June 3, 2022

South Korea: Yoon post-election crackdown on political opponents underway

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(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube 6.2) This political cartoon depicts the grim bias of the South Korean media in collusion with the justice system again under Yoon Seok-yeol's complete control. Former presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung's wife, Kim Hye-kyeong, is being investigated by police for suspicion of misuse of an office credit card while Lee Jae-myung was Governor of Gyeonggido. Police obtained warrants to search 129 commercial establishments including a number of restaurants and cafes. The graphic shows Lee's wife inside the red box apologizing for an alleged unauthorized purchase of meat made on the office credit card for around 100 dollars, while the mainsteam broadcast media on prime time produce numerous exclusive reports and news flashes, portraying horror and shock.

Outside the conservative media coverage (outside the red box), Yoon, his mother in law Choi, and wife, Kim Gon-hee, are portrayed in connection with their latest alleged financial derelictions. Yoon has never revealed what exactly his office expenses, as Prosecutor General, 14.7 billion won (over ten million dollars) were spent on. An accounting has never been released to the public. Choi's trials for fraudulent operation of a rehabilitation center resulting in two million dollars of state medical funds as income to her resulted in an acquittal on appeal after a belated trial. All other suspects received prison terms. Wife Kim Gon-hee was never investigated for her alleged involvement in an insider stock trading scandal (Deustche Motors) also where all the other suspects were given terms of confinement after trial. Kim was alleged to have profited by approximately 3 million dollars in that scheme. Her mother was also alleged to have been involved. Each family member contemplates the proverbial "gold spoon" 금수저 symbolic of the favoritism afforded Korean elites.

Recent news reports indicate that Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung himself is now under investigation for election law violations along with 48 officials elected to local or regional offices in the June 1 elections. Lee just won office as a National Assembly member from an Inchon district June 1, in a race to fill a vacancy, after having lost the March 9 presidential election to Yoon . The legal actions the day after the regional elections are widely regarded as "revenge investigations" but are also considered by some critics to reflect an attempt to establish authoritarian rule through Yoon's consolidated control of the administration of justice by eliminating political rivals from the public stage by prosecuting them.

Lee allegedly promulgated false information intending to affect the campaign outcome by circulating a facebook entry that affirmed he was against privatization of state assets including electric power, water works, airports and railroads. This is alleged by PPP to have been a factual misrepresentation of the conservative administration's position which had not considered "privatization." Lee published his position on facebook on May 18, the day after the Chief of Yoon's presidential secretarial office chief, Kim Dae-gi 김대기 stated, in a National Assembly steering committee hearing, that public assets including those mentioned by Lee, could be financialized by selling off 30 to 40 percent of the public entity in the form of stock to the public. He said it would be a large financial resource to the government. He argued that the fact that the government retained a 51 percent controlling interest and management rights of the state entity made characterizing the transaction as privatization untrue. Yet, this issue had come up in the Lee Myung-bak administration, in whose office Kim had served, where the same thing was tried with Korea Power, a state electric utility, and the failure to produce return for minority stakeholders resulted in repeated litigation, financial losses, and increasing utility bills for customers.

Also to consider is Yoon's avowed admiration for the policies of economist Milton Friedman, and that the top five floors of the so called "People's House" presidential office building on Yongsan garrison are devoted to "public private" partnerships. The investigation of Lee is clearly contrived and politically motivated. The winner of the Gyeonggi Province governor's race, another democrat is also targeted. Lee's election and the election of Kim Dong-yon as Geonggido governor were the high points in the otherwise poor showing of the democratic party candidates in the regional and local elections. Reportedly, in addition to a total of 48 elected candidates being investigated are hundreds of others for alleged election law violations.*

*878 under prosecution probe for alleged violations related to local elections; Yonhap News Agency, 1630 June 2;
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220602006851315

May 26, 2022

South Korea: the drinking president

술에 취한 대통령
Presdent Yoon Seok-yeol's new nickname among critics is 술통령, drinking president.


