This is all for show because all these people have to do is transfer the real estate to their spouse or other family member. Additionally this does nothing to stop the insider real estate speculation going on by Moon administration allies that don’t work in the Blue House:
The Blue House ordered its high-ranking staff to sell any real estate they weren’t living in.
The announcement, released Monday by Blue House Chief of Staff Noh Young-min, is part of the government’s campaign to cool down real estate prices.
“Chief of Staff Noh has stressed the need of Blue House high-ranking officials to lead by example,” said Yoon Do-han, Blue House senior secretary for public communication.
The measure came as more former Blue House staff and top government officials have been accused of real estate profiteering, a cardinal sin for a liberal administration in Korea.
The civic group Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice on Monday claimed that the value of properties owned by officials from the current Blue House has risen an average 300 million won ($256,000) in the last three years.
The civic group claimed that the value of apartments and “officetels” (units in buildings used for both commercial and residential purposes) owned by 65 incumbent and former Blue House staffers as of January 2017 was valued at 820 million won on average, which rose roughly 40 percent to 1.14 billion won as of last month.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link.
It only makes sense that with a left wing government in power these former convicted spies would seek to have their records purged:
Seven leaders of a now-disbanded left wing party filed for a retrial of a North Korea-affiliated treason case that rattled the nation six years ago, Wednesday, claiming the ruling was rigged by misleading evidence and corrupt ties between the judiciary and the former administration.
Korea Times via a reader tip
Lawyers for former lawmaker Lee Seok-ki and six other former members of the United Progressive Party (UPP) submitted the application for the retrial to the Seoul Central District Court.
The seven were arrested in 2013 on charges of plotting a pro-North Korean rebellion, and were sentenced to jail terms of two to nine years in August 2014 for “inciting” an armed rebellion during two gatherings with dozens of followers in May. Later that year, the Constitutional Court ruled to disband the UPP, saying the small leftist party with five parliamentary seats was a risk to national security due to its “violent” communist motives.
You can read much more at the link.
I always suspected that the claims the NIS made of the spy ring plotting to overthrow the government were exaggerated. However, this does not explain why Lee Seok-ki was requesting classified documents and then leaking them in an effort to harm the US-ROK alliance. Why was Lee also trying to get his hands on US-ROK war plans? As I said before Lee and the UPP are just a political extension of the North Korean stooges in the Korean left that inhabit organization such as the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Korea Teacher’s Union.
These organizations have long been pro-North Korean and anti-US. That is why I said this whole UPP spy scandal is just a continuation of the Ilshimhoe Spy Scandal and not some new organization trying to overthrow the government. These groups coordinate with North Korea in order to cause political and social unrest within South Korea. That is why I said at the time that the UPP should not be banned in South Korea. By having the UPP all the pro-North Korean politicians all in one party and you know who they are.
If politicians in the U.S. want to know what real election meddling looks like they should read this article from ROK Drop favorite Dr. Tara O about the alleged meddling going on in South Korean elections by the Blue House:
A former Blue House inspector Baek Jae-young (백재영) was found dead on December 1, 2019 just hours prior to the time he was due to appear at the prosecutor’s office to answer questions. He was a key witness in the ongoing investigation about the alleged Blue House manipulation of the election in Ulsan Metropolitan City in 2018.
Baek Jae-young, a prosecutor, was seconded to the Blue House, and worked under Baek Won-woo (백원우) (the same last name, but not related) during the time when the Blue House is suspected of ordering an investigation against the Ulsan mayor Kim Gi-Hyeon (김기현), Liberty Korea Party, during Kim’s mayoral election campaign in 2018. The grounds for this investigation appear questionable, and while Kim Gi-Hyeon was ultimately found innocent, the investigation appears to have prejudiced voters against Kim, who was ahead in the polls prior to the investigation, and played a role in his defeat. Other conservative mayoral candidates in the province faced similar criminal investigations.
East Asia Research Center
You can read more at the link, but this alleged election interference in Ulsan is just the latest example of how the Korean left interferes in election. ROK Heads may remember the Druking Scandal to rig online opinion for Moon in the last ROK Presidential election. President Moon’s close friend was sentenced to jail for two years and then quickly let out.
This is on top of the irregularities involving the tablet computer that led to the impeachment of former ROK President Park Geun-hye that caused the last presidential election to occur.
President Moon has to get someone appointed as the Justice Minister to slow down all the corruption investigations into the Blue House:
Choo Mi-ae, a five-term ruling party lawmaker, has been nominated for the position of justice minister, Cheong Wa Dae announced Thursday amid keen attention to her role in the South Korean government’s push for prosecution reform.
President Moon Jae-in picked Choo to fill the post that has been vacant for several weeks since Cho Kuk stepped down in the face of state prosecutors’ probe into alleged irregularities involving his family. (……..)
For Moon, the choice of Choo is viewed as a card to counter the prosecution’s thinly veiled pressure on Cheong Wa Dae with intensive probes into high-profile corruption suspicions, involving longtime confidants to the president, under the leadership of Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but this is what the Joong Ang Ilbo is speculating she will do once in charge of the Justice Ministry:
Speculation is running high that Choo will shake up the prosecution as soon as she becomes minister. As of now, the prosecution is carrying out at least three investigations that involve allies of President Moon. Probes are ongoing into an allegation that the Moon Blue House carried out a political operation to influence the 2018 local election; the suspicious suspension of a Blue House probe into Moon’s associate Yoo Jae-soo; and the continuing investigation of corruption allegations involving Cho Kuk and his family.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link, but she is essentially expected to help cover up the corruption allegations surrounding the Blue House.
The fact that Korean conservatives were able to mobilize so many people to protest against ROK Justice Minister Cho Kuk forced President Moon to have him resign:
In an unexpected move, Justice Minister Cho Kuk offered to resign Monday amid an ongoing probe into corruption allegations involving his family.
“I judged I should not add a burden to the president and the government regarding my family affairs. I think the time has come for me to step down for the successful completion of prosecution reform,” he said in a statement.
“I was mere ‘kindling’ for reforming the prosecution. My role as ‘kindling’ has come to an end.”
President Moon Jae-in formally accepted Cho’s resignation offer, Cheong Wa Dae said. The president signed a related document at 5:38 p.m., Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Ko Min-jung, said.
Yonhap
The fact that he resigned I think also may mean there must be some good evidence against him to substantiate the corruption charges. It will be interesting to see if prosecutors continue to go after Cho Kuk and his family on the corruption charges now that he has resigned.
1/The important part is not in the headlines. Moon held a cabinet meeting at KIST, and Cho Kuk was there. Moon & Cho were pressuring KIST to say Cho Kuk's daughter did an internship there, when she didn't. Cho's daughter claimed she was an intern there…https://t.co/3HLgzX52J4
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) September 11, 2019
To be fair President Moon’s job approval rating is still pretty high considering all the scandals and poor economy:
Public sentiment toward President Moon Jae-in is becoming noticeably negative in light of various setbacks at home and abroad, with negative assessments of his job performance exceeding 50 percent, for the first time since he took office in May 2017, in a weekly Realmeter survey.
The survey published Monday showed that 50.4 percent of respondents thought Moon was doing a bad job in the third week of August, marking a 4.1 percent increase from the previous week. The pollster said the biggest reason for this was the escalating political row over one of his most trusted aides, Cho Kuk. The rival parties agreed to hold a two-day confirmation hearing from Sept. 2 for the justice minister nominee who is at the center of a widening scandal over allegations of corruption and unethical behavior involving himself and his family members.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
