Comments on: Best News I’ve Read in Weeks

By: The Sunshine Policy is Officially Dead at ROK Drop

The Sunshine Policy is Officially Dead at ROK Drop — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:50:19 +0000

[...] that the new South Korean president elect Lee Myung-bak’s transition committee is looking at doing away with the Kim Jong-il stooges in the Ministry of Unification. The ministry is so desperate to keep [...]

By: ziffel

ziffel — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:34:09 +0000

Apparently, some of the actions of the Unification Ministry have left many with the impression the ministry is run by a bunch of DPRK sympathizers “with their twisted ideology.”

Let me suggest a more banal, but more powerful insight into the UM.

The UM is not necessarily pro-unification, anti-unification, pro-DPRK, anti-DPRK, pro-human rights, human rights indifferent…whatever.

First and foremost, you need to recognize that the UM is pro-UM.

The UM is populated by political appointees and civil servants that have a strong vested interest in policies that benefit the UM generally, and themselves individually.

This point should be blindingly obvious, but apparently it is not. Hence the recourse to ascribing ideological motives to their behavior.

Take any policy position that the UM has pushed (including abstaining on the UN human rights resolution), view it through that prism, and see if it doesn’t start to make some sense.

Prior to the 2000.6.15 summit, the UM was a backwater in the government. You ended up there (or god fobid, transportation) if you couldn’t get yourself into MOFE or MOFAT (or their equivalents).

All that has changed, but they have too jealously promoted their interests and are seen by some in the LMB camp as “co-dependent” with the DPRK (or “captured” for those familiar with public administration), and are about to get their wings clipped.

By: usinkorea

usinkorea — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:30:06 +0000

If I remember correctly, some of the best intel reports on the North’s economy and human rights situaiton and so on have come from somewhere below the top levels of the (anti)Unification Ministry…

Maybe folding it into the Foreign Ministry would work out best. Chop off the heads of top layers of the UM (with their twisted ideology) and keep the working level experts and bureaus who spend their days analyzing information the ministry does seem to collect.

By: Richardson

Richardson — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:33:08 +0000

Instead of eliminating the “Ministry of Unification,” it should be renamed the, “Ministry of Absorption.”

Then the Lee should cut off all aid, announce plans for how the North will be redeveloped, followed by large cash rewards for the heads of KWP officials and other regime elite.

That would send the right signal.

If anything goes wrong, blame it on Japan.

By: gbnhj

gbnhj — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:49:43 +0000

Dare to dream, Brendon. He may have glared at you, but even in a best-case (for you) scenario, he really came back to remind her.

By: Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog)

Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:46:52 +0000

Park Jin’s daughter is a fox too. I sat next to her on a flight back from DC and he came back from first class to business in order to glare at me.

By: joshua

joshua — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 11:50:22 +0000

I think Lee MB has bigger problems than an Uri insurgency fighting on in the Cholla Triangle. Sounds to me like his efforts to shape the GNP candidate slate have royally pissed off Park Geun=Hye, and she’s thinking about splitting with him. Ordinarily, Lee Hoi Chang might not be much of a threat to Lee MB, but if Lee HC and Park GH both join forces against Lee, he could be in for a rough time.

By: Hatch SZ

Hatch SZ — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:45:04 +0000

Linkd> No, I don’t think those countries will take care of it. The South will be asking them for money.

By: Baltimoron

Baltimoron — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:58:37 +0000

I’m loving the work LMB’s transition committees are doing, from Education to MIC to Unification (especially that monstrosity), too. But, and i hate to be sober about this, does LMB have the numbers in the legislature in April?

While I’m at it, exactly how do these transition committees and the ministries relate? Is there legislative oversight? Does LMB just wake up and abolish Unification on some date after inauguration?

Let’s not get too giddy! Roh Moo-hyun has got his bunker somewhere ready to lead the insurgency!

By: globalvillageidiot

globalvillageidiot — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:28:50 +0000

“And one of the best looking, too. Not that there’s much competition.”

He’s slimmed down a lot over the last couple of years. I think he credited his new and healthy appearance to a “dolphin diet.” Don’t know what that entails, but it seems to have worked.