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POLITICAL EVENTSJanuary 2008Audits Begin on Liberal Gov'ts (Jan 2008) Political experts say the misadministration of liberal governments for the past decade will finally end. The Board of Audit and Inspection has launched its first audit of inter-Korean cooperation funds, and the conservative Grand National Party will also demand scrutiny of money allocated for inter-Korean economic projects. The party said on 10 Jan that it will ask for an audit on inter-Korean cooperation funds, as about five trillion won have gone into inter-Korean economic projects since the Kim Dae-jung administration took office in 1998.In a phone interview, party floor leader Ahn Sang-soo said, “We must thoroughly review whether the money used for inter-Korean cooperation projects was spent to improve the lives of North Koreans. We are also planning to verify if the money went to things irrelevant to inter-Korean cooperation.” Party lawmaker Eom Ho-sung, a member of the parliamentary committee for finance and economy, also said, “We are also considering requesting an audit on funds linked to inter-Korean economic projects at the committee level. We believe that the operation of those funds, which has been suspected of lacking transparency, should be comprehensively reviewed.” The party is also considering an investigation into whether inter-Korean cooperation funds were mishandled at the parliamentary level. After receiving a briefing from the Unification Ministry on 7 Jan, the presidential transition committee ordered an evaluation of the transparency of inter-Korean cooperation funds. Committee spokesman Lee Dong-gwan said, “The funds might have been put under poor management, since the operation of inter-Korean cooperation funds has not been audited for a while.” In this regard, the Board of Audit and Inspection said it is also monitoring loans for inter-Korean economic projects, and will launch a formal audit if illegal activities are uncovered regardless of the National Assembly’s request. A bureau official said, “In fact, you can say that we have been auditing all of the funds, including those for economic cooperation and humanitarian aid projects.” The Grand National Party will also look into financial aid given to civil organizations that sprang up with the help of liberal administrations over the past decade. The party will assess the severity of “parachute appointments,” since more than 150 politicians have received executive positions at some 100 state-affiliated organizations over the past five years under the Roh administration. The transition committee is also considering collaborating with academia to draw up a system guiding public television stations, which have been criticized for biased coverage for the past decade, to promote fair reporting. Political pundits also say probes are likely into the alleged involvement of the National Intelligence Service and the National Tax Service in the presidential election; the arrival of the key figure in the BBK stock fraud scandal ahead of the election; and kickbacks that President Roh is believed to have received after winning the 2002 election. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) Sohn Hak-kyu chosen to lead United New Democratic Party (Jan 2008) A sense of crisis that the United New Democratic Party may collapse if it continues to drift away led to a smooth compromise. The selection of former provincial governor Sohn Hak-kyu as the leader of the UNDP on January 10 was seen as a result of the party’s desperation. However, the road ahead could be a bumpy one. Former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan decided to quit the party on the same day. Sohn’s position as the UNDP leader, which is temporary, will end on April 9, when the nation holds its general parliamentary election. In the meantime, the UNDP’s central committee has decided to give Sohn the full authority to select the members of the senior leadership committee, as a way for Sohn to fully exercise his leadership of the party. Being empowered to do this is no small thing. However, the committee has delayed its discussions about who will be given the power to nominate candidates for National Assembly seats ahead of the April election. The delay was the result of a common understanding within the party that a new leader was needed, but it has left room for another rift because Sohn will not be given the power to nominate the party’s candidates. Sohn’s aides question whether a leader without the authority to nominate candidates will be able to revitalize the beleaguered party, so it is expected they will push for the authority to be given to Sohn.  On the contrary, factions opposed to Sohn’s leadership are likely to call on the party to give the nominating authority to someone else and start the nomination process all over again. In short, the potential for conflict over this issue is likely to lead to a party-wide struggle, analysts say. Still, many people in and out of the party remain skeptical about Sohn’s leadership following the UNDP’s defeat by a landslide during the presidential election last month. Some have also questioned Sohn’s political identity, because he defected from the Grand National Party last summer. It also remains to be seen whether senior lawmakers and reform-minded first-term lawmakers will follow the central committee’s decisions. In particular, the departure of Lee Hae-chan, who is a considered to be one of the leading pro-Roh Moo-hyun politicians, is likely to lead an “anti-Sohn Hak-kyu” exodus from the party. Meanwhile, it is likely that other party defectors may soon follow in his path. Lee Hoi-chang, who ran as an independent in last month’s election, has since created a new party, the Liberty New Party. Times Never Change: Convicted Felon Runs for Office AGAIN (Jan 2008) Kim Hyun-chul, the second son of former President Kim Young-sam, has announced plans to run in the 18th general elections in April. Kim was sentenced two years in prison on charges of bribery and tax evasion in 1999 but was granted a presidential amnesty on Aug. 15 the same year. Kim will run in his father's hometown of Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province. This is Kim's second try for the nomination of GNP candidate. He sought to run in Geoje in the 2004 parliamentary elections, but failed to win the nomination. GNP Factions Squabble Over Nominations (Jan 2008) Conflict is deepening between president-elect Lee Myung-bak's followers and those loyal to his primary rival Park Geun-hye over whether to nominate Park-faction leader Kim Moo-sung as a candidate for a parliamentary seat in the April general election. Kim on 30 Jan threatened to quit the party. Commenting on a decision on 29 Jan by the party's screening committee chaired by Ahn Kang-min, a former senior public prosecutor, not to nominate ex-convicts involved in corruption scandals as candidates for the general election, Kim said, "The decision is political retaliation. It's like using a person when his service is needed and keeping him at a distance when he is no longer wanted." Kim said he had never switched his party affiliations before. “But this time, I'll have no choice but to abandon my party membership now that the party is keeping me at a distance." If the code of ethics were to be strictly applied, many of Parks supporters, including Rep. Kim Moo-sung, would not be eligible to run in the parliamentary elections. GNP regulations on the nominations of candidates for public office stipulate, "The party shall disqualify those convicted of corruption and irregularities including bribery and delivery or taking of illegal political funds from winning nominations for public office." In 1996, Kim was sentenced to a fine of W10 million (US$1=W944) plus a surcharge of W20 million for taking W20 million in bribes from a terrestrial trunked radio system provider in return for favors. The conservative GNP revamped its regulations in 2004 after it was nicknamed the party of bribes, earned after some of its members were convicted in 2003 of having accepted over 80 billion won in bribes from major business groups during the 2002 presidential election. Under the regulation, almost 40 percent of GNP legislators were eliminated from the party nomination in 2004. The move came as the GNP tried to clear itself of its nickname "party of bribes," which it earned after some of party members were convicted in 2003 of having accepted over 80 billion won in bribes from major business groups during the 2002 presidential election. In that election, its candidate Lee Hoi-chang ran unsuccessfully against then ruling party candidate Roh Moo-hyun. Suffering from plummeting approval ratings ahead of the parliamentary elections in April 2004 following the corruption scandal and unpopular presidential impeachment, the GNP was forced to recruit newcomers en masse. But now the GNP has a 50 percent approval rate going into the April elections and Lee favors the strict regulations that will eliminate a large number of incumbent lawmakers so that he can bring new blood into the party. Park, however, wants to abandon the strict rules so that her aides -- mostly senior members of the party -- can run again. Some 35 pro-Park lawmakers in an urgent meeting the same day decided Kim Moo-sung won public confidence in two general elections conducted after he was convicted. They said it was possible that the party regulations in question are unconstitutional, given that they condone the retroactive application of laws and ignore party members' right to be elected to public office. They warned they will “share (their) political fate" with Kim. (SITE NOTE: Worries are that the 35 may bolt the party if tensions worsen. Sources said that the lawmakers from the rival factions are likely to settle on a compromise that would confine disqualification to lawmakers who have been given prison terms for violating the political fund law, and those who have received fines of over 1 million won ($1,100) for breaking the election law.) Park herself did not attend this meeting. But she told reporters the screening committee's criteria for nominations of candidates “are vague. The criteria should not be arbitrarily applied." GNP Chairman Kang Jae-sup also said that the committee's decision was a breach of faith and boycotted a meeting of senior party members on the day. But GNP Secretary-General Lee Bang-ho, a Lee loyalist, said, "The screening committee reached the decision by majority to nominate candidates according to the party regulations. The committee is not above party regulations." The committee, meanwhile, decided to convene an urgent meeting on Thursday afternoon, but whether the two GNP factions can find a breakthrough remains to be seen. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) To counter the proposed ethics bar, Park had wanted lawmakers who violated not only corruption laws but also election laws to be barred from nomination, a move that would also hit Lee Myung-bak's supporters. GNP Leadership Tries to Mend Rift (Feb 2008) The leadership of the country's main opposition party reached a compromise Saturday aimed at mending an internal rift over selecting candidates for the upcoming parliamentary election. The decision reached by senior policymakers of the Grand National Party (GNP) allows members who have been convicted on corruption charges to apply for candidacy if they did not receive jail terms. Non-politicians crowd GNP pool (Feb 2008) More businessmen, professionals seek nomination than politicians. Members of the Roh Moo-hyun administration and an unprecedented number of people from outside politics are among the long list of people who want to run for the National Assembly in April under the Grand National Party banner. Most of them won’t get the chance. A total of 1,173 applications were received for 243 seats, according to the party. The ratio was 4.82 hopefuls for each seat, up from 3.4 in the last general election in 2004. “The result reflects the party’s strong popularity,” said Jaung Hoon, a politics professor at Chung-Ang University. “Being nominated as the party’s candidate is considered as good as being elected as a legislator.” According to a JoongAng Ilbo analysis of data provided by the party, the average age of the applicants was 52.8. Among the 1,160 applicants who agreed to make their personal information public when submitting applications, about half were experienced professionals from outside politics. About 283, or 24 percent, were businessmen, followed by 130 legal professionals, 91 professors and 33 journalists. In 2004, half the applicants were professional politicians. With the highest registration rate, some districts were crowded with 10 hopefuls or more. A total of 16 applied for Unpyeong in Seoul, while 15 registered for Gumcheon in the capital. But no one applied for the Muan-Sinan district in South Jeolla Province, a stronghold of the pro-government United New Democratic Party (UNDP). Districts in which Lee's confidants applied for saw less competition with political observers forecasting their victory due to the halo effect of Lee's large popularity. Reps. Lee Jae-oh and Chung Doo-un who helped the President-elect win the election have no party rivals in districts in Seoul. Other hopefuls include 130 from the legal sector, 91 professors and 33 journalists. The applicants also include several top government officials under the Roh Moo-hyun administration. Choi Jong-chan, the first construction minister in the Roh administration, applied for candidacy at a district in Anyang, Gyeonggi. Choi helped devise the administration’s real estate regulations. Huh Joon-young, a former chief of the National Police Agency under the Roh administration, applied to be a candidate for Jung District in Seoul. Huh stepped down in December 2005 after two farmers died in street protests against the free trade agreement between Korea and the United States. In addition, the GNP nominating committee is looking for younger candidates capping the age at 70. This has caused a bit of friction. The idea of replacing lawmakers in their 70s has been stifled by five-time lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk, 73, the older brother of President-elect Lee Myung-bak. The lawmaker’s decision to run this year is being hotly contested, as he is the eldest member of the party. Other 70-something lawmakers include Lee Kang-doo (71, four terms); Park Jong-geun (73, three); Lee Jae-chang (71, three); Park Hee-tae (70, five); Kim Gi-chun (69, three); and Lee Sang-bae (69, three). Three-time lawmaker Kim Yong-gab (72) has dropped out of this year’s race. Except for Lee Jae-chang, all of them are from southeastern provinces and half of them support former party chairwoman Park Geun-hye. Certain lawmakers are rumored to face replacement due to poor management and bad reputations in their constituencies. Members of the party and the committee said that the plan is intended to replace three- and four-time lawmakers, legislators in their 70s, and those from the southeastern region. Certain lawmakers who are considered morally suspect will also face replacement. An in-house committee plans to screen the hopefuls between late February and early March and announce the finalists by mid-March. For proportional representation seats, it will accept registrations until early next month and announce candidates one or two weeks later. (Source: Joongang Ilbo and Korea Times.) Payback Time: 2002 Presidential Campaign Funds Embezzlement Case to be Reopened (Jan 2008) The Seoul District Prosecutors` Office recently banned former Grand National Party Chairman Lee Hoi-chang’s second son Lee Soo-yeon and Seo Jeong-woo, one of his closest aides, from leaving the country, according to sources on 28 Jan. The prosecution, which has been reinvestigating allegations of the GNP’s 2002 illegal fundraising activities in the wake of various complaints, has recently summoned Lee Soo-yeon’s friend Jeong and Seo several times for questioning. (SITE NOTE: It seems almost coincidental that the timing comes before the April 2008 elections and just as Lee Hoi-chang formed the new conservative Liberty Forward Party and opened its headquarters in Daegu. Lee told reporters, “It is bewildering to see some people again raising fraud allegations over the use of the remaining funds in the 2002 presidential election campaign.” “The people linked to the election funds have already been investigated and tried. The timing is suspect as we have only a few days before launching the party.” About as bewildering as appointing a special counsel to investigate Lee Myeong-bak over allegations that the Prosecution had already cleared him of. Lee Hoi-chang and the UNDP supported the special counsel investigation in hopes that it would destroy Lee Myeong-bak's Presidential bid.) Jeong has been suspected of purchasing public housing bonds worth 750 million won, which he reportedly received from Samsung upon the request of Seo in November and December 2002, for 500 million won and of his involvement in laundering the money. It has also been alleged that Jeong laundered some of the GNP’s 2002 presidential election campaign funds along with his friend Lee and Seo. Although prosecutors questioned Jeong in 2004 during their investigation into the presidential election fund scandal, he abruptly left for China before prosecutors launched a full-scale probe into money laundering. What motivated Jeong to go to China has yet to be confirmed. In a complaint filed with prosecutors in November 2007, the Democratic Labor party accused former Chairman Lee of embezzlement, writing, “Lee kept 15.4 billion won of the remaining 2002 campaign funds and belatedly returned the money to Samsung in the spring of 2004 when the investigation into the presidential campaign fund case was launched. He is suspected of using the money for personal use in the process.” When the weekly SiSaIn raised questions about Lee Hoi-chang’s remaining 2002 election campaign funds in its December 3, 2007 edition, Lee filed a complaint with prosecutors against the magazine on charges of violating the Election Law for spreading false information and defamation. Some in and outside the prosecution also point out that it would be unfair not to investigate allegations of President Roh Moo-hyun’s receipt of so-called congratulatory money upon winning the presidential election, as well. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: Do not be surprised that Roh gets scrutinized after Lee Myeong-bak gets in office. Of course, it will not be Lee who will be instigating the investigation but "other interested parties." Paybacks are hell...) February 2008DLP Hardliners Throw Out Reform Attempts (Feb 2008) The Democratic Labor Party in an extraordinary national convention voted down a proposal to expel senior party members who were involved in an espionage scandal in 2005. The proposal targeted Choi Ki-young, former vice secretary general of the party, and Lee Jung-hoon, a former member of the party Central Committee who are serving prison terms after they were convicted of reporting on the South Korean political scene for Pyongyang in the so-called Ilsimhoe case.The party also deleted most clauses in a reform proposal that aimed to distance the party from North Korea, which had been pushed by party chairwoman Sim Sang-jeong and an emergency committee from the minority People’s Democracy faction. With the failure of the reform proposal, observers expect Shim and the PD faction to defect. Shim has already said she will resign the party headship if the party reform proposal was killed and is to announce her decision about her political future at a press conference on Monday. A split of the DLP seems inevitable. The majority National Liberation faction flatly rejected the PD faction’s demand that the party distance itself from North Korea and ditch pro-North Korean policies. NL faction members held pickets at the convention urging instead more pro-North Korean policies. The emergency committee accused the Choi and Lee of hurting the party’s independence and autonomy. But the NL group deleted a clause to expel the two in a revision and passed the new version. It also deleted a sentence in the party reform proposal that bans any outside forces including the North from hurting the party’s independence and autonomy. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) Running Scared: UNDP and MDP merge (Feb 2008) The liberal United New Democratic Party (UNDP) agreed to merge yesterday with the minor Democratic Party (DP), formerly the Millineum Democratic Party (MDP) . The formation of the new United Democratic Party comes more than four years after President Roh Moo-hyun and his followers ditched the MDP in September 2003 and founded the Uri Party, the de facto predecessor of the UNDP. The same force formed the Participatory United New Party that initiated the merger. UNDP Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu and DP Chairman Park Sang-cheon will serve as co-chairmen, but the new party will register Sohn as the sole leader with the National Election Commission. A debate over leadership had delayed the merger, but the party has reportedly stipulated co-chairmanship in its constitution. The new party said in a joint declaration between the UNDP and DP, “The Grand National Party holds the presidency and influential provincial government posts, and if the party wins two thirds of parliamentary seats in the upcoming general elections, democracy in the Republic of Korea will be in danger.” Election Bribery Scandal (Feb 2008) A total of six independent candidates ran for the mayoral election in Yeongcheon City, North Gyeongsang Province in 2007. Three came out strong and three weak during the campaign period. The Grand National Party had not nominated any candidate as in Cheongdo. Kim, with 5,300 votes, was second to last. Kim was considering dropping out of the race due to his low approval rating in polls, despite the fact that he was once the chairman of the Yeongcheon City Council and representative of the North Gyeongsang Province. An election broker Seo (43•arrested) stubbornly encouraged Kim to run for office, saying that “it is possible to win sufficient votes for nomination if you properly take advantage of the party organization.” Seo took 74 million won from Kim. Seo, one of the secretaries of a former Yeongcheon mayor, had approached Kim, saying, “Though it usually takes 500 million won to be nominated by the party, about 300 million won would be enough to use party members this time since there was no nomination.” It was found out that Seo had succeeded in winning Kim’s trust by boasting the fact that his younger brother is an assemblyman of the local electorate. To have 300 million won ready in cash, Kim urgently borrowed 150 million won from Seo’s relative. After deciding to run for the election, Kim dole out a total of 145 million won to 31 people including Jeong, head of the Yeongcheon liaison office of the GNP and election broker, and heads of residents’ associations and women’s groups. They in turn distributed a total of 74 million won to 24 people, including Kim (60•arrested), in charge of dong /eup/ myeon (the smallest administrative units), in sums ranging from 1 million won to 13 million won for each. It is suspected that about 30 million won out of this money was offered to voters in sums of 50,000 won or 100,000 won for each. The rumor that taking the role of an election broker or liaison brings one a big money was also found to be true. One of the campaigners received 7 million won for his work and bought a cow with it. Another campaigner was about to buy some crop field. Kim also handed over 5 million won to Yim, chairman of the Yeongcheon City Council, in Yim’s car, asking him “to give a hand through the organization.” Kim also gave 2 million won to a Yeongcheon City councilor, who asserts the money was returned soon afterward. Police is investigating the case based on its presumption that about 100 voters took money from Kim. