Mayor Park to ground control

Seoul Mayor PARK Won-soon was found dead right after midnight last night in what appears to be a suicide triggered by accusations of sexual assaults. His body was found with the help of police dogs in a park near Sukjeongmun, in the Seongbuk-gu where he resided. The city of Seoul will hold mayoral funerals, and he shall rest in peace on Monday.

Suicide is always a tragedy, and I feel sorry for PARK, but I feel even more sorry for victims who won't get justice, since his death means all cases are now dropped. So it's up to the medias to investigate, or to the victims to come forward if they find enough courage to do so without the full framework of justice.
 
As all mayors, PARK leaves a mixed legacy, and as I did with his predecessors / as I will try to do with his successors, I didn't spare him with praise or criticism. If I welcomed PARK's late conversion to urbanism, and focus on urban regeneration, I disliked his doubletalk in favor of wealthy speculators and neighborhoods (not only in Gangnam and Yongsan), or his recent u-turn to reprioritize high-rise approaches. As I pointed out in the past, where Seoul mayors tend to boast 'hardware' realizations (Cheonggyecheon for LEE Myung-bak, Gwanghwamun Square for OH Se-hoon, Seoullo 7017 for PARK Won-soon), their main achievements may be on a more 'software' side: dedicated bus lanes for LEE, rebalancing budgets from wealthy areas to (re)vitalize the deprived ones for OH, and opening the big data flows for PARK (a sharing approach he prolonged during this coronavirus pandemic).

When I heard that Seoul mayor was missing, as the drama unfolded live on TV, as the rumor mill started to grind, I wondered like everyone what was happening. PARK Won-soon flying away for a scandal, that didn't surprise me at all. But PARK Won-soon perpetrating sordid sex abuses, or committing suicide, I would never have expected that.

While guessing which scandal he was trying to escape, I imagined all potential threads including the wildest conspiracy theories, from another Yonsei story (following the scandal surrounding his son, the prime estate sold by the city to the university for a song...) to a brush with Seoul underworld (suspiciously, seedy businesses were twice overly protected during the pandemic). Yet I would never have pictured him as a sexual predator. As for his disappearance, until the end I thought he planned a Houdini escape, his trek to the mountain a red herring cleverly mirroring ROH Moo-hyun's last moments. I truly believed that PARK Won-soon was too imbued with himself to kill himself. I was totally wrong, and that made me think again about what I thought I knew of the man.

The first time I remember meeting him was in 2009, with other members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission when they were digging in directions that - to say the least - didn't always make ultra-conservatives very happy. The voices of victims were rising after decades of silence, and not long afterwards, LEE Myung-bak would torpedo the institution, derailing dynamics badly needed for Korea to start its healing. PARK looked focused and a bit shy, probably because the discussions were in English. Anyway, very different from the flamboyant Mayor I'd meet years later in many occasions (of course I don't think he'd remember well this guy among all the faces he came across).

This populist got a lucky break in politics when OH Se-hoon shot himself in the foot, but he was great at campaining, building support from the youth, and making top down initiatives look as if they popped up from citizens.

I remember a man who obviously could not bear not being likable, not looking young (he eventually fixed those recurring complaints about receding hair). Even his irrepressible presidential ambitions, never tamed by mediocre national polls, could become touching, pathetic.

More accessible than his predecessor (a different kind of narcissist), PARK was a genial host, particularly warm with journalists, media, and bloggers. Obsessed with photo ops to the point he created a mock office in city hall, this PR junkie was regularly mocked at by the way he called camera crews ahead of his 'spontaneous', 'selfless' shows. He could be quite direct about what he expected from you (your vote, your public praise), but didn't retaliate if you didn't play the game. Well this kind of games at least... I may be speculating again, but we know insecure narcissists have dark sides.

For sure, if PARK Won-soon often defended very noble causes, he can't and shouldn't be compared to ROH Moo-hyun.

His fall rather echoes that of AHN Hee-jung, and yesterday I couldn't help but remember the 2017 images of MOON Jae-in, PARK Won-soon, and AHN Hee-jung on that Gwanghwamun podium on victory night.

