Search Results for “confederation”

August 25, 2008

We apologize again for the fault in this broadcast. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked.

The shepherds of the mad sheep refuse to die quietly. MBC, which retracted its misleading report linking U.S. beef to mad cow disease under court order and apologized to its viewers, is now appealing that order. So if it’s now beyond serious dispute that the original report misled viewers with sloppy translations, bad science, and images of people and cows infected with other diseases, why is MBC now trying to retract its retraction? The MBC labor union has fiercely criticized...

Censorship/Media Criticism/The Fifth Column

July 29, 2008

In Seoul, ‘Mad Sheep’ Protests Descend into Radical Violence

Update, 12/08: Here’s how history will record this whole ridiculous episode. The herd has gotten leaner, and meaner: Around the Seorin Rotary in Jongno, another 80 protesters besieged a traffic police officer and an auxiliary police officer from Jongno Police Station, and stole three two-way radios. Demonstrators also broke the windows of a police bus in front of the Samsung Tower, and flattened tires. Two police officers were taken to the Boshingak Pavilion, had their shirts taken off, and were...

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

February 25, 2008

The Long National Nightmare Is (Officially) Over

[Update: Now that I’ve read LMB’s inaugural, I’ve posted more detailed comments / ridicule below the fold and the video.] The 17th presidency of Korea started as Lee Myung-bak formally took over presidential authority from former president Roh Moo-hyun at midnight on Monday, with the Bosingak Bell in downtown Seoul tolling the momentous hour. Lee now embarks on a government of pragmatic conservatism after putting an end to the decade-long leftwing rule. [Chosun Ilbo] Judging by Lee’s inaugural address and...

Korean Politics

February 1, 2008

KCTU Declares Jihad Against Lee M.B., Scores Meeting With Nancy Pelosi

On Tuesday, I wrote that President-Elect Lee was about to meet with the leaders of South Korea’s largest, most radical, and most violent labor organization — the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. There was, however, the matter of KCTU Chairman Lee Sok-Haeng’s outstanding arrest warrant for an “illegal”Â rally last October. President-Elect Lee, showing more interest in public order than his predecessor, was not willing to let this slide or grant Chairman Lee the special privilege of being questioned at...

Anti-Americanism/U.S. Politics

January 29, 2008

Anju Links for 29 Jan 08

BRING OUT YOUR NOT-QUITE-DEAD: “UN agency to conduct its first census since famine killed millions.” If things don’t quite add up, try looking here. NOT LOOKING GOOD FOR KEVIN G. HALL: A reader e-mails a detailed article — co-written by Bradley K. Martin, no less –that drives a few 3-inch sheetrock screws into the coffin of Hall’s piece of work. If you’re not yet saying “enough already” to all of this, the updated post is here. DAVID ALBRIGHT, CALL YOUR...

Anju Links

January 11, 2008

Anju Links for 10 Jan 08

SOMETHING MIGHTY SUSPICIOUS IS GOING ON HERE, and I’m not just talking about the shadowy movements of spies and emissaries across the DMZ, either: A top North Korean official paid a secret visit to Seoul on Sept. 26 last year, immediately before the second inter-Korean summit in early October, it was emerged on Thursday. [Chosun Ilbo] National Intelligence Service Chief Kim Man-bok made a secret visit to Pyongyang on Dec. 18, the day before South Korea’s presidential election, it was...

Uncategorized

August 30, 2007

State Dept. Won’t Remove N. Korea from Terror List … Yet

The chief U.S. envoy at North Korean nuclear talks said Wednesday the United States will make sure close ally Japan is satisfied before lifting North Korea from a U.S. list of countries accused of sponsoring terrorists. Christopher Hill acknowledged the North has raised the terror-list removal repeatedly as a crucial part of a February nuclear disarmament accord. But, he said, the United States is “not going to cup our eyes and pretend a country is not a state sponsor of...

Abductions/Diplomacy/Japan & Korea/Six-Party Talks/Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics

May 5, 2007

Nice Town. It’d Be a Shame If Something Happened to It.

