It’s official — Jun Yeo-ok, the new spokeswoman for the opposition Grand National Party, is a bitch. I don’t use that term lightly, either. The Oranckay’s initial reaction to her appointment and the special delivery of human feces that arrived at her office should have tipped me off. Still, I was rather impressed by the appointment of a tough, intelligent, articulate woman as the face of the nation’s largest opposition party (assuming they don’t get beat out by the Democratic Labor Party in April, which at this point is a major assumption, actually). Not any more. Not after today.
First, some background. Justice Minister Kang Kum-sil has gotten herself in hot water again, this time for meeting with Moon Jae-in, former Cheong Wa Dae civil affairs chief and head of President Roh’s defense team, at a hotel in Seoul for an hour, speculation being that she was trying to push acting President Goh into an early grave assisting with Roh’s case, something she most certainly shouldn’t be doing as head of the nation’s justice ministry. Now, OK, my mind being where it usually is — the gutter — I got to thinking, hmm… Moon’s a pretty good looking guy, and Kang’s a divorcee who definitely not bad for a women her age. Given that they met in a hotel for a hour in the middle of the day, perhaps there was very little discussion of Roh’s case after all. After getting a chuckle, I moved on to more serious stuff. Did I blog it? No. Heck, even the Marmot’s Hole has got to have some standards, you know.
Apparently, that’s not the case with the GNP and its new spokeswoman. Jun gives a press conference today and says, basically, “A middle aged man and woman meet alone in a hotel for an hour in the middle of the day. I’m really curious as to why that was.” She even went as far as to ask if this was an illicit male-female relationship or some other kind of “impure” relationship — by impure, I’ll assume she meant “politically impure.” And you have to hear the way she said it — I mean, it was just stone-cold evil. I don’t think it’s a permanent link, but take a look at some of it yourself at the YTN site — click on ??Œ?³???¶??¤.
Disgusting. The GNP needs a change, so they bring in pure, unadulterated evil to be their link with the public? Christ, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this woman’s head suddenly turn around 360 degrees in the middle of a press conference some day. The first thing the new GNP head needs to do after the party convention is bring in Father Stephen Kim to perform an exorcism on Jun before she really goes off the deep end.
UPDATE: Jun Yeo-ok gets her VERY OWN CATEGORY over at Oranckay’s blog.
23 Comments
You must be one sad individual.
how do you say SASSY! in korean?
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Did you mean ??ì©?ì¨ì§¸?
I love it. Korean tabloid trash like this is great.
Also, Kang is in position to undermine the authority of her temporary boss. She’s got Goh’s balls in a vice, and she knows it. If Goh were to fire her, there would be candlelight vigils up the taegukki. Mr. Stability knows he can’t afford to do anything that drastic.
Well, well, well. It seems that Kang is a political opportunist after all.
It gets better, because the GNP just voted in Park Geun-hye, the dictator Park Chun-hee’s daughter, as party head. Hey, if Mussolini’s daughter could run for office…
Hummm . . . is it too late for me to send her a package as well?
Michael, I hope you are not comparing Park Chung-Hee to Mussolini.
They both made the trains run on time…. No, I was talking about their offspring. It’s just interesting that two countries that went through dictatorships do not find it, I don’t know, distasteful to let the children of scoundrels go so far up the political food chain–although to be fair, neither has turned out remotely as bad as the fathers.
Michael,
In Italy, it is Mussolini’s GRANDDAUGHTER, also she’s Sophia Loren’s niece.
I wouldn’t go as far as to call Park Chung-hee a “scoundrel.” Amnesty International Poster Boy, he wasn’t. But I will say this — his daughter will be lucky if she’s about to accomplish even 5% of what her father was able to accomplish during the 18 years he spent in office. Love him or hate him, Park is the father of modern South Korea, and there’s simply no getting around that.
Michael,
I don’t know how much you know about Korean history, but it’s really hard to take someone who classifies Park alongside Mussolini seriously. Perhaps your American Manichean blinders (the one that automatically views democracy as good and authoritarianism as bad) is at work here.
Hm, Park Chung-Hee is probably the most contorversial political figure of recent Korean history. His economical laurels taken aside, he was a ambitious AND cruel dictator. And a dictator is a dictator is a dictator…
marmot,
Ahem, Uncle Sam is (arguably) the father of modern Korea. Korean wouldn’t even be close to where it is today without us. during the Vietnam war, we pumped so much money into their economy that it equaled over 60% of their GDP. Not to belittle what President Park did, but a monkey could have been president and not done too bad either.
Sugar Shin,
PCH didn’t start out as a dictator but he certainly attained those attributes toward the end. keep in mind that he had to suppress a very active communist element inside Korea so he had to have severe restrictions on liberties. as we have seen in America, freedom makes you vulnerable to attack and even in America we have had to give up a little freedom to stop the terrorist. it was no different with PCH.
how many dictators do you know create a capitalist economy and give businesses the freedom they need to operate? i can’t think of any in modern time.
ultimately, whatever view you have of him is probably colored by your political beliefs.