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) NEW GAME: Payback time -- Chung Dong-young to be Questioned for Slander (Feb 2008) Former presidential candidate Chung Dong-young will be questioned over allegations that he slandered another candidate during the last presidential campaign, the prosecution said on 16 Feb. Chung, who competed on the ticket of the ruling United New Democratic Party (UNDP) against then candidate Lee Myung-bak in December's presidential election, is charged with slandering Lee and the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP). Prosecutors will seek to question former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on 20 Feb on charges that he slandered President-elect Lee Myung-bak during last year's election. Chung was the presidential candidate of the now-defunct United New Democratic Party, but suffered a crushing loss to to Lee in the December 19 election. Chung said Lee was deeply involved in a stock fraud scheme involving the investment firm BBK and his ex-business partner Kim Kyung-joon. A prosecutor said Chung has ignored several summonses and subpoenaed him again, as the statute of limitations to probe election violations is approaching expiration. (Source: KBS Global.) NEW GAME: Payback. Spy Agency Spied on Citizens and Politicians (Feb 2008) It has been revealed that the National Intelligence Agency (NIS), the nation's top spy agency, accessed 74,660 types of confidential information of individual citizens for three years and eight months beginning January 2003 to August 2006. The activities of the spy agency were high during July and August 2006, a period when it reviewed, without authorization or prior consent, then-leading presidential contender Lee Myung-bak's personal information regarding real estate assets. The new finding was made public on 27 Feb by Grand National Party lawmaker Lee Sang-bae, who reviewed the monthly internal data of the agency's access to personal records gained through the Government Administration and Home Affairs Ministry`s Government for Citizens (G4C) system. According to the findings, the spy agency accessed social security information 48,590 times, family information 25,389 times, zoning information 655 times, and land recordings 14 times, among others. Since implementation of the Administrative Information Sharing System in August 2006, only a handful of staff members can review the personal information of a citizen. In particular, the NIS looked up personal records on real estate assets 620 times (94.6%), out of a total of 655, during just the two months of July and August 2006. The agency did not look up the real estate recordings other than during those two months. Last year, the spy agency confessed that one of its senior officials on its anti-corruption task force team had looked into the personal real estate records of President Lee Myung-bak's brother-in-law, Kim Jae-jeong. During the same period, the intelligence agency beefed up snooping activities in other areas, as well. Now, these findings are fueling suspicion, as some politicians alleged, that the intelligence agency spied on politicians, including President Lee. Rep. Lee demanded, "We can't ignore the fact that the intelligence agency looked into the personal lives of politicians under the Roh Moo-hyun administration. We have to know why the agency accessed the private information of individuals and politicians on so many occasions, and why it increased its surveillance into real estate records during July and August in 2006." (Source: Donga Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: This is the first assault on the NIS which Lee Myeong-bak has promised to "reorganize." The much needed house-cleaning and reorganization needs to start immediately.) General Election Candidates Rises 43% (Feb 2008) The number of people registering to run in the general elections in April has risen substantially from the previous elections five years ago. The National Election Commission said Sunday that two thousand candidates have registered as of 17 Feb, up 43 percent from 2003. Among them, more than half are from the conservative Grand National Party and 22 percent from the liberal United Democratic Party. By profession, politicians accounted for the largest share, followed by lawmakers, educators, lawyers and businessmen. The election watchdog attributed surge to a delay in the candidate nomination process in each party. March 2008Poll indicates GNP Sweep in April (Mar 2008) In the latest poll, conducted by The Hankyoreh and polling agency Research Plus on March 1, 49.4 percent of respondents said they thought President Lee was doing well in managing the nation, while 23.7 percent said Lee was not. The remaining 26.9 percent either did not answer or said they did not know. The approval rating of former President Roh was 71.4 percent on March 29, 2003, just after his inauguration. And that of former President Kim was 84.8 percent on February 23, 1998, just before his inauguration. (SITE NOTE: But KDJ and RMH soon nosedived to new depths after their elections -- and Lee's troubles are the result of UNDP attacks that prevented his government from getting off to a solid start. After the April elections, there will be reprecussions.)While the president's approval ratings were far below the levels of his predecessors, 47.8 percent said they would support candidates from Lee's party in the April 9 election, raising the possibility that the conservative GNP will sweep the upcoming election. The approval ratings for the liberal United Democratic Party, a product of a political alliance forged between the United New Democratic Party and the Democratic Party ahead of the April election, were 13.9 percent. That was followed by the Democratic Labor Party with 2.9 percent, the Liberty Forward Party with 1.6 percent and the Creative Korea Party with 1.4 percent. When asked which party they favored, 51.9 percent said they supported the GNP, followed by the UDP with 14.6 percent, the DLP with 4.2 percent, the CKP with 2.8 percent and the LFP with 1.2 percent. (Source: Hankyoreh News.) However, after the nomination process within the GNP started receiving bad press, the numbers started to fall slightly. The nomination fiasco and power struggle between Park Geun-hee and Lee Myeong-bak was starting to show. Voters moving away from GNP before elections (Mar 2008) One out of three people who supported President Lee Myung-bak's election have changed their minds about his party and will not vote for the Grand National Party in the April legislative elections, according to a new poll released on 21 Mar. The result is a significant reversal. Just three months ago anything Lee touched seemed to turn to political gold. He won the election by 5.3 million votes and it seemed guaranteed that the Grand National Party would sweep the April 9 National Assembly elections with a massive majority. The new poll, conducted by telephone by the JoongAng Ilbo, SBS, EAI and Korea Research between last Sunday and Tuesday, asked a group of people who said they backed Lee in a December poll if they will vote for the GNP again in April. In December, 666 people out of 1,370 said they supported Lee. But when asked again, just 63 percent of those people said they will vote for the GNP. The remainder said they support a different party or have not yet decided. Another disturbing sign for the GNP is that the party's support rate, which shot up to 47.6 percent after the presidential election, has fallen to 39.8 percent. Many respondents said they were wary of one party acquiring too much power (40.3 percent), while others said they feel disappointed by what the Lee administration has done so far (23.8 percent). Another 13.4 percent said they were displeased with the GNP's performance. Only 11.9 percent said they felt the opposition party was doing a good enough job to cause them to change their minds. Critics say that voters are turning their backs after a series of announcements by Lee's government and his transition team at the beginning of the year. In an Internet poll, the public felt disturbed over Lee's support for a plan to emphasize teaching more English in schools and the fact that his cabinet ministers were found to be quite wealthy, while some were involved in ethical miscues. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) Voter turnout likely to drop with interest weakening (Mar 2008) Voter turnout will likely decline for the April 9 general elections as voters' interest in domestic politics is diminishing amid deepening economic woes, the nation's election watchdog said 23 Mar. A slim majority, or 51.9 percent, are determined to cast ballots in the elections, according to a survey of 1,500 voters done jointly by the National Election Commission (NEC) and Korea Research last week. The figure is nearly 10 percentage points lower than that for the previous elections in 2004, the NEC said, expressing concern that voters may stay away from the polls due to weakening interest in politics. Four years ago, the figure was 61.5 percent, close to the 60.6 percent of eligible voters who cast ballots. (SITE NOTE: Another report stated that nearly 38 million were expected to turnout for the vote. The number of voters registered for the April 9 general elections was tallied at 37.8 million, up 6.2 percent from four years earlier, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said on 23 Mar. The rise is attributable to a steady population increase, growing life expectancy and a lowering of the eligible voting age to 19 from 20 as of August 2005, the ministry said in a statement. A total of 623,377 19-year-olds are eligible to cast votes in the upcoming elections. ) Only 11.1 percent said they were "very much interested" in the upcoming elections, while 5.8 percent said they were "interested," according to the NEC. Regarding their familiarity with candidates in their districts, only 10.7 percent said they were very familiar with them, while 47.3 percent said they only knew a few candidates. As many as 42 percent responded that they knew almost nothing. Nearly half of the respondents, 49.8 percent, did not know that they need to cast two ballots, one for a candidate and another for a party. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: On 23 Mar, there were worries that the election may in fact turn out to be one of the lowest in recent history.) Most Koreans Still Have Hopes for Lee Myung-bak (Mar 2008) Fifty-two percent of Koreans approve of President Lee Myung-bak's performance, a special poll conducted by Gallup Korea for the Chosun Ilbo on this newspaper's 88th anniversary suggests. And an overwhelming 79.3 percent of respondents expect Lee to do better in future. The telephone poll was conducted among 1,022 people, aged 19 and older. The poll has a 3.1 percentage-point margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level. The sample was selected randomly in proportion to regional populations. The response rate was 17.5 percent. A majority of respondents (52 percent) approved of Lee's performance since his inauguration, as against 29 percent who disapproved. This is a relatively low approval rating for a just-inaugurated government. By age, less than half of those in their 20s (46 percent) and 30s (41.1 percent) approved of Lee's performance, while a majority of those in their 40s (53.6 percent) and 50s and older (62.3 percent) supported him. By region, the greatest number of approving respondents was on Lee's home turf in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, with 65.9 percent, followed by those in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province (54.1 percent), Busan and South Gyeongsang (51 percent), and Daejeon and Chungcheong provinces (50 percent). Lee's approval ratings in Seoul and Gwangju and Jeolla provinces were less than 50 percent -- in Seoul at 49.5 percent, and in Gwangju and Jeolla provinces at 40.1 percent. The poll confirms speculation that Lee's selection of some controversial Cabinet nominees had the most negative effect on his approval ratings. To the question "How did your impression of President Lee change after his selection of Cabinet nominees--" 45.2 percent of respondents were negative, saying either "a little worse" (29.9 percent) or "very bad" (15.3 percent). By contrast, a mere 20.3 percent were favorably impressed -- "very good" (4.5 percent) and "a little better" (15.7 percent). Some 23.8 percent said their impression did not change, and 10.7 percent had no response. To the question which party they will vote for in the general election-- 52.9 percent said the Grand National Party, followed by the United Democratic Party (15 percent), the Democratic Labor Party (4.7 percent), the Creative Korea Party (1.8 percent), and the Liberty Forward Party (1.2 percent). Some 2.7 percent of respondents supported independents, with 21.6 percent in the "don't know/no response" category. In a similar Gallup poll on Feb. 4, the GNP enjoyed a 53 percent approval rating, almost identical to Sunday's. The UDP's approval rating of 15 percent was 1.9 percentage points higher than 13.1 percent, the combined rating of the UDP's predecessor, the United New Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party before their merger. The approval rating of the LFP led by Lee Hoi-chang, Lee's failed rightwing challenger, fell sharply from 6.6 percent in the February poll to 1.2 percent. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: But soon the honeymoon was over as the selection process of the GNP in attempting to force out the Park Geun-hee faction split the party. At that point, the Korean polls showed the populace was losing interest in the elections. Lee Myeong-bak's image was being tarnished -- and not aided when Park Geun-hee basically came out and said he was a liar who failed to keep his promise to keep his hands out of party politics.) Samsung bribe-takers joined Lee government (Mar 2008) Kim Yong-chul, a former legal counsel of Samsung Group claimed on 29 Feb that several people associated with President Lee Myung-bak took kickbacks from the business giant. Kim Yong-chul said he plans to reveal the names of the bribe-takers through a press conference, adding pressure to the ongoing special inquiry into corruption allegations against Samsung. The list of bribe-takers includes not just top prosecutors and ministers in the Roh Moo-hyun government, but also people recently nominated or mentioned as possible candidates of the Cabinet or high-ranking officials of Cheong Wa Dae, Kim Yong-chul said in a radio interview on 29 Feb. "Besides some top officials in the prosecution and minister-level officials of the Participatory Government (of former President Roh Moo-hyun), those who have recently been touted or designated as Cabinet ministers or high-level positions at Cheong Wa Dae are also on the bribery list," Kim said on a radio talk show. Cheong Wa Dae is the presidential office. So far, Kim and the group have named three veteran prosecutors, including Lim Chai-jin, the prosecutor-general, as being on Samsung's tab. All of them have denied the accusation. Kim had earlier withdrew his plan to make public a list of "dozens of prosecutors" who he said took bribes from Samsung. But the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice, a progressive organization that has represented Kim against the nation's biggest conglomerate in the dispute, released the names of a couple of prosecutors who it said were bribed, including Prosecutor-General Lim Chai-jin. Lim denied the allegations. The group of Catholic priests which has organized press conferences for Kim met 29 Feb to discuss the details of the disclosure but said they would not make any announcement this week. The priests' association said it will decide whether to release the list of Lee's officials linked to bribery after an internal meeting. (Source: Korea Herald.) (SEE SAMSUNG SLUSH FUND SCANDAL) Spy chief, presidential aide bribed by Samsung: priests (Mar 2008) A group of priests on 5 Mar accused South Korea's new spy chief and a senior aide to President Lee Myung-bak of having regularly taken bribes from Samsung Group. But the presidential office immediately denied the allegation, calling it "groundless." In a nationally televised press conference, the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice alleged Kim Seong-ho, a former justice minister nominated as head of the National Intelligence Service; Lee Jong-chan, former Seoul High Prosecutors' Office chief appointed as senior presidential secretary for civil affairs; and Hwang Young-gi, former chairman of the Board of Woori Finance Holdings, took bribes from the conglomerate. Hwang was initially picked as head of the Financial Services Commission but he did not assume the post. The potentially explosive announcement came as Lee was filling the posts of his inaugural administration, with Kim yet to receive approval from the National Assembly as the spy chief. "I've never been asked to show business favor or taken bribes" from Samsung, Kim Seong-ho said in a statement. "Lee Jong-chan was on Samsung's list of names to take care of and regularly took bribes. As the head of the High Prosecutors' Office, he himself even visited Samsung Group Vice Chairman Lee Hak-soo's office to receive money for his summer vacation," Father Jeon Jong-hun, representative of the progressive priests' organization, said. The presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae rushed to step in. "According to an internal investigation, the allegation that those who were named received bribes was found to be groundless," presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan told reporters. The priests seemed to have received the three names from a former lawyer for Samsung Group who raised a slew of corruption allegations against Samsung in November to initiate the ongoing independent probe. Kim Yong-chul, who worked for Samsung from 1997 to 2004, claimed last week that some officials of the Lee administration accepted bribes from Samsung. Even though bribe taking is grave enough in South Korea to deprive government officials of their jobs, it remained to be seen whether the priests' action would influence the Lee administration. The priests earlier claimed then Prosecutor-general nominee Lim Chai-jin had accepted bribes from Samsung, but Lim won approval from the parliament. (Source: Yonhap News.) Whistleblower a no-show, so hearing is postponed (Mar 2008) Despite requests from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, high-profile whistleblower Kim Young-cheol refused to come to the National Assembly as a witness on 7 Mar, causing a scheduled hearing for the nominee to head the nation's top intelligence agency to be postponed. On 5 Mar, Kim, a former Samsung lawyer, claimed the nominee to head the National Intelligence Service, Kim Sung-ho, as well as Lee Jong-chan, the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, both routinely took bribes from Samsung. Both the accused and the conglomerate vehemently denied the charges, made through the Catholic Priests Association for Justice. Legislators from both the Grand National and United Democratic parties wanted to question Kim Young-cheol about the accusations. The United Democratic Party and the Grand National Party discussed 0n7Mar what they should do next. The Grand Nationals initially wanted to hold the confirmation hearing as scheduled. The United Democrats, meanwhile, discussed sending Kim Young-cheol an official notice requiring him to attend within five days, then reschedule the hearing to 12 Mar. The two sides failed to reach a compromise. The legislature has until March 23 to confirm Kim Sung-ho. If a hearing doesn't take place by then, President Lee Myung-bak can confirm his appointment without a hearing. Lee's new justice minister, Kim Kyung-hwan, questioned the whistleblower's motive for making the public accusations. ''Kim Yong-cheol made public the names of the officials, including the NIS chief-designate, on the eve of his confirmation hearing,'' the minister told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday. ''The accuser's intentions are highly questionable.'' ''Before the press conference, I was told my name would be mentioned. I was really surprised,'' he said. ''If I had been named as a bribe-taker, I would have proven that Kim Yong-cheol's accusation is false and taken legal action against him.'' Kim Kyung-hwan urged the independent counsel to investigate the issue as soon as possible. The independent prosecutor's team, mandated to probe a series of corruption allegations against Samsung, said it will question Kim Yong-cheol as early as this weekend about his latest disclosure. The team has interviewed Kim for several days since January. Yun Jung-sok, an assistant prosecutor for Independent Counsel Cho Joon-woong, said Kim will be asked to provide evidence to back his claims. The initial 60-day period for the special prosecutor's investigation had been scheduled to end on 9 Mar, but investigators decided to extend their probe another 30 days. They can extend it 15 more days after that, if they choose. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) Spy chief-designate suspected of using favors to buy apartment (Mar 2008) Kim Sung-ho, the South Korean spy chief-designate who has been accused of allegedly taking bribes from Samsung Group when he was a state prosecutor, is suspected of owning a pricey apartment in Seoul in his sister's name after he bought it from Samsung Corp., the group's construction and trading affiliate, via a favor from the conglomerate. The new accusation was reportedly made by Kim Yong-cheol, who blew the whistle on Samsung last fall when he launched the first in a series of corruption allegations against Samsung. The former Samsung chief attorney is being questioned by an independent counsel, who has a mandate to conduct a special probe into allegations that the conglomerate borrowed the names of its top executives to hide slush funds in bank and stock accounts, bribed public officials and illegally transferred control of the group's management from father to son. Kim, the former Samsung attorney, appeared to have told the independent counsel on March 14 that Kim Sung-ho, who has been nominated to head the National Intelligence Service, telephoned him about the apartment back when he was a Samsung employee. "When I was serving as the head of Samsung's legal department, though I can't remember the exact time, Kim, the nominee, called and asked me to look for an apartment at Galleria Palace," Kim, the former Samsung lawyer, was quoted as saying by a source. According to the source, Kim raised the new allegation on March 12, when he was questioned by the independent counsel as a "reference witness." After the receiving the phone call, the former Samsung attorney said that he called the president of Samsung Corp.'s housing division, who is only identified by the surname Lee, to deliver the request by the NIS nominee, who was a prosecutor at the time. It is believed that the former Samsung attorney told the independent counsel that he then gave the NIS nominee's phone number to the Samsung Corp. president, saying, "Let's give him one with a good view," according to the source. The Galleria Palace apartment, located in Jamsil-dong, in the Songpa district in southern Seoul, was sold in 2001 by Samsung Corp. and Hanwha Construction. The NIS chief-designate, Kim, 58, lives in a 164.3 square-meter unit on the 33rd floor in one of the buildings that is part of the apartment complex. Real estate brokers estimate the apartment is trading at between 2.1 billion won (US$2.1 million) and 2.4 billion won. A real estate broker said, "The home (of Kim, the nominee) is more expensive than other apartments of the same size because it has a good view of the Seokchon Lake." Records show that the apartment is owned by the NIS nominee's 69-year-old sister, but Kim has lived in the apartment since she acquired it in 2005. The NIS nominee moved to the apartment on April 4, 2005, after signing a rental contract under South Korea's unique "jonse" system, which allows a tenant to pay a sizable deposit to the landlord and pay no rent. At the time, the NIS nominee paid his sister 370 million won for the deposit. Kim was quoted as saying that he gave his sister another 100 million won when the contract was renewed in December 2007. At present, the average deposit for an apartment of the same size under a jonse contract is between 600 million won and 700 million won. Currently, the NIS nominee's sister is the sole tenant in an apartment in Busan worth some 190 million won and acquired under a separate jonse contract. Since May 2007, she had lived in another apartment in Busan with a mortgage worth some 250 million won. The Hankyoreh has attempted to call the nominee's sister repeatedly, but she has just hung up the phone. In response, a person close to the NIS chief-designate said, "There were no telephone calls made between Kim, the former attorney, and Samsung Corp. officials about the purchase of the apartment." Asked whether the NIS chief-designate borrowed his sister's name to take ownership of the apartment, the person said, "At that time, the sister had enough money to buy the apartment on her own because she sold her cookie factory in Busan." An official at Samsung Corp. said, "Though it's right that the apartments were sold in conjunction with Hanwha, all of them were sold legally and no favors were given. I have the understanding that the president was not involved in the sale in any way," the Samsung Corp. official said. (Source: Hankyoreh News.) GNP Releases Candidate List for General Elections (Mar 2008) A GNP parliamentary nomination screening committee has unveiled a preliminary list of 66 candidates for the April general elections. The confirmed number of nomination spots stands at 66, including 22 in Seoul and 23 in surrounding Gyeonggi Province. Of the 66 candidates, the Lee Myung-bak camp was believed to outnumber supporters of former party chief Park Geun-hye four-to-one. Only six candidates were neutral. The party’s screening committee will announce a second list some time next week. (SITE NOTE: The biggest problem was the schism caused by the "old age" factor to eliminate those over 70 from running for reelection -- most of whom belong to the Park Geun-hye camp. Unfortunately, five-time lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk, 73, the older brother of President-elect Lee Myung-bak and National Assembly vice speaker, has refused to step aside voluntarily creating a problem. Lee Sang-deuk was sent as a special envoy from President-elect Lee Myeong-bak to Japan on 15 Jan.) (SEE GNP Factions Squabble Over Nominations (Jan 2008).) Nat'l Assembly Nominations Signal Major Shakeup (Mar 2008) The ruling Grand National Party has yet to come up with their full list of candidates for the April 9 race. Things are pretty much deadlocked. After days of negotiations not a single agreement has been made on deciding the candidacies for Daegu and Busan. Some of them said there is a possibility that 40 to 50 percent of incumbent party legislators could be replaced in the screening. The GNP is also strengthening its qualification process for nominees including even existing lawmakers. This could mean up to a quarter of current lawmakers will be knocked out and so not surprisingly, the process is bogged down in debate. Three powerful supporters of Park Geun-hye have been eliminated in the last list. Rhee Q-taek, a key aide, and Han Sun-kyo, a Park supporter, were two of five incumbent lawmakers disqualified by the party's nominating committee, without giving any reason. Han served as spokesperson for Park during last year's GNP primaries. Rep. Yun Kun-young, a confidant of President Lee Myung-bak elected to the National Assembly under the proportional representation system, took Han's electoral district in the nomination. As for the nomination, the former party chairwoman said Han lost the nomination only because he had worked for her during the primaries. ``The worst case scenario has become a reality,'' she lamented, shortly after the nominations were unveiled. ``Han has no problem at all when it comes to the criterion the screening panel members used for the selection,'' she continued. The aide added Park would wait and see how it turns out in the nominations in South and North Gyeongsang provinces, strongholds of the GNP, and ``could make a grave decision'' if needed. The nomination committee said it was fair as they eliminated three from the Lee Myeong-bak side. The only problem is that the Park ones were powerful, multi-term legislaters while the LMB side were relative unknowns (Kho Jo-heung, Lee Jai-chang and Koh Hee-sun). Park is claiming that the nominations