Korean Law – Page 2

February 21, 2007

We’d All Love to See the Plan

The Korea Times tells us that the South Korean Justice Ministry, having felt the weight of criticism, has a new plan to protect the human rights of North Koreans. It then proceeds to tell us absolutely nothing about the plan or provide a link to it (nothing on the MOJ site, either). Now I remember why I quit reading the Times. Anyway, if it’s anything like the Human Rights Commission’s plan, I doubt we’re missing much.

Human Rights/Korean Law/Media Criticism

January 21, 2007

Opposition Legislator Responds to Shenyang-Gate with Refugee-Protection Bill

SEOUL, Jan. 21 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s main opposition party plans to introduce a law revision aimed at helping North Koreans and South Korean abductees fleeing the communist country, a senior party official said Sunday. Rep. Hwang Woo-yea, secretary-general of the Grand National Party (GNP), said the bill will help prevent the forced repatriation of defectors from North Korea and expedite Seoul’s diplomatic efforts to bring them to South Korea. “The National Assembly passed a similar GNP-initiated bill in 2004...

Appeasement/China & Korea/Korean Law/Korean Politics/Refugees

January 15, 2007

The China Veto

[Updated below] For those who still doubt that the South Korean government would bow to another government’s sensitivities to cancel an artistic performance — witness the debate and denial over the censorship of “Yoduk Story” — I suppose we can now put those doubts to rest. On January 7, several major South Korean media published editorials that criticized the Korean government for kowtowing to the Chinese communist regime by canceling the New Tang Dynasty’s (NTDTV) New Year Spectacular in...

Anti-Americanism/Censorship/China & Korea/Korean Law/Korean Society/U.S. & Korea

January 10, 2007

Gov’t Investigates Misuse of Funds It Gave to ‘Civic’ Groups

I’ve previously written about the South Korean government’s provision of $5.2 billion in state funds to 149 different hippie communes, drum circles, and commie spy cells “civic” groups, only to have it revealed that some of those groups had a history of organized political violence. The worst offender was South Korea’s largest labor organization, the ardently pro-North Korean and anti-American Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, and the worst of the violence was over the government’s costly failure to negotiate a...

Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Politics/The Fifth Column

January 6, 2007

KCTU Thugs May Have to Switch to PVC Pipe

When I testified before the House International Relations Committee last September, one of the issues I raised was a report that the South Korean government was funding “civic groups” that habitually engaged in violence (see page 18), including the protests at Camp Humphreys last year. More recently, some of the leaders of those protests, and other violent anti-American protests, have been exposed and indicted as North Korean agents. This should not have surprised anyone.

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Democracy/Korean Law/Korean Politics/Korean Society/The Fifth Column/U.S. & Korea

December 8, 2006

Which ‘Major Government Offices’ Contained N. Korean Moles?

Update: The Chosun Ilbo thinks the investigation’s recent lack of progress is suspicious. A court has issued five indictments, including one against U.S. citizen, former soldier, and current traitor, Jang Min Ho. In the Korean judicial system, those who are indicted are virtually always convicted, so these fellows are looking at some time. Prosecutors also said the group delivered secret information to Pyongyang under direct or e-mail directives from a North Korean spy operative. The information provided was mostly...

An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Politics/The Fifth Column/U.S. & Korea

December 8, 2006

Arrest Galloper, Part 2

Ladies and gentlemen, our long national nightmare is over. We finally have closure in a terrible tragedy in which innocent Korean pedestrians were cut down by a reckless foreigner, who managed to evade local justice and (the outrage!) face a quickie trial and light punishment in his home country’s courts. Remember the protests and the vigils? No? Probably because the driver was a drunk South Korean Hyundai Asan employee, and the victims were North Korean soldiers. Two were injured, one...

Korean Law/Korean Society/UCMJ & SOFA/Uncategorized

December 6, 2006

Just Wondering…

Does the National Human Rights Commission make a distinction between peaceful protest and violent protest? On the one hand, it’s pretty obvious that the South Korean government is trying to censor both peaceful and violent opposition to the proposed Free Trade Agreement (and it’s such a dead issue, all you can do is wonder why anyone bothers). On the other hand, when protestors get through the police blockades, things like this happen. Another 20 injured today. Gee, I wonder if...

Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Society/The Fifth Column

December 6, 2006

South Korea’s ‘Hostile’ Class

Leaving no stone unturned in its quest to emulate North Korean concepts of social justice, South Korea has announced the first official list of 100 Japanese collaborators whose blood, we can suppose, will hereby stain three generations of class enemies (from way back in 1904, in some cases!). Just to make sure the new songbun designations become nice and official, the government sent notices to said descendants. Depending on whose report you believe, there are either about 400, about 800,...

History/Japan & Korea/Korean Law/Korean Politics/Korean Society/WTF?

December 5, 2006

The Cons Are Running the Prison: Why Is S. Korea Subsidizing Violence?

