The big news of the day — Pusan mayor Ahn Sang-yong, who was being detained while on trial for corruption, used an undershirt to hang himself from a prison air vent. I send my condolences to the late mayor’s family and friends. I also want to express my utter disgust with Hong Sa-deok, the GNP’s floor leader in the National Assembly, for not even waiting until Ahn’s body cooled down to begin using this tragedy to condemn President Noh. I usually like Hong — after all, he is from Yeongju, N. Gyeongsang Province — but I think his behavior today completely lacked class.
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7 Comments
Hong Sa-deok…
All he’s doing is campaigning for Uri.
I wrote a post about this on my blog, but what the hell is going on in SK?!? I haven’t paid too much attention to contemporary politics there over the years. What is going on? Are we seeing something new here? Pusan’s mayor kills himself. The Hyundai guy does a header. Puan county basically rebelled against the state and won. Labor leaders are hanging themselves or cutting their guts out at int. trade talks. ???? Should S Koreans seroiusly begin to question there future? Or is this just another typical Korean bump in the road?????
I share your disgust with the GNP’s trying to generate political fodder out of Ahn’s suicide and your empathy for his family. What’s likely to get lost in the politics and the sentiment is that Ahn was a corrupt pig. As the Chosun Ilbo article indicates, Ahn was under indictment for at least two separate incidents involving allegations of having taken (solicited?) bribes from Korean businesses. The second of those cases involved the redevelopment of a piece of city-owned property, in connection with which another official from the tax authority who also was involved also recently killed himself (he incinerated himself in his car). Around the time of his re-election a couple of years ago, Ahn also weathered a scandal regarding his alleged rape in Paris of one of his private secretaries, whom he had taken on a dog and pony show promoting Busan in Europe. I’m being polite by using the word “alleged”. At the time, the victim “told all” and she and her husband commenced legal proceedings against Ahn, which were only discontinued through the influence of one of Ahn’s cronies, a former Vice Mayor of Busan, Nam Chung Hee, who is now angling for a nomination from one of the parties (GNP) to run in the next National Assembly election. I have this from an associate of Nam, who also tried to shake down my company for a “contribution” in connection with some business we were trying to get underway in Busan; it was clear to me at the time (I was the person to whom the demand was made) that Ahn was the ultimate beneficary. I suspect that Ahn’s suicide was prompted by either remorse or just a sense that the net was getting bigger as it was getting tighter. Last weekend, the Busan Ilbo reported that the “Grand Bridge” the mars the view seaward from Haeundae Beach has been found to be structurally unsound. Care to speculate on the implications of that project, which together with the others undertaken in the run-up to the Asian games, effectively bankrupted Busan City? All in all, a very sad story, but Ahn’s personal tragedy is just the tip of the iceberg.
sad, sordid, tragic…
perhaps we can naively hope someone will learn a lesson from all of this and Korea will improve?
christ.. what the *#$* is wrong with korea these days..
Not much more to add on the GNP’s disgusting lack of taste here. These guys would politicise the weather if they thought it would work. I would say the party is so desparate to win on April 15 that it will do ANYTHING — anything except clean up its act and anything except actually promote serious policies rather than postures. Where is the GNP on the Chile FTA, the Iraq troop dispatch, Korea’s back sliding on economic liberalisation, North Korea human rights…….
Is there something about Korea I don’t understand. Why is the GNP trying to blame Noh for Ahn’s suicide? Is this likely to get any traction with the public.
AHN CHOSE to commit suicide. Noh didn’t order him to do it. In the U.S., when a guy accused of a crime kills himself … no one blames the prosecutor/government. The fact that a defendant kills himself should in no way effect an analyis of whether the prosecution was justified. In fact, people in the U.S. are likely to think that an innocent guy would not kill himself. Are Koreans of a differing opinion on this or is the GNP making an argument that is likely to get nowhere with the public.
The person committing suicide is responsible for his own actions … while my condolences go out to his family, no one is to blame for Ahn’s suicide but Ahn.
PING:
TITLE: Political Terror?
BLOG NAME: Kamelian X-Rays
The conservative opposition party, the Grand National Party, accused President Roh Moo-hyun of hanging former Busan mayor, Ahn Sang-yong out to dry, literally. Ahn, who allegedly received bribes, committed suicide last night in his jail cell. The GNP f…