PARK's scandal happens at the very moment MOON is lambasted for sending AHN, for the funerals of his mother, flowers paid with taxpayers money; at the very moment the icon who for decades composed the soundtrack of Korea's democratic movements, AHN Chi-hwan, releases 'Irony', a song criticizing harshly self-proclaimed progressives who have turned not only into conservatives for their own power, but into existential threats to the democracy they are supposed to have fought for as activists (thinking of you, CHO Kuk, YOON Mee-hyang, and even you, at the very top).

We all have our greatnesses, weaknesses, and contradictions, but there are lines not to cross, particularly when you hold power. Even if it ends up with yet another suicide, yet more impunity for sexual abuses, may this tragedy help Korean politicians be less tempted to fail as humans.

"Just a few files to sort before Christmas, and we're back to you! (with @wonsoonpark in #Seoul City Hall)

" (20131224 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/415405587891884032)

"Good!" (20131224 - PWS's answer, from his former Twitter account - @wonsoonpark)

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The Sejongno Insult

 This is just wrong:

PARK Chung-hee parading on Sejongno in 2013

PARK Chung-hee parading on Sejongno in 2013, at the feet of the Government building and facing - among others - the highly controversial National Museum of Korean Contemporary History? That's simply shocking.

Of course, the artistic alibi doesn't stand one second: the former dictator didn't land here by chance anymore than Shinzo Abe landed on jet fighter #731 by chance last spring*.

This is not the kind of messages Korea needs to send these days, particularly as the nation asks Shinzo Abe's Japan to stop revising history.

Yesterday, PARK Chung-hee's daughter paid a silent tribute to Uncle Ho at the Ho Chi Minh Memorial, but missed a golden opportunity to issue formal apologies for Korea's wrongdoings during the Vietnam War. Yes, "in 1992, when Korea and Vietnam established diplomatic ties, Vietnam agreed not to ask Korea for an apology for fighting on the American side in the war"**, but we're talking about apologies for crimes that didn't belong in a war.

Again, PARK Geun-hye has the legitimacy to become a game changer in East Asian politics, and she could even deserve a Nobel Peace Prize if she had the courage to make the first move. We can't go like this any longer, all nations have to face correctly their own dark moments, regardless of the relative importance to what their neighbors did. Korea must apologize for the crimes committed by its troops during the Vietnam War, and as the President of the Republic of Korea, PARK Geun-hye must make sure that Korean history is correctly taught at home, recognize that her father was a dictator, state firmly that it is wrong to present only the positive sides of his reign, and restore the Truth and Reconciliation process.

Only then can she expose Shinzo Abe and his fellow revisionists without any reserve.

Until now, she's only half-distanced herself from her father's heritage. Typically, she said that the future Park Chung-hee museum shouldn't be funded with public money, but that's not enough: the State should make this museum illegal unless it exposes both sides of the coin, and involves victims of the regime in the process.

There's no better moment than right now, following the embarrassing exposure of other enemies of democracy, at the other side of the policial spectrum (see "LEE Seok-ki's Arirang Spring"): this is not a witch-hunt, we want Korea's democracy to be stronger, and see, we're cleaning our own mess.

To be consistent, PARK Geun-hye must also give her full support to investigations on the "NIS-gate", the scandal that cast a shadow on her own election. And she should even be ready to call for new elections, if that's what the outcome demands.

That's what a great leader would do to reunite at least this side of the DMZ, and at long last, propel Korea into the new millenium.


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* See "Can't top that? Shinzo Abe posing as Shiro Ishii, the Josef Mengele of Imperial Japan". I'm not comparing PARK's dictatorship to Imperial Japan, but precisely: Korea must realize that such tasteless provocations are undermining the nation as a whole.
** "Park vows $70B in Vietnam trade" (Korea JoongAng Daily - 20130910)

Apropos of nothing

Are you better off than you were one year ago, now that:
- South Korea has a new president,
- its dark half has a new wonsu,
- Seoul has a new city hall,
- and Gangnam has a new jockey?

If yes, consider yourself lucky: this is a country where one in four youngsters has considered suicide, and where every other elderly lives in poverty... which puts your favorite K-pop star's latest hair disaster into perspective.

Seoul Village season VII will start pretty soon, and since true love requires some level of truth and soberness, I'm afraid there might be more episodes* about the less bright side of my beloved inhuman, all too human Seoul and Korea... which, as you well know, doesn't mean you should expect truth or sobriety from these pages.

So happy new year, and "best pants" to you all:

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* more racism? revisionism? creationism? mirages? masquerades? ghost neighborhoods? flying rats?

