Showing the Americans how to do it

Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. And now, after one failed attempt, the national assembly has impeached the insurrectionist scumbag. Yoon will now be suspended and be sent for trial with the constitutional court to determine whether he will be permanently removed from office. Assuming he's not tried and convicted on criminal charges of insurrection first...

The contrast with America's handling of Trump's insurrection couldn't be greater. There, Republican legislators refused to defend democracy, voting against Trump's impeachment in the Senate. Criminal charges were dragged out and delayed, and have now been dismissed. And the Republican Supreme Court allowed him to stand for re-election, despite crystal clear constitutional language barring insurrectionists from federal office. The clear message is that the US political elite doesn't care about democracy or the rule of law. And Americans will find out the consequences of that on January 20th.

Spies are a threat to democracy

If you need any further evidence that spies are inherently a threat to democracy, just take a look at South Korea, where its chief spy agency has just admitted manipulating elections to get its preferred candidate elected:

South Korea’s spy agency has admitted it conducted an illicit campaign to influence the country’s 2012 presidential election, mobilising teams of experts in psychological warfare to ensure that the conservative candidate, Park Geun-hye, beat her liberal rival.

An internal investigation by the powerful National Intelligence Service also revealed attempts by its former director and other senior officials to influence voters during parliamentary elections under Park’s predecessor, the hardline rightwinger Lee Myung-bak.

[...]

The NIS’s in-house investigation found that its cyberwarfare unit formed as many as 30 “extra-departmental” teams comprising officials and internet-savvy citizens to upload posts in support of conservative politicians for two years in the run-up to the 2012 presidential vote.

“The teams were charged with spreading pro-government opinions and suppressing anti-government views, branding them as attempts by pro-North Korean forces to disrupt state affairs,” the NIS report said.

The NIS's 2012 candidate was eventually forced from office and is now standing trial on corruption and abuse of power charges. The NIS director at the time is also currently standing trial, and faces four years in prison if convicted.

The fundamental problem here is a conflation of domestic politics with enemy action, and the interests of the spies with the interests of the state. Secretive agencies are prone to such problems, and the problem is that we'll never find out that they've done it until its too late. For safe, peaceful countries, its is safer then not to have such agencies at all, lest they get tempted...

No justice for slave fishing

Sajo Oyang is South Korea's largest fishing company. Its also the company responsible for slave-fishing in New Zealand waters. Its predominantly Indonesian crews are reportedly treated like slaves: beaten, sexually-abused, forced to work in unsafe conditions, and (of course) underpaid. Last year, it looked like the South Korean authorities were finally goign to do something about this, bringing charges against the company and its managers for fraud and sexual abuse - charges which would have seen them in jail. Sadly, it hasn't worked out that way:

A top official of Korea's largest fishing company has escaped prosecution despite a report that he admitted ordering the forging of currency receipts to trick Immigration New Zealand over payment to low-wage crews.

Nine men either working for Sajo Oyang Corporation in Korea, or on their vessel Oyang 75 in New Zealand, will not be prosecuted by Korean authorities for a variety of offences, including allegations of forgery and assault.

[...]

Busan Regional Public Prosecutor Yoo Kyungpil said in his report that one of the accused, unnamed but described as the CEO of Sajo Industry (now part of Oyang), had admitted to his "suspected crimes".

He said it was the first time he had been accused of criminal activity, and would not be prosecuted for alleged abetting and fraudulent use of documents.

So, serious fraud, but as its a first offence he gets a free pass. I think we can call that a whitewash. As for the assault and sexual abuse charges, South Korean prosecutors claim they have no jurisdiction - despite the vessels being Korean flagged and therefore operating under Korean Law under UNCLOS. Either Korea has a serious legal loophole which renders all of its ships law-free zones, or someone is dragging their feet. And either way, its not acceptable. Serious crimes have been committed in New Zealand waters, including slavery, a crime under international law over which all nations have universal jurisdiction. If Korea disclaims all responsibility for investigating and prosecuting them, then we should take it up.

Unscientific

For the past twenty-five years, Japan has been engaging in "scientific whaling" as a way of getting around the ban on commercial whaling. Now, South Korea wants to get into the act too:

South Korea is proposing to hunt whales under regulations permitting scientific research whaling, echoing the programmes of its neighbour, Japan.

Hunting would take place near the Korean coast on minke whales. How many would be caught is unclear.

The South Korean delegation to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) said the research was needed "for the proper assessment of whale stocks".

Because obviously, assessing whale stocks requires killing and eating them, rather than mucking around with cameras, GPS tags, and databases.

This isn't science - its using "science" as a cover for commercial exploitation. And the IWC should not permit it.

Barbaric

Adultery is apparently still illegal in South Korea - and they're actually going to send someone to jail for it. This is simply barbaric. What consenting adults do in private is no business of the state, and people's relationships are a private matter, not something the government should be sticking its nose into.

Olympic farce: North Asia

The torch of shame did Seoul last night, and the trend of large pro-Chinese counterprotests reached its ugly conclusion. In Canberra, Chinese protestors bussed in by the embassy scuffled with human rights protestors. In Nagano, there were ugly scenes between competing Chinese and Japanese nationalists. And in Seoul, the Chinese decided that they'd just beat anyone who disagreed with them:

Hours before the torch run began in Seoul, several thousand Chinese, mostly students studying in South Korea, converged in this city's Olympic Park, singing, chanting and waving pickets that said “We love China” or “Go, Go China.”

When lone protesters demanded that China stop repatriating North Korean refugees, they were quickly surrounded by jeering Chinese. Near the park, Chinese students surrounded and beat a small group of protesters, news reports said.

In another scuffle, at the city centre where the five-hour torch run ended, Chinese surrounded several Tibetans and South Korean supporters who unfurled pro-Tibet banners, and kicked and punched them, witnesses said.

At one stage a Chinese mob decided to try and silence a group of 150 mostly elderly human rights protestors by throwing bottles, rocks, and steel pipes at them. "One world, one dream" - or else.

(New Zealand had its own version of this ugly nationalism in Auckland yesterday, when participants in a "pro-China" decided that their pride in and love of their country (or, less charitably, the pile of patriotic bullshit they'd been fed since day one by their totalitarian regime) gave them a licence to assault and intimidate those who disagreed with them. It's not acceptable in China and its not acceptable here. To their credit, the protest organisers at least intervened to try and stop it - but this is what happens when you start waving flags, and an excellent example of why we should treat all such incidents of patriotic chest-beating with suspicion).

The torch is now in Pyongyang, where it is finally getting the sort of greeting the Chinese have wanted all along - "hundreds of thousands of North Koreans in a choreographed mass display of flower-waving". Of course, North Korea is a totalitarian state which does not allow protests - just like China.

Shrinking Coalition Watch

South Korea is getting out of Iraq. Citing "the stable security condition" there, the South Korean Defence Minister has announced plans to withdraw around a thousand of the 3600 troops stationed in Irbil. Interestingly, they made the announcement without informing the US government - and just a day after a summit meeting between the US and South Korean Presidents. I guess they decided that Bush just didn't need to know...