(Source-열린공감TV youtube 5.25) Image taken May 13, 2022 at about 11:00 pm, inside restaurant adjacent to the luxury Acrovista apartments where President Yoon Seok-yeol still lives. His collar is unbuttoned and his tie askew.



(Source-열린공감TV youtube 5.25) These images were taken on Friday night (May 13) a day after the North Korean missile launches on Thursday evening which took place between six and seven pm. The red circle highlights Yoon's loosened belt.



(Source-열린공감TV youtube 5.25) The hands of his escorts which appear to be steadying President Yoon on his feet are visible. Their faces are blurred out for privacy and/or security reasons. Typically, identity of non-public figures are protected on Korean media for privacy reasons.


The spokesperson for the so called People's Power Party, has claimed that the images are photoshopped. The original publisher of the images (열린공감TV), who obtained them from an unidentified source, has directly contradicted the photoshop claim by the accuser who threatened legal action against the Democratic Party for disseminating copies or derivatives of these images on social media. A recorded discussion with a worker at the restaurant confirmed that Yoon had been there drinking.

The public policy issue here revolves around the fact, that President Yoon Seok-yeol, is clearly a drinking man. Can the commander in chief of South Korea's military be drunk at any time while its northern neighbor is actively engaged in carrying out missile launches which may occur at any time? Should the commander in chief be under the influence of alcohol at any time? There is also the possibility that North Korea may be preparing to test another nuclear weapon. After the three North Korean missile launches on May 25, Yoon arrived at the office more than an hour after the launches began. The National Security Council had been convened on May 25 in contrast to the security lapse surrounding the May 12 ballistic missile launches, when the NSC wasn't convened and Yoon didn't even return to the office. Images of Yoon coming to the office at about 7:30 am, March 25, were quickly reported on South Korea's major media to show he was on the job, on the latter occasion. Nevertheless, he appears drunk the next day. Is Yoon really "on call 24-7" to deal with national security matters or national disasters?

May 11, 2022

the US unilaterally abandoned the nuclear negotiations at the Hanoi summit

where the negotiating team officially adopted the "one bundle" approach to denuclearization in North Korea. This is also known as the all or nothing approach, and the "Libyan approach." North Korea didn't need any more examples of US unwillingness to negotiate. The national security sector of the US economy, and the associated think tanks, academic endowments, and their spokesmen in the media, know that any success or rapprochement with North Korea jeopardizes the US alliance with Japan, which contrary to their public statements is adamantly opposed to negotiations with North Korea that are anything short of a total surrender. Therefore, no intermediate "step by step" process that relies on reciprocity and trust building among the parties can be allowed. Russia, China, South Korea, and North Korea, all favored the step by step approach.

The US military complex in northeast Asia has no raison d'etre without the ongoing 70 year conflict with North Korea. Proposals for negotiations with North Korea are just not taken seriously in the US. Claims that the US is open to negotiations with no conditions are just posturing for public relations purposes. Efforts by South Korea's Unification Ministry were vilified in US media during the entire Moon Jae-in administration while they were threatened with sanctions and told to get in "lock step" with the US and Japan which have zero consideration for Korean national aspirations. Regardless of the improvidence of the recent North Korea ICBM launch, the recent US-Japanese carrier strike force operating in the East Sea/ Sea of Japan merely cements North Korean perception of the hostile intent of both nations toward them. It's the same old gunboat diplomacy from both countries during the imperialist era of the 19th Century that they know so well after it culminated in two million or more deaths in Korea during the Korean conflict, and a brutal and oppressive Japanese occupation long before that.

Koreans didn't need Ukraine to remind them of anything. Japan wants to forget its past. The US ignores any Korean history before June 25, 1950, and its saturation bombing campaigns thereafter that destroyed virtually everything in North Korea. US diplomats ask stupidly "why can't they get over it?" Koreans will never forget.