Ad Nauseam: about Dark Tourism, the Blind Spots of Memory, and Free Thrashing Agreements

Yesterday, I survived my first shaky landing in 20 years of Korea and 10 years of Incheon International Airport, courtesy typhoon Bolaven.

We'd knowingly left Seoul's hell (29+ degrees, 90%+ humidity, heavy rain) for a paradise called Cambodia (35+ degrees, 92%+ humidity, pouring rain), prefering the country's rainy season to its touristic rush hour. And we were rewarded with a wonderful trip between Siem Reap - Angkor and Phnom Penh, enjoying the marvels of the Khmer civilizations, the kindness of the people, great culinar experiences, incredibly lively markets and villages....

I'll spare you the 1500+ pixes I took, except these 3 sad ones. It's very unfair for such a beautiful country, but I had to make a few points.

The first picture was taken in Choeung Ek, better known as the "Killing Fields" of Phnom Penh, one of the main sites where the infamous Khmer Rouge regime mass murdered between one and two million innocent citizens.



Many Choeung Ek victims passed by Security Prison 21 (S-21), the symbol of Pol Pot's torture system, and now Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Here too, the unbearable stare of thousands of victims. Worse, you meet pupils instead of empty sockets:



Visiting such sites is always an upsetting experience, even more now that dark tourism has become so pervasive, and often associated with schadenfreude if not voyeurism. But what to make of this? At the top floor of the S-21 museum, an exhibition about the "Cambodia-Okinawa 'Peace Museum' Cooperation Project" was putting at the same level the civilian victims of the battle of Okinawa and the victims of the Cambodian genocide:




Till the end, this visit of Tuol Sleng exposed the worst of human nature. Of course, I feel deep empathy for innocent victims, and between 40 and 150,000 Japanese civilians died during that battle. But exactly like in the touching "Grave of the fireflies" animation movie, the audience is never told the whole story, the responsibilities of the Imperial regime are never mentioned, it's just a sad story about the absurdity of war and destruction, about remembering only one side of history, about painting Japan as a pure victim of World War II.

Putting at the same level the Cambodian genocide and this tragedy, which happened during a battle that also saw about 120,000 soldiers die (mostly within Japanese ranks), is as shocking as putting at the same level victims of the Holocaust and the civilian victims of say WWII Berlin.

This outrageous propaganda is also an insult to the memory of Okinawa victims, who do owe their fate to the madness of war, but also and firstly to the fascist regime that led their country to war crimes and crimes against humanity across the region.

The Japanese who initiated and financed this tasteless 'Peace Project' are deliberately fueling the "selective memory" imposture that obliterates the inconvenient truths of this great nation's history. It took almost 30 years for Cambodians to start prosecuting their war criminals, but over 65 years after WWII, Japan is still eluding its most essential duties as a democracy. Worse: as late as in 1978, when up to 300 innocents were butchered every day in Choeung Ek, Japan decided to enshrine 14 more of its own war criminals in Yasukuni. Still today, ministers keep honoring these war criminals in public.

As if maintaining the Japanese people in ignorance regarding the darkest sides of the Empire wasn't enough, impostors are now purchasing ad space abroad in the name of a caricature of peace that negates history and its lessons. They are shamelessly piggybacking on the Pol Pot franchise, using foreign war criminals to cover up their own war criminals.

Again, I love Japan, but these impostors have to be exposed, and this great country cannot keep eluding its past if it wants to have a sound future. The same can be said about most countries, including mine*, and of course Korea, a country where a former dictator walks free (Chun Doo-hwan), and another is adulated**, a country where the government decided to stop its truth and reconciliation process because it was seeking too much truth and too much reconciliation.

Actually, while reading the "Peace Museum" propaganda in S-21, I was reminded of my visit to another jail where history was not told very fairly: in Seodaemun Prison, you learn a lot about the atrocities committed under the Japanese occupation, but nothing about who was jailed there for which reason in the decades that followed.

History is like a parking lot: crimes are more likely to rehappen wherever you forget to put light, and even more likely where you decide to do so.