Scarlet — I’ll be the last one to belittle the role Americans had in South Korea’s development, but I have to say that we pumped a lot of money into a lot of “monkeys,” to to speak, who came up with nothing or not a whole lot in the end — to which, see Zaire, Pakistan, and Egypt. Aid, and lots of it, is important, but so is having someone at the other end of it who knows what to do with it. That’s what made Park’s role so important.
“ultimately, whatever view you have of him is probably colored by your political beliefs.” - Captain Scarlet
Yeah, I firmly believe in freedom & democracy, the existence of universal, nature-given human rights. Park started his “presidency” with a coup d’etat and rolled with tanks over a (I must admit a weak) democratically elected government.
With his later installed Yushin-movement Park went beyond being “only” an efficient ruler of a rapid developing country. His main political opponents like Kim Dae-Jung or Kim Young-Sam were not communists or freaky “Great Leader”-followers.
“how many dictators do you know create a capitalist economy and give businesses the freedom they need to operate? i can’t think of any in modern time.” - Captain Scarlet
Maybe Chiang Kai-Shek and his son in the Republic of China (Taiwan), Dr. Mahatir (the most anti-Semite statesman of SE Asia) of Malaysia, Pinochet of Chile and last but not least Deng Xiao-Ping/ Jiang Ze-Min of China. The list is only exemplary and not complete.
“as we have seen in America, freedom makes you vulnerable to attack and even in America we have had to give up a little freedom to stop the terrorist.” - Captain Scarlet
The Patriot Act 1 and 2 would not have prevented an attack like the high-jacking terrorists of 9/11, it was IMO a failure of the domestic intelligence agencies structure of the FBI, NSA, CIA and the befriended agencies in Europe or the Middle East. When the freedom-loving countries give up their civil rights, then the terrorists are on the winning side, because they hate democracy, humanity and liberty more than anything else.
‘ahem, uncle sam is the father of modern korea.’ scarlet
uh, ahem, no, the koreans headed by park are the ones who are responsible for modern korea. quite a few countries in the world have recieved quite a bit of aid from us, mr scarlet. what have they done with it? where are the successes that rivel south korea’s? is the west the father of modern japan? is america the father of modern germany?
‘during the vietnam war, we pumped so much money into their economy…’
yes, and the koreans pumped so much blood into your war against the vietnamese. tell me, would you tell a (korean) mother who’s child was lost in the vietnam war that she benefitted from her son’s death? something tells me you would.
i wonder, if i give you one hundred thousand dollars to create the business of your dreams, and you’re ultimately succeed, am i the one who is really responsible for your success? when you pay off a house, is it the banks hard work that made it so? i wonder.
please try to have a nice day wherever you are and whatever your rank. go out and get some really good kimchi samgyoupsahl. eat it with a side of yakee mahndoo. man, you’re going to have real treat. tell em jong il sent you.
Looks like I left the party just when it was starting up. Mr. Mehlhorn, I stand corrected. Mr. Marmot, a scoundrel is a disreputable person, and I still think Park qualifies for that distinction. Mr. Woon, whatever, yes I “automatically” think democracy is preferable to authoritarianism, not that I don’t know realpolitik when I see it. If you want beatings with rubber hoses for expressing your opinion (which S.K.’s democracy is allowing you to do right here), try the nutbin that’s about 100 kilometers north of Seoul.
sugar,
“I firmly believe in freedom & democracy, the existence of universal, nature-given human rights. Park started his “presidency” with a coup d’etat and rolled with tanks over a (I must admit a weak) democratically elected government.”
i think we all believe in freedom and democracy. however, i believe that PCH saw that the communist were going to cause a lot of trouble and decided to take action. most likely he saved your country.
all,
like i said, uncle sam is “arguably” the father of modern korea. i simply pointed out one factor that america did to help korea. there are certainly more. like the fact that there is even a south korea… or the fact that you reverse engineered everything we made and sold it back to us and we never enforced copyright on you. the list goes on.
yeah, scarlet, america isn’t the father of modern korea but i understand your need to write what you write. however, i will throw you a bone, dog, you’re right that the states is reponsible for there being a south korea. absolutely right about that. the states is also responsible for there being a north korea too. don’t forget that, wounded guy. ok?
you said in another post that you really like/love the koreans. i thought you were a liar then and i think you’re a liar now. what you really are is a lil angry western guy, angry you’re not treated like a movie star by the good folks of the shilla, baekche, and koguryo. newsflash, scarlet, you’re not a movie star and you’re not special. if i can see that via a computor, you think the koreans can’t see that when they take a good look at your sorry mug? go and play with your commander, gerry.
hey shin,
you are a confused little boy, mkay? it wasn’t america that attacked the north.. it was the north that attacked the south. it is the north’s fault that there is a south korea because they let themselves be used by russia to start a proxy war with us. now quit playing with your little jaji and read a history book or two.
btw, i was treated like a movie star by more than a few korean hotties when i lived in korea. not to mention thailand and the other asian countries that i traveled also. girls like tall, large, athletically built men like me and it doesn’t hurt that i am damn good looking as well.
as for me being a liar.. if i was standing right in front of you.. you wouldn’t have the nuts to call me a liar. i don’t care whether you think i am telling the truth or not. i do like korea and miss living there.