UPDATE: English version here, via the Dong-A Ilbo.
ORIGINAL POST: It’s official–Cheong Wa Dae is a fucking sieve. This time around, OhMyNews got a hold of a Cheong Wa Dae report on the results of the Bush-Roh summit in Washington last June. The report contained a copy of the minutes from the Bush-Roh meeting. I’ll translate some of the report later, although I’m sure one of the English dailies will run a story on it by this afternoon.
Truly ridiculous, this is. Clearly, somebody up at Cheong Wa Dae has an agenda. I suggest that if Cheong Wa Dae can’t or won’t take care of this problem, the State Department should start leaking embarrassing documents to the Chosun Ilbo.
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No wonder the US doesn’t want to share any intelligence with the Roh-nothings. So much ends up in the news and slanted in the worst possible light. The Roh-nothings will continue to damage the alliance until the day they are turfed unceremoniously out of office. If by some miracle that doesn’t happen, then perhaps it’ll be time for the US to think more seriously about pulling up stakes or at least a lot more stakes. Leave a token force on the ground.
Maybe Bush should leak some confidential documents about Korea — he’s pretty good at letting out state secrets himself
Imagine the fun these amateurs will have when the FTA talks get under way!
Slim, the knives are already out:
http://www.korealiberator.org/.....ning-ugly/
Look for many more timely leaks….
I still think something I said early in the year has a good chance of being correct.
Joshua at Korea Liberator said the leaks and the FTA riots were a sign Roh was losing control of the party and government.
I think there is an equal chance this is happening by plan.
I think maybe a few months ago the thinkers in the party looked ahead at key issues - like FTA and base expansion and screen quota — and decided it was a great chance to regain their lost strength by energizing their base of core supporters.
They also knew Roh was going to continue to be a lame duck since his popularity is already low and especially since he can’t get re-elected.
So, what better way than to have him be the whipping post for the progressives?
What better way to remind at least the party’s base (and probably more) what they really stand for than by having them beat up on the current government mercilessly over these issues?
It will probably be more effective than just trying to beat up on the conservatives. That is just politics as usual. But to attack one who was your own? What better way to prove you are true champions of the people?
I said a few months ago I expected hopefuls in the party to splinter away from the administration and attack it on these issues to gain support, and we are seeing that.
And given the way Roh and crew have gone about things (in a weak manner) I think there is a good chance they approve of the situation and planned it that way.
It matters not. 우리둥 is history, Roh or no Roh. Most Koreans are sick of them but then this is obvious.
I believe usainkorea is correct. I only wish Ohmyagenda News would self-destruct or just call themselves “Fox News”.
Later, it dawned on me to think about what personality Roh has shown as the a leader.
Normally, someone who becomes president, at least in the US, has too big an ego to allow themselves to be whipped relentlessly in public for the good of the party (I’d think in Korean society with parties barely being out of diapers before they break up and reform in a different coalition it would be even more so).
But, Roh has not shown he is ego driven. He showed soon after he got the job he didn’t want it, and seemed to beg to be taken off the chair.
So I don’t buy this line from his former supporters about him moving toward conservative issues (pro-US, FTA) because he is trying to salvage his legacy.
I wouldn’t bet money on it, but I think this is all a planned set up to rally those who used to support Uri tooth-n-nail and also try to pull back in all that support that was generated by the anti-US orgy of 2002.
The screen quota big shots are great for that.
The poor rice farmers have a lot of natural sympathy too.
Add a early next year NK Summit to the mix — especially one SK doesn’t have to pay for — and who knows.
And if Pyongyang were to tie it in early next year or next spring with repatriating some abductees and/or seperated families —– could it not bring the Uri party or the likes that make it up back into the lead?
Would South Korean society react like Japan and get very angry when the North finally admitted the truth and sent abductees home?
I doubt it. Maybe. But not likely.