There is no other way of defusing the rising tensions across Asia, and particularly between Japan, Korea, and China, three countries about to officialize their FTA (Free Thrashing Agreement). And I seize the opportunity to thank the Korea Herald for publishing my answer to the recent Herald Voice question "How can N.E. Asia improve relations?" (20120827):

"Expose the imposters: hate mongers who feed upon each other, pseudo-nationalists who actually undermine their own nations, people who demand justice abroad but deny it at home. How can Japanese extremists at the same time suggest the ICJ for Dokdo and elude justice for comfort women? How can Chinese extremists at the same time claim islands and distort the whole region’s history and geography? How can Korean extremists demand justice from Japan and deny justice to their own people by terminating the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and revising dictatorship eras?"

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* among other French 'niceties' in Cambodia: the country used to be a French protectorate until 1953 (except between 1941 and 1945, when it was occupied by... Japan!), and Pol Pot received his ideological training in Paris.

** Park Chung-hee's regime has been repainted pink ever since his daughter entered the presidential race as "the best possible choice".

Censorship about censorship in South Korea?

When I opened the International Herald Tribune last Thursday, I made a bet with myself. I've waited until today Sunday and for the moment, I've won it.

The bet? "I'm pretty sure I won't see this article with the same title online, if the article ever makes it online".

The article's headline? "Tweet this! South Korea censors freedom". As you can see, it was Thursday's top headline:

This article mentions a few facts. For instance, that international observers sometimes put South Korea on par with countries like Russia because the government shows little tolerance for critics. I already mentioned the degradation of South Korea rankings in the Press Freedom Index (see "25 years later"). Nothing new under the sun.

But. This is not the kind of headlines that make a government happy. They prefer when major international media talk about Korea's successful olympics, or when they set themselves the political agenda. Say, for example, why not a last minute visit to Dokdo, eh? Done! And by a miraculous coincidence, precisely two days later (see "Worst followers").

One of the reasons why I made this bet with myself (even before the sad Dokdo episode) is that a couple of years ago, there was an interesting mutation of a NYT/IHT article between the web and the print editions, when "South Korea Admits Civilian Massacre During War" became "South Korean panel confirms full horror of civilian massacres" (see "Lost In Translation ?"). For the first time at the international level, this administration officially distanced itself from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission it was supposed to support. The termination of the institution in the months that followed was so messy that the man in charge of the dirty job eventually got fined (see "Truth and Reconciliation - Justice at last").

So as I write these lines, "Tweet this! South Korea censors freedom" has not yet made it to the IHT/NYT websites. Not even under a milder title. And if you search all the articles of the author CHOE Sang-hun, you get a list that covers the ones before, and the one that came later (I actually waited for that to happen to write this piece):

At the headline level at least, I'm sure Cheong Wa Dae approves the new editorial line: the previous articles were exposing the lavish lifestyle of the North Korean elite, and the latest one relates the visit of the Korean President to Dokdo.

Nevermind other truths, and forget about reconciliation.

--- UPDATE 20120816 ---

One week later, the article eventually made it online (link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/world/asia/critics-see-south-korea-internet-curbs-as-censorship.html?_r=1).



Time (and articles) have passed since, and of course the title has changed, distanced itself from the accusations, and lost all its striking power: "Tweet this! South Korea censors freedom" became "Critics See South Korea Internet Curbs as Censorship" in the list of articles from the author, and "Korea Policing the Net. Twist? It's South Korea." in the article page itself. A twisted tweet indeed...



Do you think I still believe I won my bet? You betcha!

--- END OF UPDATE 20120816 ---

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Park Geun-hye: "The best possible choice"?

Park Geun-hye officially declared her candidacy for this year's presidential elections, and the polls give her a very comfortable lead, even over Ahn Cheol-soo (who doesn't seem in a hurry to join the race).

I've already said I didn't think that a "Kim The Third - Park The Second" face-off would send the best possible message about Korean democracy. And I was not really surprised to hear how she described her father's 1961 coup: "unavoidable, the best possible choice, and the right decision".

Can you trust someone who at the same time pretends to be "the best possible choice" for South Korea, and describes a military coup as "the best possible choice" for South Korea?

If Park Chung-hee achieved major feats for Korea, his dictatorial regime didn't respect democracy or human rights. If Park Chung-hee himself was not as corrupt as most dictators, he didn't always took the right decisions, starting with his collaboration with Japanese occupants. I noticed how, ahead of PGH's candidacy, a museum in his honor had been inaugurated, and how every critic of the Great Man caused reactions within ultra-conservative circles, who try to rewrite the coup as a democratic revolution.