seem to be made along personal lines. President Lee has officially stayed out of the nomination process -- though he is most certainly working behind the scenes on it. There is a strong possibility that some who were not nominated may run as independents and in the worst case, the Park Geun-hye faction may break away from the GNP. Park is awaiting the nomination list for Seoul’s affluent Gangnam area and Gyeongsang Provinces, both of which are traditional GNP strongholds and a Park power base. The committee plans to make public the list of candidates for Gyeongsang electoral districts, where supporters of Park are the majority, early next week. If the GNP replaces Park supporters from that area there will be bitter turmoil within the party. (Source: Hankyoreh and Korea Times.) GNP chops bigwigs from nomination race (Mar 2008) The ruling Grand National Party denied parliamentary candidacy to 25 incumbent lawmakers on its home turf, Gyeongsang provinces, as the conservative party strove to improve its image ahead of April 9 elections. The party yesterday unveiled the list of its choices for 51 constituencies in Daegu, Busan, Ulsan and South and North Gyeongsang provinces. It left out about 10 lawmakers loyal to former party chairwoman and minority factional leader Park Geun-hye, including Reps. Kim Moo-sung, Kim Jae-won, Yoo Ki-june and Eom Ho-sung. Over 10 lawmakers of the mainstream group associated with President Lee Myung-bak also failed to get re-nomination. They include Park Hee-tae, vice speaker of the National Assembly, and Reps. Ahn Taik-soo, Kwon Oh-eul and Chung Hyung-gun. The nations two major parties are currently picking candidates for key constituencies. The nomination process has been moving at a slow pace as the parties are plagued by factional strife and mounting protests from unsuccessful hopefuls. Conflict within the ruling Grand National Party has reached a critical stage with Park Geun-hye and her allies openly asserting they have been made targets of political revenge by President Lees loyalists. They have threatened to take action, if unconvinced that the selection for Gyeongsang is carried out fairly. The intensifying in-house feud is undercutting the ruling partys chances in the elections, though it is still widely expected to win a majority. (Korea Herald.) (SITE NOTE: Park Geun-hye is furious and has publicly stated that the truce with Lee Myeong-bak is off. She feels that her supporters have been unfairly targeted, but has not announced what action her group will take next. "(The party's nomination screening committee) eliminated certain candidates in the nomination due to personal reasons," former GNP Chairwoman Park was quoted as saying through her public relations secretary Lee Jung-hyun. )Seniority Gone, New Faces Grab Nominations (Mar 2008) Seniority is considered evil, while new faces are portrayed as good, complained a three-term lawmaker who lost the nomination of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) on 14 Mar. Rep. Kwon Oh-eul said a disregard of legislative experience was distinct in the governing party's selection of candidates to run in the April 9 elections. Kwon is one of the 25 incumbents who failed to make the cut in the southeastern Gyeongsang Provinces, a stronghold for the conservative party. Chopping the senior lawmakers from the nomination is called a Friday night massacre. Twelve lawmakers from the Lee faction lost out and 10 from the Park faction. Three are neutral. Among lawmakers who have served more than three times, Lee Sang-deuk, Kang Jae-sup, the former GNP chairwoman, Chung Mong-joon and Chung Ui-wha survived. Those dropped also include 12 incumbents close to Lee including senior lawmaker Park Hee-tae, a close aide to President Lee Myung-bak.. The remaining three are known to be neutral. (SITE NOTE: We highly suspect that Lee Myeong-bak has already flagged these people to take over positions that will be vacated by Roh appointees -- or atleast the ones he's trying to force out now.)In the ruling Grand National Party, a group of pro-Park Geun-hye lawmakers strongly protested the party's decision to exclude them from its candidate selection list, hinting of a mass defection on 14 Mar. Rep. Kim Moo-sung, a three-time lawmaker and the right-hand man of former GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye. "I leave my heart at the GNP, but my body leaves the party from this moment," Rep. Kim Moo-sung, a key supporter of Park, said in a press conference 14 Mar. "Some selfish members are ruining the party that I love with irrational nomination criteria that no one can approve of. This is an evident move to eliminate the Park faction before it grows to grasp power in the party." Kim is among the 10 pro-Park lawmakers who were let go. Other pro-Park lawmakers including Reps. Yoo Ki-joon and Lee In-ki are expected to follow suit after discussing their future course of action with Park. Around ten pro-Park lawmakers who were also eliminated met on 14 Mar to discuss their future plans, mulling over whether or not to run in the general elections by joining the Future Korea Party or the Liberty Forward Party. Some party insiders are concerned that the angry Park supporters may push for a party split, threatening the GNP's goal of grabbing a majority in the 299 National Assembly seats. But with the elections now less than a month away, such chances appear slim. (SITE NOTE: These folks will probably run as independents and the GNP may be greatly surprised that they stand a very good chance of being reelected. Photo recognition plays a great deal of importance in Korean voting as they really don't know that much about their candidates -- and usually vote for the old standby.)GNP selection committee Chairman Ahn Kang-min said the selection shows the governing party's decisiveness for reform but few accepted his remark at face value. The cut of incumbents is likely to have a considerable impact on election results as many of them expressed their willingness to run in the election as independents. The move to drop almost half of the sitting lawmakers in the region has fueled anger in a faction led by former Chairwoman Park Geun-hye, which asserts that it has been made a target of political revenge by backers of President Lee Myung-bak. The Grand National Party has as expected eliminated a large number of its 62 incumbent lawmakers from the Gyeongsang Provinces, the party's political heartland, in the selection of candidates for the general election next month. Twenty-five lawmakers or 43.5 percent were eliminated, the largest number in the party's history. With the nomination process moving slow due to mounting protests from unsuccessful hopefuls, the GNP has thus far picked 224 of a total of 245 candidates. Among them, 145 Lee loyalists have secured the party's ticket to the 42 of Park's. The intensifying feud has been threatening the GNP's chances in the April parliamentary elections although it is still widely expected to win a majority, backed by its landslide win in last year's presidential election. (Source: Yonhap News, Korea Times and Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: With 145 Lee loyalists on the party's ticket compared to the 42 for the Park faction, it is looks pretty suspicious that a fix is in. Notice that none of the guys that were chopped from the Lee faction are raising waves. This leads to speculation that they've already been promised jobs in the Lee administration -- atleast the ones that Lee and his ministers are trying to force existing Roh appointees out of. Also I think these goofballs in the nominating committe are making a big mistake. Many Korean voters don't vote based on issues -- they vote on recognition. If the guy looks familiar -- as the incumbent is -- they simply vote him back in office. If the guy runs as an independent with a good photo, he stands a good chance of being reelected. Lee is making a big mistake that the Koreans voted HIM into office -- they didn't. They simply voted a conservative that the GNP put up for the vote. The second thing is that many Koreans remember that the GNP is the party that Park Geun-hee saved from extinction after the face-slapping fiasco of the Roh impeachment process. Lee Myeong-bak is playing a dangerous game in trying to stack the deck for the April election.)GNP’s selection process runs up against Park’s resistance (Mar 2008) The ruling Grand National Party’s candidate selection process has met with strong resistance from a minority faction led by former chairwoman Park Geun-hye. The lawmakers, who lost their chance at nomination after the party began eliminating people who have past records of corruption, declared one after another on March 14 that they would run as independents in the upcoming April 9 National Assembly election. According to an analysis of the political leanings of the GNP candidates in the 216 places, out of a total of 245 local electorates, in which this round of nominations were decided, more than 140 hopefuls are confidants of President Lee Myung-bak, while approximately 40 are known to be loyal to Park. Most of the 25 candidates who were selected over incumbent lawmakers to run in the National Assembly election are viewed as belonging to President Lee’s faction. The Yeongnam area encompasses the North and South Gyeongsang Provinces and is a conservative stronghold. The results of the GNP’s selection process appear to be connected with an attempt by the party leadership to transform the GNP into a party of the president. The fallout is expected to increase, as key members of the GNP reportedly have a plan to replace most of the incumbent lawmakers in seven electoral districts in southern Seoul, known to be the most conservative part of the city. In the press conference in which the announcement was made, Rep. Kim Moo-sung, a close confidant of Park Geun-hye, maintained that Cheong Wa Dae, or the Blue House, had interfered in the selection process. Kim criticized the party when he said the nominations had been made following the intentions of the presidential office. “A party that should be free of presidential power chose candidates to run in the elections according to the president’s will,” Kim said. “The rival party is impressing people in the course of its nomination process, while the GNP has been emotional in selecting its candidates.” The lawmaker added that the selection criteria had been decided by the presidential office. Park Geun-hye strongly criticized the candidate selection process for the Gyeongsang Provinces, according to Lee Jung-hyun, a close aide to Park. Lawmakers from Park’s faction met on March 14 to discuss a way to start a new party or to form a group of independents after breaking with the party, but were unable to reach a conclusion, said a politician who participated in the meeting, but asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue. On the previous day, the GNP’s supreme council, the party’s primary decision-making body, approved 51 candidates selected by the party's selection committee to run in the Gyeongsang Provinces. The council requested that the selection committee reexamine eight of the candidates. GNP spokeswoman Na Kyung-won remarked that the eight lawmakers have criminal records or had once broken with the party to run in the election as independents or candidates for another party. The GNP’s selection committee is also planning to choose candidates for seven electorates in Gangnam, its key stronghold, on March 16, but most of the seven incumbent lawmakers are expected to be replaced. An official of the party said, “As far as I know, top party leaders and key members of the screening committee met at the presidential office and were near agreement on changing most of the incumbent lawmakers in Gangnam.” The GNP’s ethics committee plans to convene a meeting on March 16 to examine figures whose qualifications have been questioned. The ethics committee plans to convey the list candidates to be disqualified to the party's supreme council soon. (Source: Hankyoreh News.) Conservative Party Could Drop Controversial Candidates (Mar 2008) The ethics committee of the conservative Grand National Party asked its Supreme Council Sunday to replace 12 candidates running for the general elections next month. The 12 include those who served prison terms, those who challenged the outcome of the party primaries, those who left the party but came back, and those who kept switching parties. Candidates who served time in prison were Kim Taek-gi (Gangwon Province), Lee Hak-jae (Incheon) and Ahn Byeong-yong (Seoul). Those who challenged the party primaries or left the party were Song Gwang-ho (North Chungcheong Province), Lee Jong-hyuk (Busan), Yoon Young (South Gyeongsang Province) and Jeong Jae-hak (Gyeonggi Province). Those who constantly changed parties were Jeong Duk-gu (South Chungcheong Province), Lee Hyun-jae (Gyeonggi Province), Choi Jong-chan (Anyang), Hyun Gi-hwan (Busan) and Park Sang-eun (Incheon). Among them, Kim, Lee Hak-jae, Ahn, Jeong Jae-hak, and Park are under a committee review because the party’s Supreme Council has postponed their nominations. The committee also urged a reassessment of candidates Kim Ho-yeon (South Chungcheong Province) and Jang Jae-won (Busan) for their alleged corruption. Lawmakers Nam Gyeong-pil and Park Hyung-joon issued a joint statement saying, “Some candidates were unfairly selected to replace incumbent lawmakers in the Gyeongsang provinces (the party’s stronghold). We need to correct the wrong nomination process, which does not fit principles and standards, through an appropriate method.” Both lawmakers supported the decision of the ethics committee, saying the figures replacing incumbents are supposed to be better. They said it is hard to understand how those who served time in prison for corruption and those who changed parties for their own interests were chosen. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) Snubbed GNP Lawmakers to Form Pro-Park Alliance Incumbent lawmakers close to former Grand National Party Chairwoman Park Geun-hye who were snubbed as candidates for the general elections will form a new alliance centered around Park. Rep. Kim Moo-sung and about ten pro-Park lawmakers of the conservative party made the decision yesterday after a meeting in Seoul. They have declared that they will bolt from their party. Among them are Suh Chung-won, an adviser to Park during the party primaries last year, and Rep. Hong Sa-duk, who was Park’s chief campaigner. Park Jong-keun and Lee Hae-bong (Daegu); Lee Kyeong-jae (Incheon); Lee In-ki and Kim Tae-whan (North Gyeongsang Province); Yu Ki-june; Han Sun-kyo (Gyeonggi Province); and senior party member Jeon Yong-won (Gyeonggi Province) will reportedly join the independent alliance. “We have decided to run in the elections in consideration of the situation that each person faces and return alive so that we can join forces to make Park Geun-hye president,“ Kim told reporters after the meeting. “Although independent candidates cannot help the campaigns of other independent candidates, we can identify ourselves as pro-Park on election posters. So we are studying ways to form a coalition.” (SITE NOTE: The use of Park Geun-hee's name in the party name, "Pro-Park Party", is being studied by the NEC though they admit that there is nothing that prevents this. Park Geun-hee has not made any comments at this time.) Kim added, “We will strictly limit the number of people who can join our alliance by choosing only those who worked for Park’s camp during the primaries and who have a high chance of winning in the elections.” On if he consulted with Park on the decision, Kim said, “We had no such intention. This is something that we have to take care of.” Lawmakers Lee Q-taek (Gyeonggi Province) and Eom Ho-sung (Busan) will also run in the general elections by joining and changing the nature of the Future Korea Party as a pro-Park party. Pro-Park figures will also employ a two-track strategy that allows them to run in either of two ways best suited for each candidate in their constituency and establish a united front. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) Park Silent -- and then Blasts GNP (Mar 2008) Amid the commotion created by supporters trying to launch a party named after her, Park Geun-hye, the former chairwoman of the Grand National Party, has kept silent. Park has remained out of sight for more than a week since expressing displeasure with the results of the GNP's selection of its candidates to run for the National Assembly. At the same time, she has been refusing to show up at her party's campaign rallies, an action that her aide, three-term lawmaker Kim Moo-sung, said in a radio interview was her way of protesting the party's decision. Next Monday, however, Park will travel to Daegu, a traditional conservative stronghold where she won 70 percent of the votes in her campaign against Lee Myung-bak in the presidential primary last year. Her aides said she will not get involved in any campaign activities, and is only going there to rest. Word of her visit was met with enthusiasm in Daegu. "If she decides to help the independents, it will be hard for the GNP to win votes in Daegu," said Lee Wi-rak, 60, a taxi driver in Daegu. Do Yong-cheol, 39, a snack store owner, said she was angry that "the GNP used Park and now they are trying to destroy her." (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) On 23 Mar in a news conference, Park Geun-hye said the party's nominations run counter to efforts to reform the party and have caused internal factional conflict. She urged the party leadership and chairman to take responsibility for the nomination process, which she said lacked principle. Park said she will not participate in campaigning to drum up support for the party, or publicly back candidates who launched independent bids after failing to get the party's nomination. She wished the indepedent runners good luck, however, saying they suffered an unfair political decision. (Source: KBS Global.) Many candidates of the pro-Park alliance are expected either to win in the election, or to work as spoilers to GNP candidates. The latest YTN poll found these pro-Park candidates played a role in splitting the conservative vote. Park Geun-hye said, “I was cheated, and so were the people. The party chairman and leadership should take responsibility for the situation." Park, who lost to Lee Myung-bak in the presidential primary, made it clear she will not be campaigning for party candidates across the country. That will make things harder for the party especially in marginal constituencies in the Seoul metropolitan region and Chungcheong provinces. In a press conference at the National Assembly on 23 Mar, Park said, "The party nomination was a foolish process and a significant step backward for Korean party politics. It clearly showed at what level our politics now stands. It also showed that if you fail to win the nomination, you're finished, and that survival in politics depends on knowing where the wind blows rather than on your ability or vision for the country.” But she said throughout all the “deceit and betrayal” in the political arena, “you have to maintain respect for at least something. Many people told me that I would be cheated, but I had hoped that the promise” of fair nomination “and mutual trust would be honored." While Park did not mention President Lee by name, she barely concealed her dissatisfaction with him, saying, "Power cannot prevail over justice." "The principle" of power sharing where Lee holds the presidency and Park the party leadership "was not kept," she said, and Lee "knows well how I feel now" toward him. It has taken barely a month for the uneasy truce between the two rivals to start disintegrating. ``The GNP showed a retreat from party politics in the selection. The party leaders have made stupid choices and they broke the promise that they would do their best to bring transparency to party politics if given a last chance in the 2004 elections,'' she said. (SITE NOTE: Park has just called Lee Myeong-bak a liar and someone whose promises cannot be trusted. This is significant as in the eyes of many voters, this bodes ill for the future of his administration.) Meanwhile, GNP chairman Kang Jae-sup abruptly announced he will not run in the general election. Factions within the party had previously demanded that Lee Sang-deuk, the vice speaker and elder brother of Lee Myeong-bak, step aside. However, Lee Sang-deuk, speaking from his constituency in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, rejected the demand, which he said was instigated by a “certain faction” within the party. “I'm going to run in the general election as scheduled and wait for the voters to make their own judgment,” he vowed. Lawmaker Lee Jae-oh, the de facto leader of the pro-Lee groups, met with President Lee at Cheong Wa Dae on 23 Mar, would not run for a seat to take responsibility for conflict in the party. Lee Jae-oh’s departure could lead to a redrawing of the party’s power structure after the election. He asked Lee to intercede and proposed that he and Lee Sang-deuk step aside. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) UDP Shake up in Nomination Process (Mar 2008) The United Democratic Party based its selection of candidates to run in April’s National Assembly election on candidates who are “reformist,” a code word for, among other things, being clean. Specifically, it has prohibited people who have been found guilty of crimes of corruption from running. After two days of heated overnight meetings at the UDP headquarters, the candidacy screening committee says it has performed background checks and is ruling out all nominees with fishy personal histories or connections to unlawful political funds. Despite strong opposition within the party to loosen up on the strong stance, the party had no choice but to accept the outcome. Seven out of the total 12 voters said their nominees needed more transparency. Party insiders say the screening process could shake out an estimated 30 percent of acting party members from the Jeolla Provinces. (SITE NOTE: As such cronies of Kim Dae-jung have been eliminated from running causing some disputes. The list excluded 11 high-profile figures from the process based on the idea that it would eliminate politicians with histories of involvement in corrupt activities. Excluded from the candidate list are Kim Hong-up, the son of former President Kim Dae-jung; Park Jie-won, the former president's former chief of staff; and Ahn Hee-jung, a close aide to former President Roh Moo-hyun.) (Source: Hankyoreh.) 15 Incumbents Chopped from UDP Nominations (Mar 2008) The main opposition United Democratic Party also unveiled its second list of nominees yesterday which showed six more sitting legislators dropped out in the nomination race. Among the rejected were Rep. Rhee In-je, the unsuccessful former presidential candidate, as well as three incumbents in Seoul. The six additions make a total of 15 UDP incumbents who have so far been dropped by the party. On 13 Mar, the party let slip a list of nine incumbents who have been turned down that included Rep. Kim Hong-up, the second son of former President Kim Dae-jung. According to party officials, those on the list were eliminated for reasons including poor job performance, low public approval ratings, frequent change of party affiliations or criminal records. The party is expected to announce its final list of candidates this weekend. The biggest figure to topple was Rhee In-je. Rhee was not chosen to run because he has bolted his party too many times in the past, whenever it fell out of popularity. Rhee, a two-time presidential candidate, former labor minister and former governor of Gyeonggi Province, is a UDP member representing his hometown of Nonsan, South Chungcheong. If he runs as an independent, there is a high probability he will win. UNP lawmaker Rhee announced in a press conference on 14 Mar, "I have to say that the party expelled me through the nomination. Once again, I will stand in the wilderness alone and decide my future course after listening to my fellow politicians and the voters that have raised me up." On the remark that his elimination is because he has frequently switched parties, Rhee refuted it, saying, "I have always stuck with reform forces." In addition, Rep. Lee Keun-sik, who was also eliminated in the nomination process, submitted a document declaring his departure from the UNP. Other disqualified candidates in the Jeolla provinces, such as Shin Jung-sik, Lee Sang-yul, and Chae Il-Byung, have decided to form a group, tentatively titled, the Democratic Peace Alliance. Faced with public support of only 15 percent, the liberal party has basically given full independence to its candidate vetting committee in setting up the nomination standards and the selection process, in an attempt to prove its reform efforts to the public. However, the candidate vetting committees push for strict ethical criteria has led to frequent conflicts with party leaders and veteran politicians. (Korea Herald.) Among the 24 electoral districts based in the Jeolla provinces, the committee announced yesterday it had eliminated nine incumbents. The list included Chung Dong-chea, who served as culture minister in the Roh Moo-hyun administration. Revamping the Jeolla region was one of the main goals of the UDP nominating committee. It had announced it would replace about 30 percent of the incumbent lawmakers in the region. Nomination Committee Enraged (Mar 2008) Park Jae-seung, the head of the committee, and the nomination committee became enraged when party leaders selected two lawmakers who had been denied nominations for the April elections and gave them powerful new jobs in the party. The two, Kim Min-seok and Shin Geh-ryoon, were named members of another party committee that will nominate candidates this time under the proportional representation system, the party said on 20 Mar. The nomination committee said the move ran contrary to its decision to part company with lawmakers who have been sentenced to jail for bribery and demanded that the UDP reverse the decision. The demand was rebuffed. Sohn Hak-kyu, the co-chairman of the UDP said, "The party heads have the right to appoint the nomination committee. The decision was taken according to the proper procedures." (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) 14.6 Pct. of Election Candidates Have Criminal Records (Mar 2008) Of the candidates running for the April 9 general elections, 14.6 percent of them have criminal records for violations such as narcotics possession, arson, bribery and document forgery. Their rap sheets will serve as key factors in the elections, as they will be sent to each household along with election guideline brochures. Of the 932 registered candidates, 136 have criminal records: 93 with one conviction, 31 with two, and 12 with three. By region, Gyeonggi Province has the most number of ex-cons running for office with 37, followed by Seoul with 31. South Chungcheong Province and North Gyeongsang Province each have only three candidates with criminal records. By party, the liberal United Democratic Party has the most candidates with priors with 42, while the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) has only 15. Almost half of the candidates from both the Democratic Labor Party and the New Progressive Party have criminal records. Thirty-four of 81 DLP candidates and 10 of the 23 NPP candidates have prior criminal histories. But most such candidates from the UDP, DLP and NPP have prior records due to involvement in past labor and democratic movements. The NPP’s Park Yong-jin was sentenced to prison terms three times for taking part in student and labor movements, but was pardoned on all three occasions. Among female candidates, Kim Hee-sun has two convictions related to taking part in civic demonstrations. Several candidates, however, are under fire for being convicted for election crimes. One candidate to run in Seoul was sentenced 18 months in prison with a two-year stay of execution for smoking marijuana. Another running in South Gyeongsang Province was busted for tax evasion, obstruction of work and embezzlement. The candidate remained on probation until late last year. One candidate running in Gyeonggi Province was sentenced to one year in prison for violating a law on public health crimes, while another candidate running in South Chungcheong Province was sentenced to one year for breaking medical law. One independent running in South Chungcheong Province got three years and another independent in South Gyeongsang Province one year. Other candidates were charged with violating building laws, professional negligence and document forgery. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) Large group of swing voters poses threat to ruling party (Apr 2008) The number of swing voters has increased by a large margin 10 days ahead of South Korea's parliamentary elections, signaling trouble for President Lee Myung-bak's conservative party, according to polls out on 30 Mar. Although the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) continues to enjoy high popularity, backed by Lee's landslide presidential victory last year, its hopes of securing a solid majority in the legislature have been faltering mainly due to a recent split among the conservative bloc. While the GNP's approval rating is gradually sliding, the percentage of undecided voters has increased by nearly 10 percentage points, according to surveys conducted over the weekend. "Polls show that many of those who initially supported the GNP have chosen to delay decision following the split of the conservatives," said political analyst Im Myung-jin. "While the increase in floating votes means better chances for the opposition party and the minor conservative group, it could pose further threat to the GNP."  Chung Dong-young and Chung Mong-joon vie for Dongjak B District in Seoul. Chung Mong-joon accused of sexual harassment for touching the cheek of wife by MBC reporter -- in front of wife and another pack of reporters as part of UDP smear campaign. (9 Apr 2008) In a poll of 6,000 voters, the independent polling group Global Research said on 30 Mar that 32.9 percent supported the ruling GNP, while 15.3 percent favored its rival United Democratic Party (UDP). As many as 31.6 percent said they were undecided. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. While the GNP's popularity dropped by 9 percent points compared to a similar poll last month, the approval rating of an alliance of candidates who bolted the GNP rose by 7 percentage points. The UDP's popularity remained unchanged, showing that the liberal party has failed, thus far, to lure the floating conservative voters. Supporters of former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye bolted from the ruling party en masse to run as independents in the April 9 elections, jeopardizing the conservative party's chances of winning big especially in its home turf Gyeongsang provinces. With a total of 68 seats up for grabs in its home turf, it is critical for the GNP to win big in the region to secure a majority of seats in the 299-member National Assembly. Should the party fail to secure a simple majority in the single-chamber parliament, the Lee administration will face hurdles in pushing ahead with reform bills during its five-year term. The split of the GNP is a product of an ugly internal feud over the party's nomination of candidates in which many pro-Park figures dropped out. Park, who retains considerable political influence among the country's right-wingers, has been indirectly supporting the independent candidates by refusing to join her party's electioneering. She claims that her supporters were victims of factionalism. Pro-Park candidates are either ahead or neck-and-neck in races with GNP nominees in 92 of the 245 constituencies to be filled with candidates to be chosen by direct votes, the local daily Munhwa Ilbo said, citing a March 29 survey. The remaining 54 slots will be filled with candidates to be picked in proportion to indirect votes to be cast to each party. The GNP is believed to be ahead in the proportional representation votes.  Though Park Geun-hee is not campaigning for the pro-Park, neither did she object to her crying poster for the pro-Park candidates. (9 Apr 2008) President Lee's controversial plan to build cross-country waterways and the recent aggravation of inter-Korean relations are also posing threats to his party. Opposition candidates are trying to use Lee's unpopular canal project to swing voters in their favor. South Koreans are badly spilit over the canal project. Supporters say that it would help revive the economy, while critics argue that it is econominally infeasible and would only wreak environmental havoc. The GNP has kept the controversial canal project off its campaign pledges, but rival parties have cried foul, accusing it of trying to dodge issues that may prove unfavorable to the ruling camp. Liberal parties led by the UDP are also upping the offensive against the Lee government's hard-line North Korea policy, claiming that it has strained relations between the two Koreas. The North's communist regime last week expelled 11 South Korean officials from a joint industrial site and fired several short-range missiles into the West Sea, in an apparent show of discontent toward the Lee government's tougher North Korea stance. Striving to downplay a possible negative political blow, the GNP has been refraining from making strong comments on both issues. "But the GNP is unlikely to see a greater drop in approval ratings with the Lee Myung-bak effect still strong," the analyst, Im, added. "With many new candidates unfamiliar to the public, the overall popularity of parties will likely decide the outcome of this year's elections." (Source: Yonhap News.) April 2008APRIL 9 ELECTIONS40-Something Voters to Determine Winners of Election (Apr 2008) With the April 9 National Assembly elections approaching, voters in their 40s, who withdrew their support from the governing Grand National Party (GNP), are behind the increasing number of undecided voters. Public opinion polls found an unusual trend in the population of undecided voters -- the rate has risen from 26.1 percent in February to 41.2 percent in March in a Chosun Ilbo newspaper poll. Pollsters said that they were supporters of President Lee Myung-bak who withdrew their support of the governing GNP after the nomination fiasco involving certain Cabinet ministers.The results show stark contrast to the conventional wisdom of undecided voters tending to decrease as election day approaches. The Chosun Ilbo survey showed 19.5 percent of 40-something voters withdrawing support for their candidate. About 60 percent of them are former GNP supporters. The poll said 16.8 percent of voters in their 30's changed their minds. Given that the combined population of voters in their 30s and 40s accounts for about 45 percent of total registered voters, their votes will have a considerable effect on election results. In the meantime, they are still waiting to decide who to vote for in the upcoming election. Political consultant Park Sung-min said undecided voters were ``confused'' since they failed to look at alternative parties. Regarding these voters' choices, pollster Han Gui-young of the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) said, ``Although the GNP's support is much higher than that of any other party in most polls, voters' preferences of the governing party seemed not to have a direct effect on their choices for lawmakers in their districts,'' she said. ``In fact, voters are more interested in the qualification of candidates, rather than their preferred party.'' Low Voter Turnout Likely A public opinion survey conducted by the National Election Commission (NEC) on March 21 indicated that record-low voter turnout is likely for Wednesday's elections. Only 51.9 percent of respondents said they would vote, indicating voter turnout is likely to be the lowest ever. Pollster Han of the KSOI said it is difficult to predict which party would benefit most from the low turnout, which was 63.9 percent in the 1996 elections and 57.2 percent in the 2000. Participation was slightly higher in 2004 at 60.6 percent. Pollsters interpreted the backlash against the contentious presidential impeachment had motivated many voters to show up in 2004 to vote against the then-main opposition GNP. They said it would be difficult to have high voter turnout in the upcoming elections as there are few outstanding issues that interested voters this time. (SITE NOTE: We think it is simply that people who were progressives see no chance that they will influence the election results and they won't show up. The UDP has lost their confidence and they simply choose not to vote for anyone.) North Korea Factor Pyongyang has been engaged in a series of accusations against President Lee since last week and even threatened Seoul with military action. President Lee urged the North to calm down and find a mutually beneficial solution instead of bickering. Amid the security standoff ahead of the April 9 elections, veteran politicians have expressed skepticism toward the possible impact of escalating tensions. On the occasion of the opening of the Asia Society Korea Center, former Prime Minister Lee Hong-koo told reporters that the North Korea would not have a profound effect on the elections. ``South Koreans are no longer interested in Pyongyang, mainly because the North typically uses such tactics before elections,'' he said. The former prime minister added people here would be neither intimidated nor threatened by the North. (SITE NOTE: The Korean people simply are not worried about the military threat from the North with its food shortages, lack of oil and inability to foster an attack. They watched as the Roh administration used every threat as an excuse to add more giveaways. It is now like the boy who cried wolf. The ROK people are not listening. If the DPRK did attack, it would be suicide -- instant annihilation of the country. The ROK now has increasing confidence in their high-tech military advances -- though IMHO I think it is all media hype. The ROK is NOT the backbone of its defense -- the USFK remains the key deterent.) (Source: Korea Times.) Conservatives to Sweep Elections (Apr 2008) Amid reports that the governing party will secure a majority at the National Assembly, the nation heads to the polls today to elect 299 lawmakers. If the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) secures 50% or more of seats in the unicameral legislature, President Lee Myung-bak will be able to pursue a reform drive in the economy, his cross-country canal project and inter-Korean relations. However, his leadership will be tested if the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) wins in more than 100 districts. (SITE NOTE: Lee Myeong-bak's blatant attempt to stack the deck of the GNP with his supporters may backfire on him. The voters in the Presidential election did NOT vote for him, but rather the conservative candidate to get rid of the progressives. The people remember that Park Geun-hee is the one who salvaged the party and his stabbing her in the back may backfire on him with the GNP defectors gaining votes.) What's of interest is whether the minor conservative Liberty Forward Party (LFP) gains the 20 or more seats needed to form a parliamentary negotiation group. A considerable number of independents, mostly deserters from major parties, are expected to do well, posing a particular threat to the GNP. Progressive forces are divided into two. Of 299 seats up for grabs, 245 are elected through direct voting in each district nationwide, while the remaining 54 seats are allocated to parties according to the number of votes they win. In a last-ditch campaign, the conservative GNP appealed to voters to help the party secure at least a simple majority in the Assembly. But the main opposition UDP warned that the governing party will seek to change the Constitution unless the UDP holds at least one-third of the seats, or 100. (SITE NOTE: This is b.s. as the UDP (then Uri Party) was the one's who wanted the Presidential amendment under Roh.) In a move to boost voter turnout beyond 50 percent, Chairperson Koh Hyun-chul of the National Election Commission (NEC) asked people to exercise the right to vote without fail. ``If you genuinely want to make a difference, you need to exercise your right to vote. Voting is a powerful tool which can bring changes in politics as well as the economy,'' Koh said in a nationally televised speech. An opinion survey taken in March said only 51.9 percent of respondents answered they would definitely vote. Voter turnout in the 1996 elections marked 63.9 percent, which dropped to 57.2 percent in the 2000 elections. The 2004 elections saw a slight increase to 60.6 percent. Pollsters said the 9 Ap election could mark the lowest voter turnout ever. Good weather will also reduce it as many people will take the day off for trips. Pollsters forecast more than 10 independents will win in the elections, which will have considerable ramifications for party politics in the post-election season. A poll taken April 2 showed that 16 independent candidates were leading and 10 others were in too close to call contests. The number of lawmakers who won as independents has been on the downturn since the 1992 elections in which 21 won seats. The 1996 elections saw 16, which fell to 5 in 2000 and 2 in 2004. Campaign experts said there is no doubt the 2008 elections could take a drastic turn when it comes to the number of independent winners. About thirty-eight million people are eligible to cast ballots at 13,246 ballot boxes nationwide. Voting begins at 6 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. (SITE NOTE: My wife went to vote at 6:15am as the polls opened at 6am. She doesn't sleep at nights so this is normal for her, but it might be indicative of the overall voter turnout that might be higher than expected.) Of them, 620,000 are 19 year-olds who recently became eligible voters for the first time. There is a meaningful demographic shift in these voters _ the number of people in their 20s and 30s has decreased, while those in their 40s or older have increased, indicating that parties popular among the older generation could benefit from the demographic change. (Source: Korea Times.) Results What we said leading up to this election turned out true. We said that Lee Myeong-bak was making a big mistake in trying to stack the deck in the nomination process of the GNP. We stated that Koreans vote by photo recognition -- meaning incumbents are reelected. Those that ran as independents from the GNP by-and-large were successful. We also said that the voters did NOT elect Lee Myeong-bak per se. They elected the candidate of the GNP. The voters remembered that it was Park Geun-hee that saved the GNP and brought it back to the place it is today -- not Lee Myeong-bak. (SITE NOTE: We still feel that if Park had run as an independent in the election, she just might have been elected President.) The exit polls were off again -- and the day after the election, they were running around blaming everything but the gods for the differences in their numbers. Lee did NOT get the majority for his side when he tried to rig the elections. In fact, two of his big supporters were defeated. The UDP campaign to "Keep the GNP in Check by voting UDP" failed miserably. The conservatives grabbed 70 National Assembly seats that had been previously held by liberals. The results were:
 Results Comparison (10 Apr 2008) (Joongang Ilbo) As soon as the election results were in, the media more or less went silent. Yes, there was the victory celebrations, but there was so much blood on the ground from all the UDP standard bearers that talking about the election meant stepping in the gore. Also as LMB didn't get his majority (168 required) as he expected, his comments have been muted. On the other hand, the Park Geun-hee factions are consolidating their forces now that they have received the election results to consider their next moves. It is apparent that LMB has become a bitter enemy to the Park Geun-hee forces and the choice is whether to remain with the GNP -- or to split away. Immediately after the election, LMB was now looking to try to mend his fences as he didn't have the majority that he thought he could finagle. Park Geun-hye Proves Political Clout (Apr 2008) Rep. Park Geun-hye of the Grand National Party (GNP) has proved her strong political influence again as ``pro-Park'' figures including GNP splinters and independents supporting her succeeded in forming a parliamentary negotiation bloc by winning about 30 seats in the 9 Apr elections. Political groups must hold 20 seats or more to create a negotiation group. ``Pro-Park Geun-hye Alliance,'' led by Suh Chung-won, won seven electoral districts while independent runners gained 25 seats in the 299-member Assembly. Of the independents, about 20 are referred to as pro-Park candidates who bolted from the GNP last month amid bitter factional fighting with ``pro-Lee Myung-bak'' politicians. Most of those dropped argued the candidate selection was a political tactic to remove supporters of Park, the eldest daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee. Park strongly denounced the process, boycotting campaign speeches for GNP candidates. She said to the deserters, ``Come back after surviving.''  Park Geun-hye expresses her thanks yesterday to voters in Dalseong, Daegu, where she got about 88 percent of the votes in her re-election bid. [YONHAP] Kim Moo-sung, who won in a Busan district with support of more than 60 percent, said after the exit polls that he and other successful pro-Park candidates would return to the GNP. ``My victory is the people's judgment on the GNP selection procedure, which went against the people's wishes,'' Kim, one of the closest confidants of Park, said. ``Now things that resulted from the wrong process should be restored.'' It is unclear, however, if the GNP will accept the deserters because the party is expected to secure the majority of parliamentary seats up for grabs without them. GNP Chairman Kang Jae-sup earlier made it clear that the party will not accept the deserters even if they are elected, while former GNP Chairwoman Park insists the party should allow the ``victims'' of the selection to ``come back home.'' Park herself won election support of some 90 percent of her district in Daegu. (Source: Korea Times.) Conservatives now in full control (Apr 2008) Following Wednesday's elections, political conservatives will hold about two-thirds of the seats in the 299-member National Assembly, pushing aside the liberals who have held the majority for the last decade. Conservative politicians took about 70 seats that had been held by liberals. 9 Apr's elections were clear triumphs for the conservative Park Geun-hye, daughter of the late military president Park Chung Hee, as well as President Lee Myung-bak, who will have a friendly majority to work with. The losers, however, include the so-called 386-generation lawmakers and many of the democracy fighters from the 1970s. Only one-third of the 386 generation lawmakers (the term coined several years ago to describe people in their 30s, who went to college in the 1980s and were born in the 1960s), won seats. Many of the 1970s democracy fighters, such as Kim Geun-tae, Rhyu Si-min and Yoo Ihn-tae, no longer have seats in the Assembly. Lee's Grand National Party has the most seats, winning 153 to snatch a narrow majority in the National Assembly. He has plenty more lawmakers who share his ideology, however. The conservative Pro-Park United and the Liberty Forward Party both share Lee's pro-business platform that calls for strengthening ties with the United States while getting tougher on North Korea. The prospects are murkier for Lee's domestic agenda, however, such as his controversial pledges to reform English education and build a cross-country canal. The Pro-Park and Liberty Forward lawmakers oppose the canal plan and bitterness lingers among numerous conservatives who believe they were not allowed to run for re-election under the Grand National Party banner because they were allied with Park Geun-hye. She and Lee have battled for control in the party. Many of Park's followers ran either as independents or as members of the Pro-Park United party. Today, they are planning to return to the GNP. Park, who never left the GNP and is now a four-time lawmaker after winning re-election easily, told the lawmakers she hoped they would win independently then return to the party that spurned them. That's exactly what they are planning to do, according to Kim Moo-sung, a Park supporter who won as an independent candidate this year in the Namgu B district in Busan, known for its conservative orientation. "The confusion sprouted because of the wrongful [GNP] nomination process," Kim said. "Our primary goal is to apply for our return and enter the party without any prior conditions." Hong Sa-duk, the lawmaker-elect from Pro-Park United, said returning to the GNP is not a matter of undergoing the application process, but something that should be done through political negotiations. The GNP is divided on whether to let them back in. Ahn Sang-soo, the GNP floor leader, said in a radio interview yesterday morning that his party could not accept the people who walked out to create their own party or to run independently. Kang Jae-sup, the head of the party, however, said he wants to take "many things into consideration" before making any decisions. President Lee's wing of the party is now in an uproar, party strategists say. Lee Jae-oh and Lee Bang-ho, two key lawmakers who were loyal to Lee Myung-bak, lost re-election bids to the National Assembly. Lee Jae-oh, an advocate of the grand canal plan, lost to moderate candidate Moon Kook-hyun in northern Seoul while Lee Bang-ho, known for taking a hard line against Park's wing, lost to radical liberal Kang Ki-kab in the harbor city of Sacheon, who got support from many of the industrial labor unions that once sup-ported Lee Bang-ho. Lee Jae-oh could not be reached for comment. He he is planning to get some rest, according to one of his aides. Lee Bang-ho, shocked that he lost to a minor party candidate, resigned his GNP post as general secretary and said he wants to go on vacation for a while. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) Upset Victory: DLP candidate over GNP Power-house (Apr 2008) Kang Ki-gap, a Democratic Labor Party candidate, celebrates his election win over Lee Bang-ho, the secretary general of Grand National Party, at an election office in Joarong-dong, Sacheon, Kyungnam Province on April 9. It is said that Kang's win is the biggest event of this election because Kyungnam Province has long been a GNP stronghold and Lee Bang-ho is one of President Lee Myung-bak's closest aides. No one predicted Kang's victory. In his victory speech, Kang said that he feels a great responsibility to represent the underprivileged, especially now that the conservative GNP has won more than half of the seats in the National Assembly. Kang has long worked as an activist for the rights of farmers. He has worn a hanbok, the traditional Korean style of clothing, since 2004, when he became a proportional representative lawmaker for the DLP, because he did not want to forget that he is a farmer. He has also led several hunger strikes in protest against anti-farm policies such as the S. Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. (SITE NOTE: Kang is a familiar face on the activist scene -- especially in his hanbook attire and goatee. On Naver.com, there was an animated cartoon with Kang on a horse battling monster to save the people. Damn effective -- Hell, I would have voted for him.) Park Geun-hye calls for reinstatement of her supporters (Apr 2008) Breaking several weeks of silence, Park Geun-hye, a ruling party rival of President Lee Myung-bak, pressed the party to take back her supporters who won seats in the incoming legislature after bolting. In return, Park swore that she would not run in the upcoming election to pick the party's new leader, implying that she would not battle with Lee's faction for party hegemony. "If the party can't trust me over concerns of a factional feud, I will prove myself by not running in the July party convention," Park said in a press conference on 25 Apr. "The party must reinstate everyone who left the party." Park, former chairwoman of the ruling Grand National Party, retains considerable political influence among the country's right-wingers as the daughter of late President Park Chung-hee. Park has been in power-struggle with a faction led by Lee after losing the party's ticket to him to run in the December presidential election. Supporters of Park bolted from the party and established a small conservative group after failing to win party tickets to run in the April 9 parliamentary elections amid an uproar over the nomination of candidates. Successfully splitting the conservative vote with the ruling party by ranking third in the elections, the splinter group secured 14 seats in the incoming National Assembly and has been expressing hopes of returning to the party with Park's help. But the ruling party leadership has made clear several times, before and after the elections, it will not take back the pro-Park group, widening the rift with the former chairwoman. "I have no plans to meet with the president anytime soon," Park said, adding that reinstatement of former members was the most urgent matter. Spurning a negative comment made by the current GNP leader regarding the reinstatement of defectors, Park emphasized that the decision must be based upon an official discussion, not a personal opinion. Chairman Kang Jae-sup said Wednesday that he will veto the reinstatement of party defectors who created the pro-Park party, while positively reviewing the return of lawmakers-elect who do not belong to a specific group. Kang reiterated his position after Park's press conference Friday, saying, "I don't want to talk about the issue any further and hope disputes end here." "It is wrong for a party to play favorites in taking back its own members," Park said. "The public will not stand by such decision." "Those people (who left the party) also strived hard for President Lee's win during the presidential election," she added. The ruling party grabbed 153 of the 299 National Assembly seats in the April 9 elections, failing to achieve its initial goal of securing a stable majority of 170 seats. Thus, political pundits have been predicting that the GNP may forge an alliance with its defectors to create a stronger conservative legislative bloc. But the ongoing prosecution investigation into the splinter group's questionable selection of lawmakers has been playing as a further obstacle in its return to the GNP. Suspicions have been growing that the minority party received large sums of money from candidates in return for seats in the incoming legislature allocated under a proportional representation system. One of the party's lawmakers-elect was arrested by prosecutors on 22 Apr and its leader is soon to be questioned over allegations he received a questionable donation from another lawmaker-elect. "I believe that those found guilty of charges must receive rightful legal punishment, and I am partly responsible as the group won those seats with my name," Park said. "But I hope suspicions that the prosecution is deliberately conducting excessive investigations into the opposition parties are not true." Opposition parties, including the pro-Park group, have been accusing the government and the ruling party of conspiring with the prosecution to suppress them via excessive and unfair investigation into their lawmakers-elect. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: If the GNP refuses to return the members to the GNP, there will be a division and the possibility that Park will form a new party. This would effectively block Lee from having any majority of votes in the National Assembly. The tension mounts.) May 2008President Lee asks former rival to head ruling party -- Park Refuses (May 2008) Park Geun-hye, the former chairwoman of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) who met with President Lee Myung-bak over the weekend, requested reentry of all her supporters who bolted from the party after failing to win party tickets to run in last month's parliamentary elections. President Lee agreed to "sincerely deal" with the issue to heal the internal feud, presidential officials said.President Lee Myung-bak has proposed that his main rival from last year's presidential nomination race lead the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), in an apparent move to resolve a long-running dispute in the conservative camp, two high-ranking officials at the presidential office said 12 May. However, former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye rejected the proposal, the officials said, amid questions over how the party would handle Park's political allies, who quit the party ahead of the April parliamentary election and won more than 30 seats in the country's 299-member, unicameral National Assembly. The chairman of South Korea's ruling party on 12 May reiterated his resolve to veto the reinstatement of party defectors, widening the rift with the party's former chairwoman who wants their return. But the party's current leader, Kang Jae-sup, expressed discontent toward Park's continuing request, making clear that he will not take back the pro-Park group within his tenure, which will end in July, when the GNP is scheduled to elect a new leader. "I have my own principle," Kang told reporters on Monday. "The presidential office has not contacted me with any request on the matter." Supporters of Park bolted from the party and established a small conservative group amid an uproar over the nomination of candidates for the April 9 parliamentary elections. (Source: Yonhap News.) Park Issues Ultimatum to GNP (May 2008) Park Geun-hye has given an ultimatum to the governing party, indicating that she might leave the party unless her supporters are permitted to rejoin by the end of the month. Park said she would make a decision early next month if the GNP leadership does not allow her followers who won National Assembly seats in the April 9 elections to rejoin the party. Park did not specify what her decision would be. Her close aides, however, said all options are open and they would not rule out the possibility of her bolting from the GNP along with other supporters to form a new party. If the worst-case scenario occurs, the GNP will lose its majority status in the Assembly. The GNP has 153 lawmakers-elect out of 299, and 30 or more of them are categorized as pro-Park faction members. If several of them join her cause, the GNP will become just the leading party at the National Assembly, which will impede President Lee Myung-bak's reform drive, analysts said. The question remains as to why this is happening now and what options the former GNP chairwoman can exercise if her demands are not accepted. Rep. Park expects a reply before the 18th National Assembly starts its term next month. Park has reiterated that all her supporters outside the GNP, estimated to be 30 or more lawmakers-elect, should rejoin the party, but in a 10 May meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, President Lee showed an ambiguous stance. A close aide to the President said it would be difficult for the GNP to accept Park's demands, as it would result in a huge governing party controlling the parliament with 183 or more seats, nearly two-thirds of the elected members. If the GNP snubs her, political analysts say Park has a few cards to play. The first possible scenario is that she keeps her party membership but gives the go-ahead to her supporters outside the GNP to form a parliamentary negotiation group. The pro-Park group may attempt to work together with the opposition parties on major agenda items such as the import of U.S. beef. But a pro-Park negotiating group would not change parliamentary politics as the GNP would still have a majority. A nightmare scenario for President Lee and the GNP is that Park leaves the party with her supporters from inside the GNP to work with her 30 or more confidantes. If all or many of her followers join her cause, the GNP would no longer have an absolute majority. (Source: Korea Times.) GNP Defectors to Rejoin Party -- Maybe... (May 2008) A factional feud within the governing party showed signs of subsiding 14 May, as members of the party's decision-making Supreme Council agreed to positively consider allowing party defectors to rejoin the party. The mainstream faction consisting of followers of President Lee Myung-bak had opposed the rejoining of lawmakers-elect who left the party after failing to win the party's ticket to run in the April 9 parliamentary elections. The council members decided to admit the defectors, who are followers of former party Chairwoman Park Geun-hye, before the new National Assembly is inaugurated on June 1, said Cho Yoon-sun, spokeswoman of the party. GNP Chairman Kang Jae-sup also softened his position and agreed to allow Park's followers to rejoin the party before his term ends in July, she said. ``There were few differences over their rejoining. After the new floor leader is elected and overseeing procedures to inaugurate the new legislature, the party will decide the timing and scope of people to be admitted who fit the party's identity and regulations," Cho told reporters. But the council members differed over whether all of the defectors should be admitted at one time or not, party sources said. Some of them said they should be admitted on a selective basis, according to sources. (Source: Korea Times.) (SITE NOTE: There is no problem with those who were not selected by the GNP for election, but there is a problem with those that joined the Pro-Park party and were not with the GNP. These will have to apply for membership with the GNP. Note that the Supreme Council is only "considering" allowing the rejoin.) Reconcilliation or Tolerance? (May 2008) Former ruling party chief Park Geun-hye said on 21 May that she is willing to cooperate with President Lee Myung-bak to further national interests. In a meeting with South Korean reporters in Auckland, the ex-chairwoman of the ruling Grand National Party said she has remained steadfast in her stance on national interests, and is willing to help the embattled leader if it can help the country. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: Park Geun-hye is NOT supporting LMB -- only supporting the "national interests." The rift still exists.) GNP to Let 15 Pro-Park Defectors Back Into the Fold (Jun 2008) The ruling Grand National Party on Tuesday decided to reinstate the party membership of 15 defectors loyal to former chairwoman Park Geun-hye, including lawmakers Kim Moo-sung, Lee Hae-bong and Han Sun-kyo. A party committee "decided to reinstate former party members who defected after failing to win nominations for the parliamentary elections, whether they were elected to the 18th National Assembly or not, with immediate effect" GNP Secretary-General Kwon Young-se said on 10 Jun. As a result, a total of 11 lawmakers including pro-Park Coalition members such as Park Jong-keun, pro-Park independent lawmakers such as Kim Moo-sung, Lee Hae-bong and Han Sun-kyo, and independent lawmaker Kang Ghil-boo will be reinstated. The ruling party, which currently controls a slim majority of 153 seats in the 299-member unicameral legislature, will then hold at least 164 seats if the defectors accept. The Park loyalists said they will announce their position once the GNP reaches a final decision since it has not yet finished its screening process. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: This is not a done deal now that the GNP leadership has buckled during the current crisis over the anti-US beef agreement. This has led to instability and lack of support for LMB which will hurt the conservative cause. The problem is that the past GNP leadership is still in place and this is the area that irks the Park Geun-hee supporters.) Park Loyalists Admitted Back Into GNP Fold (Jul 2008) The ruling Grand National Party’s Supreme Council on 10 Jul decided unconditionally to reinstate loyalists to former chairwoman Park Geun-hye who defected before the general election. This will increase the GNP’s share of parliamentary seats from 153 to around 180, creating a giant ruling party. GNP Chairman Park Hee-tae said the council “decided to accept all members of the pro-Park alliance. I sincerely hope that with this opportunity, there will be no more talk about factions within the party, and the GNP will transform itself into a unified whole.” Park Geun-hye welcomed the decision. “It was the right thing to do, although it took some time,” she said. This will make the GNP the ruling party with the largest number of seats in the National Assembly since the Democratic Liberal Party, a coalition of three parties, in 1990, giving it not only a majority in plenary session of the National Assembly, but also enough seats to win a majority in all parliamentary committees. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) Yang Jeong-nye Investigation (May 2008) Prosecutors have started an investigation on Yang Jeong-nye, the 31-year-old woman who was given Pro-Park United’s No. 1 proportional seat in the National Assembly. Yang did not write in her candidacy application that she is married. Naturally, the property her husband owns was omitted. The Civil Servant’s Ethics Law requires candidates to report the property of spouses. If Yang is found to have falsely represented herself, it is a serious case that can cost her job at the National Assembly. At the heart of this mysterious case is whether Yang paid a huge amount of political money to get her nomination. As suspicions grew, it came out that she lied about once being head of the biggest political fan club for Park Geun-hye, and that she completed graduate studies in law at Yonsei University. Stories that her mother, the president of an enterprise, must have paid the party a “special membership fee” in exchange for her daughter’s seat, are spreading. Yang admitted that she paid a special party membership fee because the party called first when it was in financial need. The problem involves the distinction between a contribution to political funds during the nomination process and the special membership fee. According to Clause 2 of Article 47 of the election law, which came into effect just one month before the general elections, no one can accept or provide money to obtain a nomination. But an unknown young woman, the daughter of a rich businesswoman, got her nomination and her money was delivered to the party in the name of a special membership fee. But such a fee does not exist in party provisions. So prosecutors must investigate if that money was what she paid for her seat. During past authoritarian regimes, a special membership fee was another name for a political fund. Then, such contributions were overlooked to help the opposition party because all the money flowed into the ruling party. No one overlooks them anymore. (Source: Yonhap News.) Party head summoned for bribery questioning (May 2008) Convinced that Suh Chung-won was paid to make an unqualified 30-something a lawmaker, prosecutors summoned Suh, the head of the Pro-Park United Party, to appear at the investigator's office for questioning. Prosecutors said they think Kim Soon-ae, 58, paid Suh 1.7 billion won ($1.7 million) in exchange for a promise to secure a legislative seat for her daughter, Yang Jeong-nye. Yang received the No. 1 proportional seat from the party last month. In a press conference, Hong Sa-duk, a party member, said Suh will comply with the prosecutors' summons. But he complained that investigators are presenting the case as if the party leader has already been found guilty of receiving a bribe even before they question Suh. Prosecutors petitioned a Seoul Court to issue an arrest warrant for Kim. But the court refused to issue the warrant last night. The petition said Kim met with Suh alone at party headquarters in Yeouido on the afternoon of March 25. It was at this meeting, prosecutors allege, that an agreement was made between the two. On that night, the petition said, Suh met Kim's daughter for the first time and agreed to register her as the party's No. 1 proportional candidate. The next day, Yang made two payments to the party of a "special membership fee" and a "registration fee." Three more payments were made, totalling nearly 2 billion won. Investigators said Kim had earlier applied to the Liberty Forward Party for a nomination before approaching the Pro-Park United. Investigators said they found evidence that Kim wanted to become a candidate, but she turned in her daughter's resume at the last moment because of her criminal record. She had been on probation for bribing an attorney. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) Pro-Park Alliance bashes `political` prosecutors (May 2008) The leader of the Pro-Park Alliance embattled by the money-for-candidacy scandal 26 May stepped up his rhetoric against political prosecutors. "Due to the ruthless investigations, the nascent party has sustained even an existential crisis. We couldn't help exerting all our energy in protest against the unfair and unjust investigations," said Suh Chung-won in a news conference at the party headquarters in Seoul. He also pledged his party will make a fresh start with the start of the four-year tenure of the 18th National Assembly that begins 30 May. With the new parliament soon to be launched, we are set to renew our resolve to carry out the political mandate entrusted by the people, he said, referring to the party garnering 13 percent of the votes in the April legislative elections. Regarding the issue of the governing Grand National Party admitting the party's 13 lawmakers-elect, Suh said he will discuss the matter with lawmakers-elect and party seniors to seek a smooth solution. The party is a spin-off from the ruling party, which was formed after a big portion of GNP legislators, affiliated with former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye, failed to receive nominations. Three party figures, including the party chief, are under investigation. Kim Noh-sik, a lawmaker-elect by proportional representation, was arrested on 22 May on charges of offering 1.51 billon won to the party. His charges also include the embezzlement of about 20 billion won ($19.1 million) from a beverage company he headed, following the sale of company premises. On the same day, a local court rejected the arrest warrant for Kim Soon-ae, mother of lawmaker-elect Yang Jeong-rye for the second time, citing little possibility of her destroying evidence and fleeing. Yang's mother is purported to have wired about 1.7 billion won in loans and special membership fees to the partys bank account in late March, in order to place her daughter on top of the party roster. Kim also allegedly handed about 15 million won to Sohn Sang-yoon, a close aide to party leader Suh Chung-won, for introducing Kim to Suh. Suh is alleged to have used some of the allegedly illicit money in late March to pay part of his fine for accepting illegal donations during the 2002 presidential election campaign. (Source: Korea Herald.) GNP/UNP Group launches effort to revise Constitution (Jun 2008) Several dozen lawmakers want to amend the nation's constitution, changing the current single five-year presidential term to four years, with the possibility of re-election. Led by governing Grand National Party lawmaker Lee Ju-young, some 60 lawmakers are studying the issue. Lee said the group plans a nationwide tour to discuss the proposed amendment that lawmakers hope to turn to the National Assembly early next year. Among the lawmakers who are helping the effort are Lee Nak-yon of the United Democratic Party and Ahn Hong-joon of the GNP. Lee said the group will meet next Wednesday to launch the project. "Since the Constitution was revised in 1987, there have been many changes in Korean society," Lee said. "We need a constitutional amendment to adjust to those changes." The president's single five-year term in office was adopted as a device to end authoritarian rule that had controlled the nation for decades. But many experts have said the presidential term has outgrown its usefulness and that the country is ready to adopt a four-year presidential term that a candidate could win twice. Former president Roh Moo-hyun first suggested the idea in March 2007. But debate quieted down as national interest turned to the presidential election later in the year. (SEE Roh Moo-hyun) If such an amendment is passed, it would not apply to President Lee Myung-bak. To pass, two thirds of National Assembly lawmakers would have to agree to the amendment. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) Jun 2008Koreans Urge Opposition Parties to Stop Taking to the Streets (Jun 2008) More and more politicians are urging opposition lawmakers to join the normal operation of the National Assembly. First, the Liberty Forward Party (LFP), which had formed a coalition with the other two opposition parties in boycotting the legislature, decided yesterday to perform its legislative duty, a decision that is cracking the coalition’s fragile unity.In addition, the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) is hinting that it may talk with the United Democratic Party (UDP), the largest opposition party, in the near future. A slew of newly proposed bills designed to cope with rising oil prices and the slumping economy are awaiting the “final touches” of lawmakers. Furthermore, the entire Cabinet turned in their resignations, redirecting public attention to the National Assembly with criticism. According to a 10 Jun poll by a newspaper, seven out of 10 Koreans do not understand why the lawmakers of opposition parties are refusing to go back to work. At the same time, the ruling party is pushing them harder against the wall, citing the urgency of handling bills directly aimed at helping suffering Koreans. At a party meeting at the National Assembly, GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo stressed, “We urge the [opposition party] lawmakers to come back and handle the numerous urgent issues caused by high oil prices. That’s the only way Koreans can survive in the tumultuous economy.” GNP spokeswoman Cho Yun-sun added, “Koreans are suffering under the heavy burden of life. Opposition lawmakers should stop hollering slogans on the street. It’s not what our ancestors envisioned, fighting for democracy, years ago.” The LFP members agreed to carry out their duties as lawmakers, and push for the modification of the “American beef” deal through the legislature. LFP leader Lee Hoi-chang urged the other two parties to follow suit, saying, “I wish our comrades would discuss the issues in the National Assembly with us.” The decision seems to raise the leverage of the party as mediator of the standoff, and, at the same time, to cater to the growing demand by conservative Koreans for cooperation in the normal operation of the parliament. But the UDP, the key player, has not budged an inch from its current position. A UDP source said, “The GNP has not promised to scrap the current [American beef] deal, nor has it promised to discuss a new bill designed to prevent contagious diseases through animals. In this situation, we cannot meet with them. It doesn’t matter whether the LFP members attend the parliament. Everything depends on us in terms of organizing the National Assembly for a new term.” More and more UDP-friendly voices such as former President Kim Dae-jung and senior UDP member Chund Dae-chul are urging the party to cooperate in the normal operation of the legislative body. Another senior UDP member Chung Sye-kyun highlighted the need for more political dialog. A number of political commentators are predicting that all parties will sit at the table after a series of large-scale rallies scheduled to commemorate historic events including the first North-South summit are held. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) Opposition Parties Willing to Convene New Parliament (Jun 2008) In the wake of the largest nationwide candlelight vigil against U.S. beef imports on 10 Jun, both the ruling and opposition parties are moving to convene the new National Assembly. Following the minor conservative Liberty Forward Party's decision to convene parliament 9 Jun, the floor leader of the ruling Grand National Party will hold talks with his counterpart from the main opposition United Democratic Party on 12 Jun. (SITE NOTE: A two-hour meeting on 12 Jun between the two party whips ended without progress, officials said, as the liberal opposition held firm to its continuing boycott of the parliamentary session, which it has pledged to continue until the ruling party cooperates in revising Seoul's law on livestock epidemic.) The ruling party also agreed to a hearing on the revision of the livestock epidemic prevention law on condition that opposition parties convene parliament. "Party lawmakers want to join parliament," UDP Co-chairman Sohn Hak-kyu told a meeting of his party's Supreme Council. "Though the public welcomed our participation (in the candlelight protests), we also see that they want clear distinctions among civic society, political circles and political parties." GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo and UDP floor leader Won Hye-young agreed to hold their first meeting Thursday morning at the 18th National Assembly on resolving the beef issue and opening the new parliament. "We will discuss all pending issues including the selection of the parliamentary speaker and vice speaker, the formation of the National Assembly, and the beef issue when the floor leaders' meeting is held," Hong told The Dong-A Ilbo. Chief policy-makers of the GNP, UDP, LFP and the progressive Democratic Labor Party also agreed to hold a public hearing Friday morning (13 Jun) on the revision of the epidemic law. GNP chief policy-maker Lim Tae-hee told a meeting of the government and the ruling party on 11 Jun, "Opposition parties conveyed their willingness to open a public hearing on the beef issue. We`ll attend the hearing to come up with solutions together." Ruling and opposition parties, whose arguments have stalled the opening of the new National Assembly, say they are willing to conduct dialogue to resolve the problems due to the gravity of the situation. The ruling party apparently believes that if things in the administration go out of control, the party will also face a crisis. Opposition parties are also aware that if they continue to boycott parliament and delay measures to improve the people's livelihood, they, too, will face a public backlash. With the month-long candlelight rallies showing signs of turning violent and citizens feeling fatigue due to the prolonged protests, more voices are urging a return to normalcy and to let the government and politicians settle the issue. This has also driven parties to engage in dialogue rather than confrontation, experts said. The GNP suggested a trilateral policy meeting with the opposition and the government on improving the people's livelihood, but rejected the opposition demand that it pledge to revise the epidemic law first. This could pose yet another obstacle to opening the 18th National Assembly. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The LFP blinked first and the progressive parties are now sensing that this fiasco could backfire if they do not open the current session of the National Assembly. They will be blamed for everything if they do not concede. They haven't returned -- they only said they will talk...but they had better do it soon. There is a sense that the citizens are getting fed up.) Main opposition party in dilemma over Assembly boycott (Jun 2008) Woes appeared to be deepening for South Korea's main opposition party on 13 Jun, as an increasing number of citizens expressed disapproval toward the party's ongoing move to abandon its legislative duty and occupy the streets in protest against the impending resumption of U.S. beef imports. Up to 65 percent of South Korea's citizens are against the opposition party's boycotting of parliament, while a mere 20 percent are in favor of the move, polling group Research & Research said on 13 Jun, citing a survey of 800 adults nationwide. The telephone poll, conducted Wednesday under Yonhap News Agency's request, has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points at a confidence level of 95 percent. Three opposition parties, led by the United Democratic Party (UDP), have been boycotting the new parliament for nearly two weeks, joining nationwide street protests demanding complete renegotiation of an April 18 beef deal with Washington. South Korea will almost fully reopen its market to U.S. beef under the pact, which has fueled public outrage here. Nearly 80 percent of those who were against the opposition's boycott, however, were seen to be supporters of President Lee Myung-bak and his conservative party. The ruling Grand National Party has been striving to coax its rivals back to the parliament, emphasizing that substantial discussions on the beef imports can only be held within the Assembly. The paralysis in parliament is only one measure of the mounting tension here, with hundreds of thousands of citizens taking to the streets on Tuesday alone, demanding their government nullify and renegotiate the beef pact. On the surface, the main opposition UDP is holding firm on its position to continue the boycott of the parliamentary session until the ruling party cooperates in revising a local livestock epidemic law. Revision of the law would enable Seoul to legally ban imports of U.S. beef from cattle older than 30 months, which are deemed more vulnerable to mad cow disease, along with other specified risk materials. (SITE NOTE: But to do so would be for the GNP to back "renegotiation" of the agreement. This will never happen.) The government has pledged to make an effort to persuade Washington to make an additional agreement to restrict trading beef from older cattle, but opposition parties spurn the move as insufficient. Voices are increasing from party insiders, however, that it is time for the opposition to rejoin the parliament, as signs of public criticism are appearing. In an one-on-one meeting with ex-President Kim Dae-jung Wednesday, UDP leader Sohn Hak-kyu reportedly expressed his concerns over the issue. "I am seriously thinking over the issue (of joining the parliament) as former President Kim advised the party to do so immediately," Sohn told reporters after the meeting. "I am torn between whether to stay with the public in streets, or return to the parliament to serve the role as an opposition party member." (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: "To stay with the public in the streets" is misleading. The public has stated it wants the politicians OFF THE STREETS. On 13 Jun, the two parties floor leaders met over lunch and for two hours tried to work things out to no avail.) Opposition vows to continue Assembly boycott (Jul 2008) Partisan confrontation appeared to be worsening here on 2 Jul, as the main opposition party vowed to continue its boycott of the parliament and to join a weekend anti-U.S. beef protest. Seoul's newly-launched legislature has been paralyzed for over a month since May 30, with opposition parties boycotting the legislative sessions in protest against the Lee Myung-bak government's decision to resume imports of a wide range of American beef products. In a bid to coax its rival back to the parliament, the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) has accepted its request to amend a local law on animal epidemics and to launch a parliamentary investigation into the April beef deal. But the liberal United Democratic Party (UDP) appears to have decided the timing isn't right, amid a renewed public outcry against U.S. beef and a stricter police crackdown on protesters that led to over 100 people being injured last week alone. The party said most of its members will join a 5 Jul demonstration in Seoul at the request of protest organizers. "A majority of lawmakers believe that the party should in principle return to the parliament, but the timing is wrong," said an unnamed UDP lawmaker. "Now is the time to continue fighting alongside the public." The main opposition, however, has been spurning the new safeguards as insufficient, demanding the ruling party's cooperation in revising the local animal disease prevention law. Seoul will be able to legally block imports of beef from older cattle under the revision, but it could trigger trade disputes with Washington as such a move goes against the April 18 bilateral accord. Claiming that the parliament should no longer stay a "headless body," the GNP requested to hold a plenary session on 4 Jul to elect the new Assembly speaker. It vows to hold the session even if its rival does not participate. "Should the opposition party refuse to attend the July 4 session, the agreements made thus far will be nullified," the GNP's whip Hong Joon-pyo told reporters 2 Jul, implying the party might not keep its promise to cooperate in revising the animal epidemics law. Hong added, "We are not, however, saying that we will convene the parliament by ourselves. We will continue discussions with the opposition party on the remaining procedures." The paralyzation of the legislature is also crippling the government, with a planned Cabinet reshuffle on hold for the third straight week. All Cabinet members tendered their resignations on June 10 amid widespread public outrage over the resumption of U.S. beef imports. There can be no confirmation hearings for the replacement of ministers while the Assembly is deadlocked. Some 20 critical bills on ratification of a Seoul-Washington free trade deal and on government subsidies to offset soaring oil prices also remain pending. Seoul's new legislature was required by law to convene by June 5, seven days after the start of its four-year term. South Korea's parliament has failed to convene in accordance with law on only one other occasion in history. In 1996, the opposition party boycotted the opening session for over a month amid an uproar over the ruling party's alleged irregularities in the general elections. (Source: Yonhap News.) Parties Sit Idle in Over American Beef Imports (Jun 2008) The roles of the governing and opposition parties are not distinct in the government's decision to seek additional negotiations with the United States over the beef deal signed in April, political analysts say. Ordinary citizen-led anti-U.S. beef import campaigns have propelled the government to make efforts to fix the deal that irritated the public due to the risk of mad cow disease. Analysts say that a power struggle inside the governing Grand National Party (GNP) and the diminished role of the largest opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) might be two core factors explaining the disappearance of parliamentary politics in a key agenda facing the nation. A power struggle embroiled the governing party in a war of blame games over the source of President Lee Myung-bak's mismanagement of the nation. GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo warned in a strong tone Friday that party leaders would not sit idle if any lawmakers are attempting to destabilize the embattled President or the party with divisive words. Hong's warning was aimed at Rep. Chung Doo-un who initiated the power struggle by denouncing Rep. Lee Sang-deuk, President Lee's elder brother, in an interview about a week ago. Chung said Rep. Lee was deeply involved in filling out key government posts with ineligible figures. Rep. Lee dismissed the allegation, claiming he had never wielded his influence in the selection of Cabinet ministers as well as presidential secretaries. The feud became intense as a group of 20 lawmakers of the party, who were first elected to the National Assembly in the April 9 elections, joined the dispute. They called Chung a divider, claiming he should stop attempting to put the party as well as the President in peril with inappropriate comments lacking sufficient evidence. Chung reacted he would fight to the end to fix the malfunction of cronyism in key decision-making posts. Floor leader Hong intervened in the feud, and warned the two sides. ``Rep. Chung should stop producing divisive comments, and Rep. Lee also needs to be careful so that his demeanor or remarks do not cause unintended political results.'' GNP lawmakers said the fact that Lee is a brother of the President could cause people to spurn unnecessary speculation of his motive and demeanor. The UDP, meanwhile, is dealing with a formidable challenge of its diminished role in crucial national agendas such as the deal to resume imports of U.S. beef. ``We need to know that there are people raising skepticism of the role the opposition party has played in the key issues. The people expected us to have taken the initiative in settling the political deadlock, but we didn't,'' said UDP Co-chairman Sohn Hak-kyu Friday. Previously, a main opposition party was regarded as an active player in organizing political rallies and campaigns in an attempt to get what they wanted by mobilizing the public. But this time, the role of the largest opposition UDP was extremely limited in addressing the beef issue, which was instead replaced by grass-root citizens, having arranged the protests through the Internet and mobile phones, observers said. (Source: Korea Times.) President at Crossroads (Jun 2008) President Lee Myung-bak is in a big trouble. But the bigger question for the 67-year-old head of state and for the nation is whether the self-described CEO of Korea Inc. can turn the crisis around and make a ``fresh start'' as he vowed Wednesday morning. ``I am determined to make a fresh start,'' Lee told small business representatives at Cheong Wa Dae, adding that he had mixed feelings while watching on television the massive candlelit protest against his decision to renew U.S. beef imports. (SITE NOTE: Speaking to a group of businessmen at his office, Mr. Lee, himself a former student activist imprisoned by the country's former military regime, gave his first comment on the massive rally against his four-month-old government that brought at least 100,000 people into the streets of Seoul on Tuesday. Many student protesters called Mr. Lee authoritarian and the president appeared to have understood the irony. "As a former participant in pro-democracy student movement myself, I had many thoughts watching yesterday's demonstration," Mr. Lee was quoted as saying by his office. "My government intends to have a new beginning with a new resolution." (Source: NY Times.)) However eagerly the head of an administration that is less than four months in office wants to start anew, there is a near consensus among Lee's detractors and supporters that his top priority should be to listen to what is generally said to be wrong with his government. Although the biggest act of civil disobedience in 20 years, culminating in the candlelit protest Tuesday night, was triggered by Lee's decision to open up markets to U.S. beef, it was preceded by a string of moves that alienated friends and strengthened foes. On the political front, Lee is under the long shadow of his elder brother and six-term lawmaker, Rep. Lee Sang-deuk of the governing Grand National Party, who is accused of acting as a regent behind the scenes by having his proteges appointed to key posts in the chain of command and clouding the President's judgment. This triggered a backlash among President Lee's inner-circle members. Lately Rep. Chung Do-un, a close aide to Lee since he was Seoul mayor, openly claimed that the elder Lee ``remote-controlled'' state affairs through his subordinates. Chung said one of those who serve as the elder Lee's subordinates was Park Young-joon, who was nicknamed the ``king of presidential secretaries.'' Park was later fired, but others still remain. Another big problem that disillusioned the public were the people President Lee selected for the Cheong Wa Dae secretariat and the Cabinet. Many of the appointees were wealthy and knew President Lee through attendance at the same church. In addition, the appointments of two ministers were withdrawn due to questions related to improper real estate dealings. Seoul Shallow in Understanding Trade Deal Then came Lee's decision to resume U.S. beef imports. Korea made a major concession to provide unprecedented domestic market access to U.S. beef in April. The deal came during Lee's visit to Washington, raising suspicions that Korean negotiators went out of their way to accommodate U.S. demands in order to smooth the first meeting between Lee and President George W. Bush. Protests started on a small scale first and then became bigger. The Lee administration defended the deal, ignoring the public demand for renegotiations. Then it peaked Tuesday night. On that night, frustrated Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun made a surprise appearance in front of protestors in downtown Seoul to make an apology but was booed and jeered at by the crowd. Amid constant demand for renegotiating the deal, Cheong Wa Dae now seems to have turned to a strategy of seeking to induce voluntary restrictions from both countries on trading beef from animals 30 months or older. A local lawyer said the action was inappropriate for a government, saying it shows Seoul's shallow understanding of trade negotiations. ``The whole agreement is about enforcing statutory order here,'' said Song Ki-ho, a member of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society. ``It doesn't make any sense at all for the government to depend on self-regulation.'' Surveys showed Lee's support rate plummeting to below 20 percent at the fastest ground-losing pace in the country's modern history. The failure is in line with the government's bureaucratic approach to the issue, which failed to make the public listen to arguments on the safety of U.S. beef as well as Lee's apology later. Before the beef talks began on April 11, the government maintained the standpoint it would not accept beef from cattle older than 30 months without stricter U.S. restrictions on animal feed. The fruitless weeklong talks, however, reached an agreement suddenly, just 11 hours before Lee arrived at Camp David to meet with Bush. Details of the agreement showed huge concessions from South Korea's initial demands, practically allowing full access to the Korean market. Washington made a notification of its revised animal feed policy that allowed that made from brain or spinal cord from cattle younger than 30 months old was allowed to be used. Seoul, not only mistranslated that part, but announced it had accomplished having U.S. policy ``intensified.'' Some earlier remarks from the President fueled public anger rather than cooled it down. Soon after the agreement, Lee enraged the general public by saying, ``those who don't like U.S. beef simply won't eat it.'' Even in his televised speech on May 22, Lee said it was regrettable the government was unable to pool public views sufficiently before striking the deal, but did not admit any defects in the deal process, only mentioning that he was ``embarrassed to see the groundless fears of mad cow disease spreading.'' (Source: Korea Times.) South Korea's Leader Vows to Make New Start (Jun 2008) South Korean president Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday pledged to "restart" his fledgling administration following protests that began over a decision to allow the importation of U.S. beef but broadened into a backlash against the president himself. In his first comments on demonstrations that drew tens of thousands of people into the streets of central Seoul and other South Korean cities on Tuesday, Lee told a group of business leaders that he would "restart the government with renewed resolve" in an effort to regain public support. He indicated, however, that he would not accept the resignations offered by top government officials on Tuesday (10 Jun) -- at least not all of them. Lee's entire cabinet offered to resign in order to take responsibility for the beef dispute and to take heat off the president, who has been in office less than four months. Lee, in comments reported in the South Korean media Wednesday morning, said that people had expressed concern to him that accepting all of the resignations would create a "vacuum" in leadership. "We will not make any vacuum in the governance," Lee said. But it remains unclear whether individual cabinet members will be allowed to step down, or whether Lee plans other changes in hopes of defusing public opposition to his government. "I thought about a lot of things while watching protests last night," Lee said, according to local media reports. The crowd in Seoul, chanting "Out with President Lee" and wearing stickers that made Lee look like a rat, included office workers, parents with children, college students and members of labor groups. "It is too late to soothe the public with lip service, and even fixing the beef issue is too late," said Lee Hong-taek, 33, a gaming software specialist, who joined the protest after work. "The real question is his leadership style." Police said 70,000 people protested in Seoul, while organizers put the number at 700,000. Local media estimates ranged from 400,000 to 600,000. There were no reports of clashes between protesters and police, as there were in demonstrations this spring. Despite repeated assurances from Lee's government and the United States, many South Koreans continue to fear that U.S. beef will infect them with mad cow disease. But people in the streets here are also angry about what they call Lee's arbitrary way of making major decisions, his tone-deaf response to public opinion and his choices of rich and, in some cases, unsavory business leaders for senior position in his government. "The president must realize that this is a very serious situation," said Kim Hyung-suk, 60, owner of an after-school institute. "If he does not listen even now, then the next step is to demand that he steps down." Soaring oil prices have also soured the public mood, and truckers voted Monday to go on strike for cheaper fuel, even after Lee's government offered a $10.2 billion package of aid that would provide some subsidies for gasoline and diesel fuel. The offer by his entire cabinet to resign may give Lee an opportunity to appease populist anger, rebuild his government and recast his image. The 66-year-old former construction company executive has stumbled badly in his first 107 days in office. After winning election last fall by the largest margin in the country's history, his approval ratings have fallen to less than 20 percent. In April, Lee stunned many South Koreans by lifting a 4 1/2 -year ban on U.S. beef that was put in place after a dairy cow in Washington state was confirmed as the first case of mad cow disease in the United States. After his poll numbers collapsed and as street demonstrations gathered support, Lee changed course last week and reimposed part of the beef ban. But that has done little to appease protesters. Their anger has been embraced and magnified by labor groups and by the opposition party that Lee's Grand National Party defeated in last year's presidential election and again in a parliamentary election this spring. In a statement Tuesday (10 Jun), the United Democratic Party demanded that Lee renegotiate the beef agreement with the United States. "President Lee Myung-bak's arrogance and self-flattery are reversing the development of democracy in Korea," the party said. Late Tuesday, about 500 students turned up in front of the ruling party building and threw raw eggs. In comments posted Wednesday (11 Jun) on the Yonhap News Agency Web site, a South Korean trade official said further talks with the United States will "clarify" the existing deal -- including a request by the South Koreans that the United States not sell beef from animals more than 30 months old. But the official said the deal itself was not up for renegotiation. A presidential spokesman did not say whether Lee would accept the resignations of Prime Minister Han Seung-soo and 15 cabinet ministers. But local media have speculated that this week Lee is likely to jettison his agriculture, health and education ministers, and perhaps his foreign and finance ministers. Tuesday's (10 Jun) demonstrations, which took place in more than 70 cities and towns, came on the 21st anniversary of a pivotal event in South Korea's young history as a democracy. Street protests that began on this day in 1987 pushed the government, then dominated by the military, to accept a shift to a government led by a directly elected president. In the streets of Seoul on Tuesday, many protesters complained that Lee's top-down style of decision-making reminded them of the bad old days of military rule. "Koreans no longer will tolerate that," said Hyun Deok-soo, who said he was the chairman of a workers' union. (Source: Washington Post.) Lee Replaces Key Secretaries (Jun 2008) President Lee Myung-bak replaced all seven presidential secretaries on 20 Jun, including his chief of staff, in the hope of regaining some of his lost public support. The shakeup came one day after he made a second apology to the people for his ``missteps.'' ``It is unusual to replace all presidential secretaries so early in an administration. However, President Lee's plunge in public support over the past several months is unprecedented, even by the standards of Korea's often volatile politics,'' said Andy Jackson, a professor at Ansan College. Lee appointed Chung Chung-kil, president of Ulsan University, as the new chief of staff, while retaining spokesman Lee Dong-kwan. Chung, born in Haman, South Gyeongsang Province in 1942, is a renowned scholar in public administration. He served as graduate school president at Seoul National University in 2001 and 2002. It had been speculated that Lee would appoint a ``politician'' to the post, but he chose a professor again despite criticism that secretaries from the non-political sector have failed to understand what the people really wanted. Lee's first Chief of Staff Yu Woo-ik and all of the seven top aides offered to resign June 6 to take responsibility for the ``faulty'' U.S. beef import deal. Michael Breen, president of Insight Communications Consultants in Seoul, said replacing senior presidential secretaries was ``an attempt, along with other measures by the President, to overcome the current crisis and regain the popular support." He noted that it is indeed possible that these recent measures -- the Presidential apology; the firing of senior Blue House secretaries; and the Cabinet reshuffle, will be effective. But these measures alone will not work, Breen observed. The President will also need to show the public that there has been ``a meaningful renegotiation'' in the beef import agreement, he said. If the President has all these pieces together, ``then the whole issue may finally die down." Breen said that given the nature and depth of the protests, a Cheong Wa Dae personnel reshuffle may have been appropriate. ``The reshuffle may work. But it's unfortunate because the Blue House staff are not really at fault,'' he said. Breen also added that the new arrangement could hurt the administration in the long run. ``If the President can fire the chief of staff to improve his approval ratings, that can weaken the reputation and the authority of senior presidential secretaries. And that's unfortunate. ``In fact, I am sure President Lee himself feels it's unfortunate that he has to fire them.'' Lee's biggest problem was that he failed to effectively communicate with the public. ``He needs to clearly state his policy goals and how he plans to achieve them, even if they are not popular.'' Dealing with disagreement over a policy is almost never as bad as dealing with the public fears based on rumors, he added. Hiring new Cabinet members and presidential secretaries will only help if they can demonstrate that they are more public relations savvy and can assist Lee overcome his own communications problem. Analysts have said that with over four-and-a-half years left in his term, Lee will have a National Assembly that has a large majority of conservatives and should concentrate his efforts on dealing with bread-and-butter issues for now and return to his reform agenda as the political situation stabilizes. Kim Sung-hwan, 55, incumbent second vice minister for foreign affairs, was appointed as the senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and national security. Pahk Jae-wan, the senior presidential secretary for political affairs, was replaced by Maeng Hyung-kyu, 62, a former TV anchorman and third-term legislator of the governing Grand National Party (GNP). However, Pahk, 62, will not leave Cheong Wa Dae. Lee reassigned him as the senior presidential secretary for state affairs planning to replace Kwak Seung-joon. The President named Woori Financial Group Chairman Bahk Byong-won, who served as a vice finance minister under the Roh Moo-hyun administration, as the senior presidential secretary for economic policy. Park Hyung-joon, 48, was designated as the senior secretary for public relations in state affairs, a new post