tae also denied media reports that senior presidential political affairs secretary Lee Jin-bok asked him to make remarks in support of Korea-Japan relations while talking about the issue of party nominations for next year’s general elections.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Lee Jae-myung is just surrounded by scandal. If he had won the Presidency in 2022 I wonder if these bribes would have ever been investigated?:

The leader of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) apologized Monday over snowballing allegations that cash envelopes were distributed to lawmakers and party members as bribes ahead of a 2021 national convention held to elect a new party leader.

Prosecutors are investigating suspicions that envelopes containing cash totaling 94 million won (US$71,700) were handed out to members of the then ruling DP to help then lawmaker Song Yong-gil be elected as the party chair ahead of the party convention in May 2021. 

Song eventually won the election.

“As party leader, I deeply apologize for causing people concern over this issue,” Rep. Lee Jae-myung, chairman of the DP, said during a party meeting at the National Assembly.

Prosecutors have raided the homes and offices of Reps. Youn Kwan-suk and Lee Sung-man for their alleged involvement in distributing the money collected from regional businesspeople. Youn and Lee served in Song’s campaign ahead of the national convention.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this has to make people wonder if Lee Jae-myung was handing out cash envelopes when he was elected the Democratic Party leader in 2022?

It will be interesting to see if this bill eventually gets passed or not considering so many Americans do not have their own healthcare:

A U.S. lawmaker has submitted a bill calling for the provision of healthcare services to former Korean veterans of the Vietnam War who have since become naturalized citizens of the United States, the lawmaker’s office said Friday.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) introduced the Korean American Vietnam Allies Long Overdue for Relief Act or Korean American VALOR Act in January.

“As Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (VA), I introduced the Korean American VALOR Act to provide some measure of long overdue parity for these Vietnam War veterans,” Takano was quoted as saying in a legislation hearing held Wednesday.

“They served side-by-side with U.S. troops and have since become U.S. citizens, but they have never been eligible for VA healthcare services,” Takano added, according to his office.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

President Yoon is absolutely correct in his comments:

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday refuted domestic criticism against his efforts to mend ties with Japan despite Tokyo’s reluctance to issue an additional apology for its past wartime wrongdoings, saying that neglecting the frayed relationship with the neighboring country for political interest is tantamount to dereliction of the president’s duty.

“The previous government left the troubled relationship between South Korea and Japan untouched and this resulted in the people of both countries and ethnic South Koreans living in Japan suffering, and the security and economies of both countries falling into a deep abyss,” Yoon said during his 25-minute opening speech at a Cabinet meeting.

“I also could have chosen an easy path for immediate political gains and left the worst-ever South Korea-Japan relations unaddressed. However, I believed that neglecting grave international circumstances and exploiting the hostile nationalism and anti-Japan sentiment for domestic politics are nothing more than abandoning my duties as the president.”

Yoon’s unscheduled speech came amid his faltering job approval ratings after last week’s summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. 

Fueling anti-Japan sentiment among South Koreans is the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) that has been harshly criticizing the president for having “paid tribute to Japan” with his “abysmal summit.” (………)

“In our society, there are groups which are seeking political gains by evoking exclusive nationalism and anti-Japan sentiment,” Yoon said, referring to the DPK’s criticism. “Japan has expressed its remorse and apologies over the history issue tens of times.”

Yoon cited past apologies released by the Japanese government, including the 1998 joint declaration announced by then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. In the declaration, Obuchi expressed his deep remorse and apology for the “tremendous damage and suffering” the South Korean people experienced during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial occupation. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link from President Yoon’s speech. The political opposition continues to call the Yoon administration “traitors” and vows to launch investigations against them for improving ties with Tokyo.

Like I have said before, but it is hard to take the political opposition seriously when they supported the North Korea policies of the prior Korean President Moon Jae-in. Kim Jong-un is in charge of a North Korean regime that has killed far more Koreans than Imperial Japan could ever dream of. Additionally Kim Jong-un is in charge of a regime that continues to regularly threaten South Korea with annihilation and enslaves a large amount of Koreans in labor camps among other human rights violations. Why isn’t the political opposition demanding constant apologies from the Kim regime?

Instead the political opposition is more concerned about stopping cooperation with a country that actually wants to help South Korea defend itself from annihilation from North Korea. When the opponents of President Yoon start making demands for apologies and compensation from North Korea then maybe I will take their claims against Japan seriously.

This is one of these only in Korea stories:

South Korean police raided the Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday as part of an investigation into a claim made by a former spokesperson for the ministry that a fortuneteller had been involved in the relocation of the presidential residence to Yongsan in central Seoul.

Investigators from the cyber bureau of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency were sent to confiscate evidence, including vehicle entry records, to determine if the fortuneteller had visited the ministry’s premises in Yongsan in advance.

Former Defense Ministry spokesman Boo Seung-chan has claimed in a book that the fortuneteller was involved when Yoon was considering where to relocate the presidential residence and office in March last year.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but it should be easy to determine if this so called fortune teller was allowed to run around the Defense Ministry building with the video and vehicle records they have there. If they don’t find any evidence this will help with the libel complaints that the Yoon administration has lodged.

Could you imagine the amount of lawsuits if the U.S. had the same libel laws as South Korea? Cable news as we know it would have to end which would probably be a good thing.

This is likely why Lee Jae-myung ran for the National Assembly and became the opposition party leader so he could get immunity from the charges he saw building against him. What is surprising about these results is that many in his own party voted in favor of his arrest:

The National Assembly voted Monday to reject the government’s request for consent to arrest opposition leader Lee Jae-myung over corruption charges by a margin of only one vote, a surprising result that shows many of Lee’s own party voted for his arrest.

The motion was voted down 139-138 with nine abstentions and 11 deemed invalid.

The result, though in line with widespread views that Lee’s main opposition Democratic Party (DP) would use its majority power to reject the request, came as a surprise because it could mean that up to 30 DP lawmakers could have cast dissenting votes.

The DP, which has 169 lawmakers in the 299-seat National Assembly, had urged its lawmakers to reject the motion, denouncing the prosecution’s attempt to arrest Lee as political revenge by President Yoon Suk Yeol against his presidential election rival.

All DP lawmakers took part in the vote. 

In order for the motion to pass, it required a majority of the Assembly members to vote, and a majority of those voting to cast their ballots in favor. In Monday’s case, at least 149 votes were needed in favor of Lee’s arrest, as 297 out of 299 National Assembly members took part in the vote. 

By law, parliamentary consent is necessary to arrest a lawmaker while parliament is in session.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but maybe someone in the Korean media just needs to “find” a tablet PC with incriminating evidence against Lee on it like the opposition did to impeach former President Park.

This is definitely a sign of how bad the political discourse in South Korea has become:

Controversy is growing over an event arranged by a left-wing civic group, which allowed participants to shoot toy arrows at photos of President Yoon Suk Yeol, first lady Kim Keon Hee and Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon. 

Critics said the event encouraged excessive hatred that is already prevalent in Korean society, noting that it should be taken seriously as even children were welcomed to participate. 

The event was part of a rally held Saturday in central Seoul by a civic group calling for the resignation of the Yoon government and for a special counsel probe into stock manipulation allegations involving the first lady. Han, who was a senior prosecutor, is a close aide of Yoon. 

“The prosecutor-turned-president has abused the prosecution’s power all over the country, threatening the country’s democracy,” said Rep. Lee Su-jin of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who participated in the rally.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.