I'd be curious to know what Mrs Park thinks about national reconciliation, or about the termination of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.


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State-condoned creationism in Korea? A cold-blooded murder against King Sejong

After the shameful termination of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Korea, and after the flabbergasting removal of history from school curriculum, yet another outrageous victory for revisionists in Korea: the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology gave in to a creationist lobby, and made possible the publication of high school texbooks where examples of evolution have been removed.

This incredible story, "South Korea surrenders to creationist demands", was published earlier this month in Nature:

A special purpose vehicle of the Korea Association for Creation Research* (kacr.or.kr), the revisionist lobby which pulled the strings didn't try to masquerade behind an Intelligent-Design-like smokescreen: it's even named the Society for Textbook Revise! Note how STR's website (str.or.kr) apes its US creationist counterparts:

Letting creationism, the very negation of science and education and one of the worst enemies of democracy, dictate the contents of textbooks is undoubtedly the most profound disgrace imaginable for any Ministry of Education.

But here in Korea, that's the ultimate abomination.

This is Korea, the country of King Sejong, a wise statesmen who advocated education and science.

This is Korea, a country victim of revisionist texbooks in Japan, where the extreme right, though very small in members, has considerable power over national politics and manages to keep the whole population in the dark regarding the country's troubled past.

Once again**, it seems that Korea is under attack from its worst enemies, the ones from within. A minority of extremists who dream of copying the Japanese "model" and to rule over the past and the future of the country.

And once again, these impostors are not nationalists: they want the destruction of Korea as a republic and as a democracy, and they are the best allies of the impostors who, in Japan or in China, multiply the same kind of provocations to fuel mutual hatred and extremism across the region.

Across the aisle, true Korean nationalists, true partisans of democracy and of the republic must defend the nation against the impostors who try to destroy it: expose and condemn their impostures, prevent revisionist textbooks from being published, and restore the values that make Korea a great country.

Wake up Korea!
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* Of course, "creation" and "research" are antinomic, but precisely, the whole concept of creationism is an insult to science and education. If believing in a creator is perfectly respectable, "Creationism" is pure forgery, an imposture that has nothing to do with science, and even nothing to do with religion: the agenda is political and ultimately, it's about replacing democracy with theocracy, and about replacing religion with fundamentalism.
**
They seem to grow bolder by the day, and the multiplication of such provocations (see recently MBC's xenophobic video - "Still no apology from MBC, and more provocations on the Chinese front") is probably not a coincidence in this election year.

Foreigners

Hi, I'm Stephane. I live in Seoul and I'm from Africa, just like any other Seoulite, just like any other human being.

My passport says that I'm French, and that's also true. If I were an American citizen, I guess my blue eyes and my facial features would have census officers tick the "Caucasian" box, but in France like in Germany, keeping any kind of race-related record has been illegal ever since the Nazi Occupation. I can't think of any nation that ever succeeded in completely eradicating discriminations and racism (certainly not France), but in most democracies, incitement to ethnic or racial hatred is a crime.

Over the past few days, Seoul's international community has been taken aback by "The Shocking Reality About Relationships With Foreigners" a sensationalistic program recently aired by MBC, one of Korea's top broadcasters. Radiating xenophobia, this short video uses classic propaganda techniques to depict all Foreigners as sexual predators abusing Korean women:



In spite of a legitimate uproar (but without much pressure from fellow mainstream Korean media), MBC executives refused to apologize, claiming this program had been outsourced. So to a major injury to journalistic ethics, they added an insult to editorial ethics.

Note that MBC has already been on damage control mode for years: PD Diary controversies, nomination of a(n also) controversial president (KIM Jae-chul), months of strike... such is the shocking reality about Korean politics. Somehow, the absence of political debate and the inaudibility of moderates from all sides paves the way for pervasive disinformation and corruption.

Let's be very clear:

- This caricature of a program is by no means Korea. It's an insult to Korean values even more than to media ethics, not to mention, of course, to Koreans and to 'foreigners'. Hopefully, moderates are speaking up online* where, in contrast with MBC's negative video, hundreds of positive messages keep piling up, exposing the shocking reality: mixed families living happily in a welcoming nation.