aimed at effective media policy. Spokesman Lee and Park worked on the presidential transition committee between December and February. Kang Yoon-koo, 57, a former health-welfare vice minister and Chung Tong-ki, 55, will be in charge of social policy and civil affairs, respectively. The President also replaced Lee Joo-ho with Hanyang University professor Cheong Jean-gon, 58, in the post of senior presidential secretary for education, science and culture. Many opposition lawmakers stressed the reshuffle cannot be a fundamental solution for the normalization of the Lee administration. They said the beef ``renegotiation'' with Washington to regain ``quarantine sovereignty'' would be the right answer. President Lee is expected to conduct the Cabinet reshuffle next week. (Source: Korea Times.) Drive for Constitutional Change Gains Momentum (Jun 2008) (SEE Roh Moo-hyun for details on his attempt to bring this up during the waning days of his lame-duck presidency.) Approximately a third of legislators have joined the drive to revise the Constitution so far, particularly in the area of the presidential system which has remained intact since 1987. Despite the widely shared agreement on the need for fundamental change in the power structure, no agreement has been made about how the law should be modified. According to a parliamentary group, dubbed ``Lawmakers Concerned With the Constitution," the number of its members has increased to 99 out of 299 National Assemblymen since it was created on June 12. A group of former lawyers and judges, including Reps. Lee Ju-young and Na Kyung-won of the governing Grand National Party (GNP), are seeking to make the initiative to revise the Constitution viable. Legislators of the opposition parties have also joined the move. Over the past weeks, the lawmakers completed two rounds of seminars to look into the positive and negative sides of the presidential system and allowing a President to seek reelection, which is prohibited under the current law. A third round of debates is scheduled to take place next week. Members of the group said their goal is to wrap up the constitutional debate by June 2010 before local elections take place. Rep. Lee, who heads the group, said, ``Considerable social changes have taken place over the past two decades, but the current Constitution has not been responsive to the transformation.'' GNP Chairman Kang Jae-sup, several senior lawmakers of the main opposition United Democratic Party and Liberty Forward Party leader Lee Hoi-chang also shared the need for change in the presidential system, claiming the president is overly empowered under the current law. Party leaders, lawmakers and academics expressed that a strong president tends to be a promoter of top-down politics, setting up obstacles to the free flow of communication between political leaders and the public over national agendas. Despite the shared view, the question of how to revise the system still being debated among parliamentary leaders. Some lawmakers call for a parliamentary system as an alternative power structure to replace the current presidential system in an attempt to enhance checks and balances, while others say that an incumbent President should be entitled to seek reelection as a measure to improve accountability. As for the division, the group said it would keep all options open and campaign for the need for constitutional revision until the year's end so that a referendum to confirm the revision can take place next year at the earliest. The group plans to review several options first that are seen to supplement the drawbacks of the current presidential system in following sessions, and conclude which option could fit after discussions with legal experts and academics. The law stipulates that two-thirds (200) of legislators should vote for the drive for constitutional revision to make a referendum take place. Once the vote gets approval in the legislative body, the nation goes to the polls in a referendum. (Source: Korea Times.) July 2008Pres. Lee's Partial Cabinet Reshuffle Disappoints (Jul 2008) President Lee Myung-bak on 7 Jul conducted a partial reshuffle of the Cabinet, eliciting disappointment from the public, the main opposition and even his ruling Grand National Party. Ahn Byong-man, chairman of the Presidential Council for National Future and Vision, was appointed education, science and technology minister. Jang Tae-pyong, former chief of a state anti-corruption panel, was nominated to take over the Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry and ruling party lawmaker Jeon Jae-hee the Health, Welfare and Family Affairs Ministry. President Lee also designated Supreme Court Justice Kim Hwang-sik as chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection. ChungAng University professor Kim Dae-mo will head the Presidential Commission on Labor, Management and Government. Vice Strategy and Finance Minister Choi Joong-kyung was replaced with his deputy Kim Dong-su. Ambassador to Israel Shin Gak-soo was named vice foreign affairs and trade minister. Sun Moon University Vice President Kim Jeong-ki was nominated educational adviser to the presidential office. Min Bong-ki, head of the administrative officials association of Incheon, was named honorary governor of Hwanghae Province in North Korea. Honorary professor Han Won-taek of Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul added the title of honorary governor of South Hamkyong Province, also in the North. President Lee retained the rest of his Cabinet, including Prime Minister Han Seung-soo who was rumored to be on the chopping block.The partial reshuffle was a letdown to both the opposition and ruling parties, with both sides warning that the administration will struggle to assuage the public, discuss the opening of parliament and conduct confirmation hearings. The opposition said the reshuffle was nothing more than empty rhetoric ringing hollow in the face of the candlelight protests, despite the administration’s pledge to reflect the public’s demands in conducting the shakeup. Spokeswoman Cha Young of the main opposition Democratic Party said, “It seems like the administration has forgotten the crisis after [the Cabinet] offered to resign en masse. The self-serving and arrogant reshuffle clearly failed to meet public expectations.” A ruling party lawmaker from the Gyeongsang provinces, the party’s support base, also said, “The party demanded a major reshuffle through direct and indirect channels but our request was clearly not reflected.” Former ruling party lawmaker Kim Deog-ryong was also named special adviser for national unity; former chief of the daily Hankook Ilbo Lee Sung-joon special adviser for press and cultural affairs; and former POSTECH President Park Chan-mo special adviser for science and technology. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) Hundreds of investors file claims in alleged stock manipulation case against UDP Lawmaker (Jul 2008) The biggest indemnity lawsuit concerning a stock manipulation case in Korea is looming, and the defendant in the case is a lawmaker. As of 11 Jul, 939 investors had filed individual indemnity suits worth 44.2 billion won ($44.2 million) against Jeong Kuk-kyo, a proportional lawmaker with the United Democratic Party, and his company H&T, according to Hannuri Law and Hankyul, law firms in charge of the case. A spokeswoman for Hannuri Law said 359 people filed a lawsuit worth 16.1 billion won in total yesterday. It was the second suit filed through Hannuri after 302 people filed a 16.3-billion-won suit on June 10. A spokeswoman for Hankyul said yesterday that 278 people recently filed a suit worth 11.8 billion won. The Hankyul spokeswoman said another suit worth around 3 billion won will be filed by around 100 people on 11 Jul. That will lift the total amount of the claim to 47.2 billion won. More investors are likely to join the suit, according to the law firms. Kim Kwang-joong, a Hankyul lawyer in charge of the case, said a third suit is under consideration. “Many investors are showing interest in joining the suit, so we are considering filing another one,” Kim said. Previously, indemnity suits filed in stock manipulation schemes in Korea amounted to less than 10 billion won. Jeong has been indicted on charges that he earned around 50 billion won by inflating share value in an illicit way. Jeong said in regulatory filing in February 2007 that H&T planned to develop a silicon mine in Uzbekistan. The stock price rose more than 2,000 percent from 3,880 won on Feb. 27 2007 to 89,700 won on Oct. 8 2007. The price later plummeted after Jeong sold 400,000 shares in October 2007. It closed at 2,990 won on 11 Jul. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) Arrest Warrant Sought for Seoul Metropolitan Council Head (Jul 2008) Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Sunday that it will seek an arrest warrant for Kim Gui-hwan, 59, chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council and GNP member, for bribing fellow council members to be elected for the chairmanship. Policy said Kim gave 1 million won each to about 30 city council members in early April, ahead of the chairperson election. Kim admitted he offered the money. But he insisted that the money was provided to help council members care for their electoral districts, but not to entice them to vote for him, according to the police. A police official said he is considering indicting Kim on charges of bribery and the violation of the Political Fund Law. Police also plan to book 30 council members who received a bribe without physical detention. “We are also investigating two more GNP members on suspicion of receiving bribes from Kim.” (Source: Korea Times.) The scandal led the Seoul council to cancel ceremonies to inaugurate the second half of its term which had been slated for 14 Jul. The UDP and DLP parties are calling for the resignation of the new chairman and other city councilors from the GNP who were involved in the scandal. Of the 106 council members, 100 are from the GNP. Only six belong to the Democratic and the Democratic Labor parties. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) August 2008Lawmakers not Above the Law (Aug 2008) The Civic Council for a Righteous Society will file an indemnity suit with the Seoul Central District Court Thursday against 251 lawmakers for unfairly receiving salaries for June. It argues that those lawmakers have violated the National Assembly Law by failing to form a single standing committee, though the 18th National Assembly was officially inaugurated on May 30.Each assemblyman was paid 9.01 million won last month. Factoring in 11 million won of subsidy for assembly activities and 23 million of salaries for aides, each lawmaker received over 43 million won. The combined expenses for all 251 lawmakers came to a whopping 10.8 billion won. “Of a total of 299 parliamentarians, we plan to lodge a lawsuit against 251 lawmakers, excluding 48 lawmakers who have either returned their salaries or were already sued last month,” said Lee Min-jeong of the group. “The return of taxpayers’ money is important, but what is equally so is that lawmakers are made aware that idling parliament constitutes a law violation.” Some are lashing out at lawmakers for breaking laws instead of making them. They say many lawmakers in the 18th National Assembly have breached not only the National Assembly Law by causing parliamentary disruption but also the Law on Assembly and Demonstration by joining candlelight vigil protests. Article 5 of the National Assembly Law stipulates that the first extraordinary National Assembly session should open seven days after the new parliament officially begins its term. In effect, however, the 18th National Assembly belatedly started its operation on July 10, 41 days after the date, June 5, mandated by the law. Article 48 of the National Assembly Law specifies that the head of each floor negotiation group should request the National Assembly Speaker to appoint standing committee members within two days after the first day of the first extraordinary National Assembly session. Even if the first day of the session is considered to be July 10, the forming of standing committees should have been completed by July 12. The nation’s lawmakers have also failed to abide by Article 41 of the National Assembly Law that requires electing chairpersons of each committee within three days after the National Assembly is first convened. Lawmakers’ unlawful acts aren’t confined to the normal operation of the parliament. Under Article 147 of the law, a member of the National Assembly isn’t allowed to interrupt another member’s remarks. But the special parliamentary committee on the beef issue turned into chaos when lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties barked at each other. Though the National Assembly was asked to hold confirmation hearings for a newly appointed Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection and three ministry nominees, it has yet to form special committees for the hearings. This also constitutes violations of the National Assembly Law and a law governing confirmation hearings. Lawmakers from both the Democratic Party and the Democratic Labor Party have infringed the Law on Assembly and Demonstration by participating in illegal candlelight rallies. Some of them are even said to have assaulted riot police. Many point out that lawmakers’ ill-conceived perception that they are the privileged few and the insufficient punitive measures against them are largely attributable to their repeated law-breaking. Though the National Assembly Law clearly mandates the investigation of lawmakers’ ethics and punishment, among 39 cases that were referred to the ethics committee in the 17th National Assembly, all cases, except for 10, were dismissed and automatically canceled when the term of the 17th National Assembly ended. Against this backdrop, voices are growing that additional punitive measures are necessary. The Civic Council for a Righteous Society is seeking to create a clause that bars lawmakers from being paid allowances. Officials in the group argue that lawmakers should be paid only when they are assigned to standing committees. The New Right National Union is also pushing to raise public awareness about the need for tougher punishment against lawmakers who breach laws. “The role of the National Assembly doesn’t end with the enactment of legislation …. Upholding various laws – including the National Assembly Law that governs the operation of parliament – is their basic duty,” stressed Kim Yeong-rae, a politics professor at Ajou University. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) Politics as Usual (Aug 2008)
With President Lee Myung-bak's approval, the Ministry of Justice on 4 Sep said it has asked the National Assembly to consent to the arrest of Renewal of Korea Party Chairman Moon Kook-hyun and Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Jae-yun. The house speaker must put the motion on agenda at the first full session after the National Assembly receives the ministry's motion and make a decision within 72 hours. The session must be attended by a majority of the lawmakers, and will be decided by simple majority. Moon is charged with receiving W600 million (US$1=W1,129) from party member Lee Han-jeong in return for a seat on the party list. Kim is charged with receiving about W300 million in return for his promise to help obtain license for the establishment of a foreign hospital. Lawmakers are immune from arrest during the parliamentary session, so prosecutors must obtain house approval if they want to arrest them. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The government failed to get National Assembly approval to arrest Moon Kook-hyun and Kim Jae-yun. Legislators failed to put the motions to a vote, which must be done within 72 hours of submission. While the ruling Grand National Party was keen to vote, opposition parties were opposed, accusing the prosecution of a biased investigation. The GNP vowed another try at tomorrow’s plenary session while opposition parties said there was “no chance” of the motion succeeding. Yonhap) The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on 7 Oct indicted Moon Kook-hyun, head of the Creative Korea Party, over allegations that his party sold a proportional legislative seat on the eve of the April elections. The prosecution said it had no choice but to go ahead and prosecute Moon without questioning him directly because he had ignored nine summonses sent since April, and the statute of limitations expires tomorrow. The prosecutors said they also failed to arrest Moon because the National Assembly did not grant the necessary permission to do so. Suwon prosecutors have handed over the results of their investigation to the Seoul prosecutors. According to prosecutors, Creative Korea Representative Lee Han-jung is suspected of having paid 600 million won ($448,598) to the party to secure his position. Moon and another party official in charge of party finances allegedly took the money. Last month, Lee was found guilty of violating election law and sentenced to three years in prison. He appealed the conviction. The Creative Korea Party official was convicted of receiving the money and sentenced to eight months. He also appealed. Moon has emphasized clean politics since he was a presidential candidate and has denied the allegations. He is the third party chairman to face indictment on charges of election law violation during this session of the National Assembly. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) October 2008Public Companies Gave Free Housing to Staff (Oct 2008) Five subsidiaries under the Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Ministry have been found to have used tax money of 380 billion won (310 million U.S. dollars) to provide employees with free housing. They borrowed housing units for employees under their company names after being told by the Board of Audit and Inspection not to provide public employees with interest-free housing loans. Lawmaker Huh Cheon of the ruling Grand National Party obtained reports on this matter from Korea National Housing Corp., Korea Expressway Corp., Korea Water Resources Corp., Korea Land Corp. and Korean Airport Corp. The five spent 386.7 billion won (316 million U.S. dollars) to provide 5,091 apartments to staff for free. The housing company used the most units with 1,389 (deposit of 115.2 billion won), followed by the expressway corporation with 1,275 units (79.6 billion won); the water corporation 1,105 units (78.6 billion won); the land corporation with 1,045 units (96.4 billion won); and the airport corporation with 277 units (16.9 billion won). Every married employee of the five companies was offered a free apartment as “rented residential housing.” Single employees were allowed to share a unit with two or three other employees. As for the water corporation, if the deposit money in certain areas exceeded the housing loan limit of 85 million won, the company offered an additional loan with the lowest annual interest of two percent and served as a joint sponsor under the joint names policy. (Source: Donga Ilbo.)Democrats under fire with new bribe case (Oct 2008) As the series of corruption probes into members of the opposition Democratic Party grows, prosecutors have announced that they are currently investigating Kim Min-seok, a member of the DP supreme council. Kim, 44, discovered on 2 Oct that he was being investigated, and that he has been under a travel ban since Sept. 18, when he tried to visit the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea with other members of his party and was barred from leaving the country. The Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office said Kim is suspected of receiving hundreds of millions of won in bribes from an unnamed businessman. Prosecutors said they have evidence and that they will soon summon Kim for questioning. "It is groundless. I think I became a target because I criticized the bribery scandal related to GNP members of the Seoul Metropolitan Council this summer," said Kim. "I haven't engaged in political activities for the past few years, so I had no reason to receive bribes. I can't understand the current investigation." Three years ago, Kim was convicted of receiving an illegal donation of 200 million won ($163,465) from the chairman of SK before the 2002 Seoul mayoral election. He was put on probation for two years. Meanwhile, nerves are jangling in the main opposition party as prosecutors launch more and more investigations into DP members and pro-Roh Moo-hyun politicians. The investigations began in early September with the arrest of DP lawmaker Kim Jae-yun, 42, of Seogwipo, Jeju Island, on charges of taking 300 million won in bribes. Lawmaker Lee Kwang-gae, 43, and Roh aide Lee Byung-wan, 54, who are both known to be close to the former president, are also on the investigation list. The lawmaker is allegedly involved in creating a 6.8 billion won slush fund for a construction company to lobby the Kangwon Land casino resort. The other Lee is suspected of embezzlement. Other DP lawmakers Baek Won-woo, 42, Byun Jae-il, 60, and Cho Jeong-sik, 45, were all recently indicted for violating election law. Permanent DP adviser Chyung Dai-chul, 64, will be also summoned next week on allegations he was bribed to influence the state-owned Korea National Oil Corporation. "We expected aggressive investigations, but this is too harsh," said DP member Song Young-gil. "It is clearly a targeted investigation and an abuse of power." (Source: Donga Ilbo.) Roh-Era Remnants Still Refusing to Go (Oct 2008) Some 26 chiefs and auditors of agencies appointed by the previous government are refusing to heed government calls to resign, flaunting a Korean tradition that sees a mass exodus of senior civil servants whenever there is a change of government. A list submitted by Cheong Wa Dae to the ruling Grand National Party recently shows four chiefs of agencies appointed by the Roh Moo-hyun administration are refusing to step down. They are Arts Council Korea Chairman Kim Jung-heun, Korea Culture & Content Agency President Ko Suk-man, Korea Press Foundation Chairman Park Rae-boo, and Korean Film Archive Director Cho Sun-hee. However, Park has expressed his intention to resign by the end of October. Among auditors at various agencies, five former presidential secretaries or officials are refusing to resign. Eight officials who were members of the former ruling Uri Party are also still working at various organizations. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The enemy within. The protectors of the left-leaning agendas still are a thorn in LMB's side. The next question should be -- Are these positions or committees necessary?) Voting Rights for Overseas Koreans from 2012 (Oct 2008) The National Election Commission has decided to give Korean expatriates the opportunity to vote in general and presidential elections beginning 2012. The NEC on Wednesday submitted suggestions for the revision of election laws to the National Assembly. Under the plans, Korean nationals temporarily staying overseas and those with permanent residence in foreign countries will be eligible to vote in general and presidential elections or national referendums. Those with foreign citizenship are not eligible. Of the 160 countries with Korean diplomatic missions, 101 missions in countries with more than 500 Koreans will set up polling booths, and the other 59 will conduct votes by mail. Meanwhile, foreigners married to Koreans will be granted the right to vote in local elections, a privilege already available to foreign nationals with permanent residence in Korea since 2006, but not in general or presidential elections. The Constitutional Court in June last year ruled that denying such rights to Koreans residing overseas is unconstitutional. The law must therefore be revised by the end of this year, and politicians will soon hold talks about the NEC suggestions and each party's revision bill in a parliamentary ad hoc committee. An NEC official said there are some 3 million Korean expatriates, about 80 percent or 2.4 million adults with voting rights. If only about half of them take part in voting, they can be an important variable in neck-and-neck races. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) Rice Subsidy Scandal Jolts Officialdom (Oct 2008) The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) is seeking a full-fledged National Assembly investigation into the revelation that 40,000 public employees and 6,000 public company workers pocketed state subsidies planned for rice producers last year. A sweeping shakeup may hit the officialdom as the ruling and opposition parties have pledged strong action to discipline the ``corrupt'' officials, while the Lee Myung-bak administration is moving quickly to clarify the allegations. The controversy grew on 15 Oct when two incumbent lawmakers of the governing Grand National Party (GNP), Kim Sung-hoi and Kim Hak-yong, were found to have taken the rice subsidy, even though they were not eligible. Reports show there could be more lawmakers who abused the flawed subsidy system to take illegal gains. The government has provided a subsidy to small-income rice producers since the government opened the rice market wider in 2005 in line with international trade agreements. The owners of rice paddies can receive the subsidy only when they actually produce rice, otherwise the money should be given to tenant farmers who actually grow the rice. According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, 170,000 of the 998,000 people who received the subsidies in 2006 were not farmers. Of them, about 40,000 were listed as civil servants, while 6,200 others were employees of public corporations. Non-farmers received 168.3 billion won ($135.7 million) in 2006, more than 10 percent of the total rice subsidy of 1.62 trillion won given that year. President Lee faces growing calls to dismiss Lee Bong-hwa, vice minister of health, welfare and family affairs, one of the high-ranking officials implicated in the scandal. President Lee has often vowed to establish the rule of law and deal strictly with corrupt officials. ``Lee instructed government offices to look into all suspicions about the rice subsidies in a prompt and strict manner,'' Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said. ``An initial investigation showed there are no ministers or presidential secretaries who had taken, or applied for the subsidy.'' The case is now snowballing into political warfare. The DP claimed many senior officials of the Lee administration violated the law by taking the subsidy, while the governing GNP said former President Roh Moo-hyun is first to blame as the faulty subsidy system began under his administration. ``We will seek a parliamentary investigation to unearth the subsidy case. The GNP should cooperate with us to root out corruption in officialdom,'' DP spokesman Rep. Choi Jae-seong said. ``We again urge President Lee to sack his vice health minister immediately. The government should also make public the names of all officials who took the subsidies.'' ``The officials who violated the law should be held responsible,'' GNP floor leader Rep. Hong Joon-pyo said. ``However, it is unfair to blame only the current administration as the subsidy system began under Roh. We should check how many senior government officials under Roh misused the system to get the subsidy.'' (Source: Korea Times.) Rice row is traced to former Roh government (Oct 2008) The Roh Moo-hyun administration had paid about 500 billion won ($414 million) in rice farming subsidies to ineligible people, a senior leader of the Grand National Party said yesterday, fueling the anger at public servants accused of pilfering money intended to support farmers. “According to the Board of Audit and Inspection’s 2007 report, 168.3 billion won was wrongfully paid that year alone,” Hong Joon-pyo, floor leader of the governing party, said at a GNP leadership meeting. “Doctors, lawyers, journalists and other ineligible people have received the money.” “Over three years since 2005, 3.4 trillion won has been paid for rice farming subsidies, and the government must redeem wrongful payments and use the money to actually support farmers,” Hong said. “The core of this scandal is that the Board of Audit and Inspection investigated the matter in July 2007 but never concluded the probe, announced the outcome or improved the system. Speculation has grown that the Roh administration concealed this scandal, worrying that farmers’ rage would play against it during the presidential election.” While Hong said the Roh administration had poor oversight over the agricultural program, his own party was not free from scandal. Two Grand National lawmakers representing Gyeonggi Province were found to have received the rice farming subsidies, the JoongAng Ilbo reported on 16 Oct. Representatives Kim Sung-hoi of Hwaseong and Kim Hack-yong of Anseong received the money under their own names. Both lawmakers said the rice paddies of their families were registered under their names, but their parents actually farmed the lands. The rice farming subsidy scandal was first triggered by an allegation that the Lee administration’s vice welfare minister, Lee Bong-hwa, had attempted to receive the money for her land. At the request of the Democratic Labor Party, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office officially launched an investigation into her case. The party has claimed that her action amounts to an attempted fraud. “We are reviewing whether her attempt to collect the subsidy is in violation of the law or not,” a prosecution source said. “We think a fraud charge can be applied if she had cheated the government office by pretending that she had farmed.” There is no precedent for a land owner to receive the subsidy by pretending that he or she had actually farmed the land. Purchasing farmland with a purpose other than farming is also illegal. Opposition parties continued to attack the Lee administration for not firing Vice Minister Lee. They also criticized the Grand National Party for protecting its two lawmakers who received the rice farming subsidies on behalf of their parents. “Whether it’s an enemy or ally, we will get to the bottom of this matter and those who deserve embarrassment and punishment must take responsibility,” said Democratic Party Chairman Chung Sye-kyun. Won Hye-young, the party’s floor leader, said the party will cooperate with the Liberty Forward and Democratic Labor parties to push forward a National Assembly investigation. The Liberty Forward Party Chairman Lee Hoi-chang also supported the idea of the investigation. The Democratic Labor Party also said yesterday that the Grand National Party must make public the list of those who received subsidies. Park Seong-heup, the party’s spokesman, said the party will cooperate with farmers’ groups and civic groups to “act” on the matter, adding that the party is drafting a plan to improve the subsidy program. While lawmakers wanted to look into the matter, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said yesterday it has launched a sweeping investigation into all public servants involved in the subsidy controversy. Public anger over ranking officials’ alleged ethics breach continued to boil over yesterday. The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy held a press conference urging the government and the Grand National Party to make public the names of “shameless officials.” The Korean Government Employees’ Union also held a press conference on 16 Oct, asking the administration to open the list. The Board of Audit and Inspection denied an allegation on 16 Oct that after last year’s audit it intentionally destroyed the list of 170,000 who improperly received subsidies. “We just analyzed the statistics. We never produced a list of individuals,” the audit board said yesterday in a statement. “The raw data of the 998,000 people who received the subsidy are stored at the Agriculture Ministry and local governments. The same list can be created anytime using the computerized data.” (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The government and the ruling Grand National Party on October 15 decided to make public the names of government officials who received state subsides by illegally claiming they farm rice and impose criminal penalties against them. Depending on the outcome of the investigation, it is a move that is likely to upset government officials because the number of civil servants who pocketed the rice subsidies reached some 40,000 people in 2006 alone. Late that night, It was confirmed that two ruling Grand National Party lawmakers, Kim Sung Hoi and Kim Hack Yong received rice subsidies. In a separate meeting with journalists, Hong said, “Of the some 40,000 government officials who received rice subsidies, a list of those who received them legitimately won’t be revealed, but a list of those who received the subsidies illegitimately will be announced publicly and the government will retrieve the subsidies.” (Source: Hankyoreh.) S. Korea to fine unlawful recipients of rice subsides (Oct 2008) The South Korean government said on 17 Oct that it will look into past rice subsidy records to ferret out unlawful payments and slap stiff fines on non-farmers who made false requests. The move comes after Seoul pledged to tighten screening to prevent non-farmers from receiving subsidies following a revelation that a number of government officials and lawmakers may have pocketed money earmarked for rice growers. "A nationwide probe will be conducted from December through March for payments handed out in the past three years starting in 2005, with reviews to be concentrated on people whose addresses do not match or are far from the rice paddies they own," the agriculture ministry said. As of last year, 107,000 people who requested rice growing subsidies lived considerable distances from their paddies. The government said that it is taking steps to revise rules that would ban people from receiving farm subsidies for five years if they are found to have made false claims. Under existing rules, only people who actually produce rice -- not landowners -- are eligible to receive the subsidies that are provided as a social security net for rural areas, which have lower income levels than cities. If absentee landowners request the subsidies, farmers who did all the work are left empty-handed. The controversy surrounding absentee landlords being paid rice subsidies surfaced when a report by the Board of Audit and Inspection claimed that a significant portion of the 998,000 people who received rice farming subsidies in 2006 were "non-farmers." Of those, about several thousand were listed as government employees or employees of state-run corporations. The government handed out 1.62 trillion won worth of rice farming subsidies in the year, the state watchdog said. Vice Health Minister Lee Bong-hwa, who is facing calls for her resignation in connection with the scandal, apologized early this month for having applied for the rice subsidy, while Rep. Kim Hack-yong of the ruling Grand National Party also expressed regret for receiving the money. (SITE NOTE: Lee Bong-hwa submitted her resignation which LMB accepted.) Experts said that while the average amount received by the 170,000 non-farmers was just 700,000 won per hectare, landowners requested the subsidies in order to avoid paying heavy property taxes. Under South Korea's tax law, a person who farms a piece of land for more than eight years is exempt from paying capital gains tax if he or she sells the property later. Depending on the price of the land, capital gains tax rates can reach as high as 30 percent of profits earned. (Source: Yonhap News.) Subsidy Fraud List a Ticking Time Bomb (Oct 2008) Kim Hwang-sik, the chairman of Board of Audit and Inspection, said on 22 Oct his agency will restore a missing list of people who are suspected of receiving rice subsidies even though they had never done any farming. The list was destroyed in August last year. The announcement signals a new stage in the scandal. The list is likely to be a veritable Pandora’s Box of politicians, senior officials from the previous and incumbent administrations and prominent social figures who took money from the state for nominal farmland they owned but never farmed. (SITE NOTE: Roh knew of the list and is assumed it was squelched because of the upcoming Presidential elections.) The list contains the names of 170,00 people who are under suspicion receiving rice subsidies between 2005 and 2006 but have no record of buying fertilizer or selling their crops to the National Agriculture Cooperatives Federation and are believed to be public servants, executives in the private sector, doctors and lawyers. The BAI said the list contains the names of some 40,000 public servants. The process of recreating the list is expected to take between two to three weeks, but if there is any delay, the BAI said it would come up with a list of the public servants first. The problem is making the list public. Anyone on that list faces a public outcry, and the impact will be greater for government officials and politicians. That is why the BAI is reluctant to unveil the list. But lawmakers and farmers’ groups will do anything to reveal it. No matter what happens, it looks like the list will be the next political hot potato in Korea. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) November 2008Democrats clash with prosecutors over arrest try (Nov 2008) Over 100 Democrats on 19 Nov physically blocked prosecutors from arresting Kim Min-seok, a senior Democratic Party leader accused of taking hundreds of millions of won in bribes. This was the second time the prosecutors failed to seize the DP official at the party headquarters. In an effort to forestall Kim’s arrest, the DP is considering handing in a written oath from Kim swearing that he will cooperate with the investigation, along with a similar guarantee from party leaders. At around 8:15 a.m. yesterday, 15 prosecutors arrived at the party’s headquarters in Yeongdeungpo, central Seoul, only to be confronted by a throng of Democrats. After facing off for an hour, prosecutors left the site.Before leaving, prosecutors asked the crowd to hand Kim over, saying they intended to “investigate corruption by an individual, not by the party.” Kang Gi-jung, a senior secretary of the party, responded, “We don’t understand the need for detention. If prosecutors are sure [of the allegations], they should investigate the matter without detaining him.” A detention warrant was issued against Kim by a local court on Nov. 14. The probe is seeking to find if there is any truth to claims that he received about 470 million won ($313,333) from two businessmen on the eve of the DP’s presidential primary last year and around the April general election this year. Kim has denied all the charges and has refused to respond to prosecutors’ summonses. Instead, he started a sit-in along with other DP lawmakers at the party headquarters. The DP has dubbed the moves to arrest Kim simple interference with the opposition party. Chung said earlier that it is not a personal matter about Kim, but a wider act of oppression against the DP as a whole. In a closed meeting among DP Chairman Chung Sye-kyun, DP Secretary General Lee Mi-kyung and other senior officials, they came up with the idea of submitting the oath and the guarantee. The DP will make a final decision on the issue. Despite the seemingly unified front, there is still debate within the DP over whether Kim should turn himself in. “If the party wants to avoid the misunderstanding that it is trying to protect a suspect, Kim should make up his mind and comply with the warrant,” said one DP official. It is also unlikely that prosecutors will accept the DP offer of a cooperation guarantee. “We will take special measures if Kim doesn’t respond to the warrant,” said one prosecutor. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) December 2008Lee indicates sweeping overhaul of bureaucracy (Dec 2008) President Lee Myung-bak said on Monday that his bid for economic reforms and changes won't be hindered by the ongoing economic difficulties, urging ranking civil servants to follow his administrative vision and philosophy in weathering the unprecedented financial crisis. Meeting with top officials of the land, agriculture, public administration and environment ministries over their key policy goals for 2009, Lee warned that some reform-resistant bureaucrats, who gained rapid promotions in the previous liberal administration, are still passive in enforcing his reform and stimulus measures."Civil servants have to take the lead (in overcoming the crisis). If some of them fail to keep up with the speed (of reforms and changes), the entire march will be slowed," said Lee. "Civil servants are required to firmly establish their own state vision so that they can help overcome the crisis and make preparations for the new era. Their unified attitudes will help the nation upgrade its global competitiveness." According to political watchers, Lee's remarks may be a signal of an upcoming sweeping shakeup of reform-shy ranking officials at major ministries, who are blamed for failing to faithfully carry out the conservative president's reform policies. Over the past week, all "Grade One" officials at half a dozen ministries, including education, foreign affairs, agriculture and unification, have offered to resign, as the conservative Lee administration strived to further distance itself from policies devised by his liberal predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun. Following the upcoming replacement of top government officials, Lee is expected to conduct a Cabinet reshuffle early next year to revamp the overall administrative atmosphere ahead of his first inaugural anniversary in February. Over the weekend, the Lee government announced an ambitious plan to shed 19,000 jobs in the public sector, with 69 major state-run corporations slashing 10 percent to 37.5 percent from their current payrolls in the coming three to four years. (SITE NOTE: Isn't it amazing that that is about the number that Roh added to the ballooning bureaucracy?) "Economic circumstances are worsening. But we will never slow our efforts for changes and reforms. All civil servants have to join forces to revitalize the economy and implement reforms," said the president. He instructed the four ministries to execute their 2009 budget spending "swiftly and efficiently," deepen inter-ministerial cooperation in major public works projects and minimize waste of taxpayer money. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: Amid a major overhaul of the public sector, the government said on Monday it plans to revise job evaluation rules to allow offices to more easily lay off "incompetent" ranking officials. In a report to President Lee Myung-bak, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said it will introduce a new job evaluation system next year that will allow the ministry's personnel committee to fire top officials who receive low marks on more than one occasion. (Source: Yonhap News.) Two more lawmakers lose their seats (Dec 2008) Two opposition lawmakers lost their seats on 24 De for violating election law during the general election in April. It was the third and fourth time members of the legislature have been removed during the 18th National Assembly, following Lee Moo-young of the Democratic Party and Lee Han-jung of Creative Korea. The Supreme Court upheld an appellate court ruling that imposed a 5 million won ($3,808) fine on Democratic Party lawmaker Kim See-Woung, 56, and a year and a half jail term on independent lawmaker Kim Il-yun, 70. The Democrat was indicted without detention on charges of offering food and drinks to 14 voters in his district. The independent was taken into custody for offering 40 million won to his campaign team, allegedly for expenses. According to Korean election law, lawmakers are deprived of their seats if they are fined over 1 million won or sentenced to prison time. A total of 22 lawmakers are currently facing trial for such violations. Eleven have been sentenced to be stripped of their seats, and are still in the appeals process. Of the 11, four are from the Grand National Party, two are Democrats and the rest are members of the Pro-Park Alliance, which later merged with the GNP. Moon Kook-hyun, the head of the Creative Korea Party who ran in last year’s presidential election, was sentenced in early December to an eight-month suspended term and two years’ probation for selling a proportional legislative seat to Lee Han-jeong. He is expected to face a ruling in the appellate court soon. (Source: Joongang Daily.) Democratic Party lawmakers lock themselves inside National Assembly hall (Dec 2008) On 27 Dec, the confrontational situation between the ruling and opposition parties reached a climax as lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party occupied the plenary session hall of the National Assembly and staged a protest Friday. In response, the ruling Grand National Party, hit hard by the DP's abrupt move, called on all of its lawmakers to stand by and be ready to pass the bills. DP lawmakers locked themselves inside the hall, hoping to block the GNP from its previously stated intention to pass a series of bills by the end of the year. For a vote to be taken in the National Assembly, the speaker is required to make a motion from his seat on the matter to be voted on, according to Article 110 of the National Assembly Act. Unless National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o were to disperse the DP lawmakers by force, it will be difficult for the GNP to initiate and pass any of the bills on its agenda. At around 8:45 a.m. Friday, DP lawmakers stormed into the plenary session hall, after holding a brief meeting in front of the National Assembly speaker's room. The DP says it will continue to occupy the National Assembly speaker's office and the chambers of three parliamentary committees (culture and broadcasting, public administration and security, and state affairs). In a statement, the DP lawmakers said, "President Lee Myung-bak and the GNP are already heading toward civic dictatorship by thoroughly denying the basic principles of parliamentary democracy such as dialogue and compromise and by turning the hall of the will of the people into a battlefield of greed. We will wage a do-or-die fight for the authority and constitutional value of the National Assembly." Lawmakers from the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party welcomed the DP's move and joined them in their occupation of the plenary session hall. DP Chairman Chung Se-kyun and DLP Chairman Kang Ki-gap held a meeting at the National Assembly that afternoon and forged an alliance. GNP lawmakers strongly criticized the DP lawmakers for their actions and renewed their commitment to early passage of the contentious bills. In an emergency meeting, GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo said, "The DP is only hurting itself (just as it did during the impeachment of former President Roh Moo-hyun). Since DP lawmakers have occupied the plenary session hall, the timing (of the bills' passage) should be pushed up by several days. There is no time to adjust the speed," Hong said. "Beginning today, all lawmakers need to stand by in Seoul." National Assembly Speaker Kim has not released any official response to the GNP's statement. Lee Hyeong-seon, a press secretary for the speaker, said, "It's difficult to talk about our position at the moment, so we have decided not to make a statement today." The conservative Liberty Forward Party says it opposes the forcible dispersal of the DP lawmakers and the GNP's plan to pass the bills by the end of the year. In an interview with MBC radio, LFP Chairman Lee Hoi-chang said that it is "improper" for the GNP to try to pass the bills by the end of the year. In a telephone interview with Yonhap News, LFP floor leader Kwon Seon-taek said, "If a plenary session is held after the DP lawmakers are dragged out of the plenary session hall, it will be difficult for the LFP to participate." (Source: Hankyoreh.) GNP seeks to pass 85 ‘key bills’ before the year ends The Grand National Party announced a list of 85 “key new bills” it is determined to pass by year’s end and asked National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyung-o to ready them for a final vote on the assembly floor. The bills have remained pending for weeks at Assembly committees amid intense opposition by Democratic Party members. Lawmakers were camped out at the National Assembly to gird for the fight to pass or block the legislation. GNP leader Hong Joon-pyo asked for the DP’s cooperation to first pass the most urgent 43 bills aimed at boosting the ailing economy, including the Korea-U.S free trade agreement. In return, he vowed to give more time for negotiations with the DP on 13 so-called social reform bills, most of which the DP demanded be completely scrapped. “Among the bills currently pending at the Assembly, I selected 85 new bills that should be passed by Dec. 31 no matter what,” Hong said in an official letter to Kim yesterday. “Please use your authority to take steps to pass the bills by the year’s end, according to the National Assembly laws,” he added. In a press conference earlier yesterday, Hong unveiled the list of 85 key bills awaiting the lawmakers’ approval, including one to privatize the currently state-controlled Korea Development Bank. The 13 social reform bills include those designed to expand the operations of National Intelligence Service, to ban participants of public protests from concealing their identity by wearing masks, to allow the police to videotape protest participants and to allow legal eavesdropping by government agencies. The DP has criticized the 13 bills for invading privacy and suppressing freedom of expression. Hong said the GNP can “no longer make concessions on bills on boosting the economy and those related to government budgets.” “If we cannot pass these bills by the year’s end, we can’t approve the budget spending and will cause a legislative void,” Hong said. “I, rather than boasting our majority 172 seats in the Assembly floor, have used negotiations and patience countless times to consider the opposition party’s stance, but I can no longer make concessions.” However, together with his stern warning, Hong left some room for further negotiation with the DP on some of the most contentious measures, stressing he can leave the 13 social reform bills for more parliamentary review early next year, rather than trying to pass them all by Dec. 31. “We will not insist on passing the social reform bills by the year’s end as long as the DP agrees to pass other bills now,” Hong said. “But I hope the social reform measures will be passed by Jan. 8 of next year.” Jan. 8 is the deadline of the National Assembly’s extraordinary session. But Hong’s proposal seemed to change few DP lawmakers’ minds on 28 Dec. The social reform bills are only a small portion of many pieces of legislation that they staunchly oppose. The other bills the GNP pledged to pass by the year’s end and that the DP has opposed include the new media law that would allow big companies and newspapers to own broadcasting stations and a bill to ease restrictions for nonfinancial firms from owning a bank. The DP contends those measures would allow big conglomerates to influence editorial content of broadcast news in favor of their own business interests and jeopardize banks’ transparency and independence in their loan-granting process. “The laws on eavesdropping on mobile phone conversations, new media laws and banking laws for conglomerates are non-negotiable,” said the DP floor leader Won Hye-young. “Our stance will not change just because the GNP made a tiny change to the list.” Won said the DP members are ready for a “full-blown battle” to stop the disputed bills from passage if the GNP insists on moving them forward by the year’s end without the DP’s support. The DP also refused to accept a mediation proposal by the Liberty Forward Party, another opposition party, to take more time and pass the disputed bills early next year, sticking to its argument that those bills should never be made into law. Kim is known to be considering Hong’s request to use his authority to forgo the committee review process and take the bills to a final vote on the Assembly floor, which is currently controlled by GNP. Kim, who asked both parties to reach agreement on the disputed bills by today, indicated he would take some dramatic measures to break the stalemate. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) |