I think Pyongyang and the Uri faithful core supporters have a shot of swinging things much more toward Uri’s way. I mean, even with all the anti-US stuff going in Roh’s favor last year, where his bamboo pole opponent had to plan to visit the families of the two dead girls just to have a pray of winning, Roh still only won a narrow victory. It isn’t like his followers won hands down. They can regain some of that popularity that wasn’t stellar to begin with.
On the leaks……I don’t worry about them at all and don’t think the US should.
Stuff leaked to the South Korean press probably isn’t something snuck up North.
That is what I’d worry about. (All the) any quiet material shared with the North by those in the South’s government who are true believers that the Pyongtaek expansion and movement south of the Han is the first step in premptive strike against the North that the US (or just the Bush admin) is chopping at the bit to launch…….
I just wanted to point out that the original Korean ohmy piece has a lot more pro-GNP, anti-Roh flavor than the english post.
At least from the OhMy article if there is an agenda, it’s to embarrass Roh Moo Hyun’s irresponsibile behavior in how he gave a not-to-truthful summary to Korea’s opposition parties about the meeting he had with Bush–namely in sexying up the Korea-US relations and completely ignoring US concerns.
If anyone wants to spin conspiracy theories, it makes more sense to assume that the US State Department “leaked” this stuff to GNP. Not that I really believe that.
I mean, this has to be the most boring “leak” news I read. The contents of the “leak”: Bush was worried that North Korea trades drugs, counterfeits US currencies, and is a serious threat to nuclear weapons proliferation. Also, Roh Moo Hyun downplays these and does some funny translations about what Bush actually says and claims Bush supports Roh. Blah blah blah. Surprise surprise surprise. Where’s the leak? There is absolutely nothing in the article(the OhMyNews) that would embarrass Bush or cast the US in a negative light.
One might get that, virtual wonderer, but I don’t believe that’s what the agenda is. Yes, the target is Roh, but they are targetting Roh because they believe him to be giving in to the U.S.–or at least not confronting the U.S.–and then lying about it to the Korean public. This was a Cheong Wa Dae document that was leaked, not a U.S. document.
And while the leak may have been “boring,” it contained actual minutes from a presidential summit. That’s a big deal, and further proof that someone–or more likely someones–in Cheong Wa Dae isn’t a team player.
And my point was that the effort to make Roh look bad —– to attack him on these issues - which are supposed to be more of the conservative’s play ground ——- could very well have been planned ahead of time in order to get Roh’s and Uri’s core base energized and try to recapture the glory of the past.
It really has next to nothing to do with Bush or even the US alliance beyond them as internal political issues in the society.
In general, Korean society likes to dislike opening the screen quota, opening the rice market, opening markets in general, FTAs, US bases and so on.
By beating up on Roh and what they are describing as his tact to the right —-
they can try to win back some of the magic they have lost since 2002.
Look at it this way —— Everybody knows Roh is very weak in Korean society.
His coattails are not going to lead anybody into office. Support from Roh would not bee a big selling point.
So, why not have him “embrace conservative ideas” so the people who still might have a future in higher office in Uri Party can lump him in with the GNP and beat up on both of them?
It is crystal clear the guys making all the noise are trying to tap into the anti-outsider anti-globalization, and so on feeling that might be out there in Korean society.
If Roh were running for election again or he were a strong political figure whose support could influence elections, maybe you could say this stuff is “pro-GNP” in some way because it is attacking the Uri party candidate who is in power right now.
But, given Roh’s inability to get reelected and the fact nobody in the nation likes him as president —- these attacks are meant to gain support for Uri, not the GNP.
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[...] The Donga Ilbo is also talking about espionage today, noting how the number of spy arrests has declined. Taking the words right out of my own mouth, the Donga notes that there are several ways to explain this. First, the South Koreans could be trying not to make waves with the North. Second, the North might find the infiltration of its humint assets into the South to be unnecessarily expensive and strenuous, since members of the South Korean government will eventually give them whatever they need via OhMyNews (more here). [...]