- Yes, this is not the first incident in that vein, but Korean authorities are already investing in public awareness and pedagogy (tolerance, mutual understanding and mutual respect in a multicultural society), in order to prepare the former Hermit Kingdom and new global player for the major demographic challenges ahead**. MBC's video will certainly be a hot topic at the special 2012 Seoul Town Meeting held on Saturday 9.

- If MBC deserves blame and should apologize, we should at the same time praise Korean media when they do the right thing. I have in mind a front page article by the Chosun Ilbo, a couple of weeks ago, denouncing the contradictions of Korean media when they, at the same time if not in the same breath, boasted about the nomination of a Korean-American as the head of the World Bank (Jim Yong KIM), and lambasted the first 'foreign' members of the parliament (Jasmine LEE)***. Over the past months, the Chosun Ilbo has taken a stand for other just causes through long and well searched campaigns, for instance against bullying at school, or more recently against the culture of permissivity for drunkenness (considered an extenuating circumstance even in the most odious crimes). Promoting fairness in the media and praising fair campaigns is another way of exposing all wrongdoings, and it shows the right direction.

- Such regrettable incidents are not specific to Korea. Yes, even here, we might be witnessing a classic "us vs them" imposture: some pseudo-nationalist hatemongers could try to feed their war on Korean democracy by creating a fake "Foreigners vs Koreans" debate. We've already seen them play ping pong with fellow hatemongers in Japan****, and nationalism sells well in times of crisis... I wouldn't be surprised if they slammed as "un-Korean" any Korean media denouncing their imposture...

Here are the actual 'foreigners': an infinitesimal clique of impostors who, from the inside, are trying to estrange Koreans from themselves, spreading confusion, ignorance, and misunderstanding, fueling hatred, in the opposite direction to the nation's Confucian values and peaceful traditions.

To expose these impostors, Korea keeps repeating, every day, the same evidence: love is the answer.

From and to Korea, with love,

Stephane

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* most notably in the fast growing Facebook group "Action against MBC Korea and their racist, biased "reporting.""
** see for instance: "In 2050, almost 10% of Korea's population will not be Korean"
*** "Korean Xenophobia Betrays Double Standards"
**** I won't list again all the posts, but quote myself nonetheless (that was about the 1000th demonstration of Korean victims of sexual slavery, where I sent back to back ultranationalists from both countries): "This is not about nationalism, and this is certainly not about Korea vs Japan, but about Japan vs Justice, and about Japan vs its own future. Crimes were committed and victims simply expect justice. Japan must face history in order to face the future, and its leaders cannot hide the truth to Japanese citizens any longer. I've said the same thing about other issues: this is also about saving Japan. And if I joined the protesters, it's also because I love Japan and because I can't accept to see a minority of die hard ultra-conservatives setting a corrupt agenda and betraying the Japanese people. And to Korean ultra-nationalists who try to hijack this case for their own corrupt agenda, I say: clean your own mess first, and restore the Truth and Reconciliation Commission". Now this is about Korea vs its own future. To be future-proof, Korea must face its own past, and denounce those who try to conceal it (see "Truth and Reconciliation - Justice at last"). Education is as always key for the future, and I'm very distressed to see History losing ground in Korean schools ("History Loses Place in School Curriculum").

Truth and Reconciliation - Justice at last

Ever since he became head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Korea, more than 2 years ago, LEE Young-jo seemed to be less interested in defending the cause (uncovering the country's troubled past to pave the way for a sounder future), than in undermining the institution and in pleasing fellow right wing activists*.

If LEE failed as the head of the TRCK, he clearly succeeded in that not so hidden agenda: he first banned a key report exposing unconvenient truths, and then quickly led the institution to its termination.

At last, justice caught up with Mr LEE, who's just been fined for abusing his position in order to ban the TRCK report: "Ex-head of truth commission abused authority to ban book" (Korea Times 20120511). LEE also lost the support of the Saenuri Party for the recent legislative elections.

If this verdict won't resurrect the TRCK, it does convey a message to those who try to erase or rewrite History.

The moral of the story? When you try to hide a mine field by covering it with dirt, don't celebrate by dancing on it.