[Updated and bumped up] To the astonishment of absolutely no one, union goons affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions are (yet again) unleashing a wave of violence: We saw 47 arson and vandalism cases around the nation suspected to have been committed by Korea Cargo Transport Workers’ Union members,” Lee Taek-soon, head of the National Police Agency, said yesterday. “Thirteen cases were reported in North Gyeongsang province, seven in Ulsan and six in Busan.” It would surprise...

Korean Law/Korean Politics/Korean Society/The Fifth Column

November 16, 2006

Il Shim Hue Member Planned Violent Attacks

A member of the Democratic Labor Party who was arrested Oct. 24 on charges of spying for North Korea reportedly told investigators he drew up plans for terror attacks against conservatives and influential government figures in the 1990s. What the report doesn’t clarify is just what methods were put into those plans, although investigators claim that the suspect, a DLP member named Park, tried to buy a gun. Any plan involving a deadly weapon would clearly be terrorism. MBN-TV reports...

Korean Law/Korean Politics/The Fifth Column

November 6, 2006

New Human Rights Chair: ‘I Can No Longer Remain Silent’ on N. Korean Abuses

Bloggers are moths to the flame of irony, and South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission has been a reliable beacon for K-bloggers in need of prime material. For at least the last two years, we’ve cringed and laughed our way through its pickayune inquiries into adolescent hairstyles and dairies while 23 million other Korean citizens’ mass starvation, suffocating oppression, and mass enslavement went pretty much unmentioned. The HRC is nominally independent of the elected goverment, but pretty clearly, politics was...

Human Rights/Korean Law/Korean Politics

November 6, 2006

Hereinafter, Democratic Peoples’ Labor Party

What’s a little spy scandal to kill the spirit of Mangyondae? The Democratic Labor Party’s delegation, led by its chairman Moon Sung-hyun, arrived at Pyongyang on Tuesday. That day, the South Koreans visited Mangyongdae, the birthplace of Kim Il Sung. However, the Democratic Labor Party made no mention of the stop when it briefed journalists the next day about the delegates’ activities. Illustrating why it’s hard to be North Korea’s friend, the North Koreans thanked their guests by replaying the...

Korean Law/Korean Politics/The Fifth Column

November 2, 2006

Next UniFiction Minister Was Convicted in 2002 Bribery Scheme; Still Under Suspended Prison Sentence Later Pardoned by Roh

Update: According to this, Roh pardoned Lee last year — which, of course, changes everything except the appeanance of cronyism, whitewashing, back-scratching, and corruption. Funny, I don’t recall anyone mentioning that Lee Jae-Joung is a con. Lee taught at the Sung Kong Hoe University in Seoul and served as the university president from 1994 to 2000 when he joined the then-ruling Millennium Democratic Party to become a member of the 16th National Assembly. He helped found the governing Uri...

Appeasement/Korean Law/Korean Politics

October 1, 2006

Chief Justice Lee Yong-Hyun Is Right About Reforming the Courts

Finally, the process of raising the wreck of Korea’s judical system is off to a halting start. But the first effect of the reforms has been to elucidate just how awful the system really is. For example, prosecutors are just starting to submit written arraignments. In the past, they’d simply presented the courts with reports of police investigations with exhibits, long before the defense had an opportunity to present anything. It’s little wonder, then, why the conviction rate was, and...

Korean Law

September 30, 2006

Guild of Liars, Part 2: North Korean Refugees Expose the Lies of the National Lawyers’ Guild

[Updated] Kudos to the Bar Assocation for doing what the cowardly and politicized National Human Rights Commission won’t. The report included testimony similar to that in papers issued by Amnesty International and other rights groups, describing forced abortions and infanticide in North Korea’s political prisons. The bar association report was the first of its kind, although the group issues annual reports on human rights in the South. It was issued against a backdrop of criticism by rights activists of...

Appeasement/Human Rights/Korean Law

September 26, 2006

Norbert Vollertsen Reports Being Assaulted in Seoul

Norbert Vollertsen writes to report that he was attacked by a gang of thugs in downtown Seoul and intentionally run over by a taxi. He is reporting a less-then-stellar police response; they blamed him for being drunk (which he vehemently denies) and suggests that some of his attackers may have been corroborating witnesses to that side of the story. Well, I wasn’t there, but two questions come to mind. First, Norbert claims that he hobbled out of the hospital on...

Activism/Korean Law

September 21, 2006

The ‘C’ Word, Part 2: Yu Gi Joon Is a Vicarious Thug

[Update: Great minds think alike Oh, and did I forget to mention that Yu is spokesman for his party? Shoulda mentioned that.] I’ve previously stated — and will now restate — that it’s time for the United States government to condemn, in some appropriate but unambigous manner, any suggestion of a coup in South Korea. I yield to no one in my distaste for Roh Moo Hyun, who I believe will eventually share culpability for the needless deaths of many...

Korean Law/Korean Politics/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea

Category: Korean Law