If you thought North Korea bought its South Korean supporters, you underestimated just how unnatural this intercourse really is. We know the going rates for the various Il Shim Hue operatives were cheap, but South Korea’s violent far-left unions are actually helping to keep Korigula’s palaces stocked with Hennessey. South Korea’s unions, particularly the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, have a history of trashing public property during their demonstrations, so when they make extortionate demands for city funds to celebrate...

The Fifth Column

April 24, 2007

Kaesong, Kim Jong Il, and Killing the Goose

Update: South Korea may be reconsidering the expansion plans after all.The Kaesong Slave Labor Park may want to reconsider its expansion plans in light of the Daily NK’s new breakdown casting doubt on just how successful the existing venture really is. Of 23 businesses that were supposed to have started operations at Kaesong since 2005, 4 have abandoned their space reservations; 1 or 2 more are considering abandoning their reservations; 4 have placed their space reservations on hold; 6 or...

Appeasement/Human Trafficking

April 8, 2007

Why Moonbats Will Never Run the World

The “Crawford Peace House” run by Kim Jong Il’s unwitting ally, Cindy Sheehan, is the latest victim of financial irregularities, unmedicated emotion, and a characteristic absence of any moral perspective: “There are people who have said, `Don’t say anything because you’ll hurt the peace movement,’” Oliver said. “But if the peace movement isn’t pure and transparent and holy as it can be at its heart, then it’s just like George Bush: lying, thieving, conniving, backstabbing bastards.” This is certainly a...

Terrorism/Iraq/U.S. Politics/WTF?

April 3, 2007

FTA Hits Opposition in U.S. Congress

The Economist’s blog reports, After a long drawn out, and highly fraught, negotiation that pushed right up against the deadline, America and South Korea have inked a new trade deal. It is the largest America has signed since NAFTA. However, tensions between the Bush administration and resurgent protectionists in America’s new Democratic Congress make it highly uncertain that the pact will be ratified. I don’t yet know if the opposition will be enough to defeat the deal, but some key...

Human Trafficking/Korean Politics/NK Economics/U.S. Politics

April 1, 2007

FTA Agreement Reached FTA Talks Near Failure: The Death of an Alliance, Part 66

[Update 2: Well, as it turns out, the two sides did reach an agreement, although it’s not clear how comprehensive. Both sides — mainly us — made major last-minute concessions. Talks were ongoing until minutes before the legal deadline. Beef tariffs will be phased out over 15 years, which is a long time. (We’ll see if the Koreans actually accept the next shipment.) Korea also gets to protect its rice market. There’s really only one bright spot I can see:...

Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/NK Economics/The Fifth Column/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Politics

March 25, 2007

Anju Links for 3/25: N. Korea Threatens to Do Us a Favor, Money We Can’t Follow, the FTA Circus, and S. Korea’s Slavery-Loving Unions

* No.Please.Stop. North Korea is threatening to pull out of the dreadful (for us) February 13th Agreed Framework 2.0 over the RSOI / Foal Eagle exercises. “This may entail such serious consequences as escalating the tension between the DPRK (North Korea) and the US and scuttling the six-party talks for the settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, arranged with so much effort.” [Channel News Asia] A KCNA statement wouldn’t be complete without a reference to...

An Alliance?/Human Trafficking/ROK Military/U.S. & Korea/U.S. Military/UCMJ & SOFA

January 29, 2007

KCTU Update: Moderation at Last!

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of Korea’s two umbrella labor unions, elected Lee Seok-haeng, its former general secretary, as the new president in a vote of representatives. Lee garnered 482 votes from 919 representatives, or 52 percent. [link] With that overwhelming mandate, expect courageous and decisive reforms. “With all my strength, I will do what should be done and won’t do what shouldn’t. I will restore our organization by studying situations on the spot, and from that...

Korean Politics/Korean Society/The Fifth Column

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 19, 2006

War Is Peace, Juche Is Freedom

… and throwing Molotov cocktails is pro-democracy activism. Brought to you by (who else?) the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.