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* See TRCK lost in translation or lost in transition?, and my previous posts related to TRCK, among which:
- TRCK: families of victims demand essential follow-up
- Truth and Reconciliation : which model for Korea ?
- A common History (also published in JoongAng Ilbo as "Japan may face its history")
- President Lee, please keep digging

One Thousand Wednesdays

The young girl is sitting on a chair, a bird on her left shoulder. Her sad eyes seek an answer from the building across the street, to no avail. This time again, the Japanese Embassy remains silent. Or rather, it keeps protesting against the statue of the girl recently erected across the street as a reminder: the Korean victims of sexual slavery are still expecting justice and official apologies from the Japanese Government.

Today, the young girl was surrounded by a couple of old friends: a few surviving 'comfort women' who are now in their 80s or 90s. They live in the House of Sharing, a residence and museum in Gyeonggi-do, and come every Wednesday to protest. Not against the statue, but with it, and for justice.

Today, these halmoni were surrounded by hundreds of friends: longtime activists and supporters of the cause, or simple citizens of the World from all ages, all origins, all beliefs.

Today, December 14, 2011, marked the 1,000th Wednesday of protest since January 8, 1992, and masses met in front of the Embassy in Junghak-dong. Wiping away their tears and facing again the camera: they've overcome shame for 20 years, and since then more than ever, the shame is on Japanese leaders.



This is not about nationalism, and this is certainly not about Korea vs Japan, but about Japan vs Justice, and about Japan vs its own future. Crimes were committed and victims simply expect justice*. Japan must face history in order to face the future, and its leaders cannot hide the truth to Japanese citizens any longer.

I've said the same thing about other issues: this is also about saving Japan. And if I joined the protesters, it's also because I love Japan and because I can't accept to see a minority of die hard ultra-conservatives setting a corrupt agenda and betraying the Japanese people.

And to Korean ultra-nationalists who try to hijack this case for their own corrupt agenda, I say: clean your own mess first, and restore the Truth and Reconciliation Commission***.

Help the victims and support the cause:

House of Sharing / Nanum : houseofsharing.org / nanum.org
Join the Facebook group
NB (reminder): until Friday, the House of Sharing's International Outreach Team is organizing near Hongdae a multi-media art exhibition dealing with issues of sexual slavery, human trafficking, and violence and oppression against women, and including film projections, works from halmonies...*

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* Justice means:
1. That the Japanese government admits the compulsory drafting of Korean women as Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.
2. That an official apology will be made for this.
3. That all the atrocities will be fully disclosed.
4. That a Memorial will be built for the victims.
5. That the survivors or their bereaved families will be compensated
6. That the facts and truth about Military Sexual Slavery by Japan will be taught in Japanese history classes so that such inhumanities are not repeated.
7. Punish the war criminals.

** until Friday at Cafe Anthracite (Hapjeong-dong 357-6, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea, near Sangsu station)

*** see previous episodes, including "TRCK : families of victims demand essential follow-up", "TRCK lost in translation or lost in transition ?", "Achievements and Tasks of TRCK's Activities", "Truth and Reconciliation : which model for Korea ?"

TRCK : families of victims demand essential follow-up

As many feared (see "TRCK lost in translation or lost in transition ?"), Korea's excellent Truth and Reconciliation Commission appears to have been deliberately torpedoed during its final year. Feeling betrayed by this spectacular turnaround, families of victims issued the following statement :

"[Statement] Truth and Reconciliation Commission, light up the last conscience!!

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea has finished their investigation and has 5 months left to complete their term until this December. It will pass into history after fulfilling its 4-year mission as a governmental specialized agency.

At first, the TRC had been launched with nation-wide anticipation for conducting fact-finding investigation about the forbidden area of the past incidents in this society. However, that praise had turned to suspicion at the last stage of its term because of the following reasons.

After change of political regime, the TRC was reorganized with figures that are far from fact-finding. There had been even internal attempts to try to turn over the investigation result which the TRC had perseveringly made progress in until the middle and latter stage of its term. There had also been arbitrary decisions of the TRC.

Regardless of their political backgrounds, those disappointing results spontaneously remind us of what they had done in the past. It is unbelievable that the personnel from New Right, which is regarded to have a distorted view of history, conduct a truth and reconciliation task.

The New Right thinks Japanese Occupation period as a touchstone of modernized society in Korean history and worships Japan as an unforgettable benefactor who blessed our country. Moreover, they are the writing staff of <>, which directly challenges the traditional textbook. They even say they inherited a tradition of notorious ‘Iljinhoe’ in Japanese Occupation period. It is surely quite a sight how they treat our past incidents.

