Kaesong Loses a Market, and a Political Booster

This looks like excellent news:

James Lilley, a former U.S. ambassador to Korea, said yesterday that it will be hard for the United States to import products made in the Kaesong Industrial Complex for “geographical” reasons.

According to Mr. Lilley, one of the major trade issues that South Korea and the United States will face in the near future is U.S. imports of Kaesong-made products. “The United States cannot regard those goods as “˜made in South Korea’ because they were produced in the North Korean border city,” he told businessmen at a briefing organized by the Korea International Trade Association.

The Koreas recently opened a joint economic cooperation office at the complex, which was developed with the South’s capital and employs North Korean workers.

Also today comes news about the GNP governor of Kyonggi-do, who was featured in this New York Times piece, failing to contain his delight that truckloads of slave-made wares were rolling in from the North. Turns out, he is a presidential aspirant, but his ambitions are looking much less bright today:

An alleged bribery case involving a former key Gyeonggi province official has also cast a shadow over the governor, Sohn Hak-kyu, who is suspected of receiving several hundred million won.

The allegations surfaced when the Hankyoreh newspaper reported yesterday that prosecutors have begun an investigation of Mr. Sohn. This has roiled the political scene as he is considered a strong possible presidential candidate for the major opposition Grand National Party. If true, the allegations could deliver a fatal political blow to Mr. Sohn’s “clean reformist” image.

That last sentence wins awards for understated irony. Delicious. Even better, he’s filed a $1 million defamation suit against the Hankyoreh Sinmun for printing the story, meaning that someone on the OFK shit list is sure to take a beating here.

Calling a press conference, Mr. Sohn described the coverage as an “attack against me and the Grand National Party, based on no fact whatsoever.” The party also appeared tense, especially because the close aides of two of its likely presidential candidates, Chairwoman Park Geun-hye and Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak, have been prosecuted in bribery cases recently.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, detained Mr. Sohn’s former key aide, Han Hyun-kyu, Gyeonggi’s vice governor, last night on a bribery charge. Mr. Han is suspected of accepting 1 billion won of bribes in return for giving favors to a construction company building an apartment complex in Opo village, Gwangju city, in the province.

Mr. Han is also accused of accepting another 500 million won in bribes from a businessman seeking a favor in the selection of a business partner in a cremation site in Pangyo city in the province.

Prosecutors investigating the case said, “We tried to issue a travel ban for Mr. Han’s brother-in-law, who delivered the money as a go-between, but he had already left for the United States Wednesday.”

Sure, innocent until proven guilty and all that . . . I’ll just admit that I’d like to see the man find another career. Once again, the GNP’s bad old ways remind voters of what they never liked about GNP standards of ethics and governance. Is there an honest and principled politician in all of Korea? Mrs. OFK just shakes her head.