After Youngjo Lee, chairperson of the TRC, controlled the organization, what he has been repeating is that past decisions could be overturned, the commission decision is merely a judgment of majority of the commission members and the commission at that time made an impetuous decision. At the same time, he fools around the bereaved family by saying that the commission is putting forth its best effort to get the best result.

Until now when the investigation has ended, among all the accepted cases, 8,173 petitions are in relation to civilian massacres. 6,701 cases out of 8,173 were identified, 721 cases were dismissed, 445 were incompetent to proceed, and the rest is etc. Compared to the former chairpersons, the rate of dismission and incompetence is much higher. It is OK to say that the commission issued the indulgence to the former government of Seungman Lee.

Regarding damage due to the U.S military bombing, 56 cases out of 157 (35.6%) were decided to get investigated. After Youngjo Lee seized the power as head of TRC, decisions about those cases were delayed continuously and one or two days before time limit, a stack of cases were brought in to the committee of the whole. As a result, 101 cases were categorized as incompetent.

The former chairman Byungook Ahn said that even though the U.S. military needed to bomb, because bombardment without a proper civilian rescue act is clearly a breach of international humanitarian law and law of war, it is hard to evade the responsibility for the U.S. On the other hand, the current chairman Youngjo Lee takes a stance that the U.S bombing would not be legally problematic because intention or illegality was not proved with the criteria of urgent military necessity. If Lee’s parents or whole family were massacred by the bombing, he would not dare to say something which makes non-sense.

Although a great number of civilians died due to massacre by their own government and the U.S mistake, there seems to be no sense of guiltiness in the current government, which is quite surprising. As long as exist the current government which named the former Syngman Lee regime as a father of Korea’s founder and the board members of the TRC who flatter the current government, it seems to have a long way to recover the honor of victims who were butchered unfairly during the Korean war.

It is also worrisome about the contents of the final report which will be presented to the president at the end of this year. If the expression “regret”, which Japanese politician often uses, will be repeated, what is the point of the report?

Although it is late, we call upon staff of the TRC for awakening. For the very last period, we hope they recover the reputation of the civilian victims with their best effort.

In this sense, we urge them to recommend the government the followings. The government should give another chance to the bereaved family who has not applied for their inquiry. A Special Law of reparation and compensation for the bereaved family with an identified case should be enacted. An organization which discuss about excavation of missing corpse, laying the body in state, coming up the follow-up measures of the TRC should be launched. A memorial park and reconciliation foundation should be established.

When those measures are taken, it is a start to regain the impaired reputation of the victims and dry tears of the left family.

We sincerely hope that a great enlightenment of the TRC members becomes a sound of conscience and it be heard loud and clear.

July 23, 2010

Civilian victims of bereaved family union of Korean War
Chairman Wonrok Oh
Representatives Yonghae Yang, Jonghyun Kim, Gwangho Kim, Youngsun Seo, Joonpyo Jang, Namsoon Park, Taejoon Lee"

Sounds like actual "fair society", doesn't it ?

Seoul Village 2010

Next target : the Supreme Court ?

In what appears to be probably one of the clumsiest attempts ever to undermine the independence of justice in a democracy, Korea's ruling Grand National Party tries to increase the number of Supreme Justices from 14* to 24, officially to facilitate their work and to "diversify" their judgements. Of course, such a move would guarantee the control on all "judgements" from the Supreme Court of Korea.

Even Pervez Musharraf wouldn't have dared changing the rules that boldly. Note that on a more discreet note, the bill would raise the minima of age and legal experience to 45 years and 15 years respectively... which would prevent judges promoted under liberal leaning presidents KIM Dae-jung and ROH Moo-hyun from passing the cut...

Incredibly enough, this party doesn't even need to rush : President Lee Myung-bak already replaced 3 judges and a few more will retire by the end of his mandate, so time is on their side.

Unsurprisingly, this outrageous crusade is led by the same minority of hardliners who want to nuke the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Korea are pushing hard for a comprehensive witch hunt across Korea's legal system. They already tried but failed to remove certain Supreme Justices, starting with Chief Justice Lee Yong-hoon... who by the way pointed out this embarrassing evidence : "Even during the military government, they never had the notion of exercising the right to appoint judges"**. Indeed, briefing these extremists about some fundamentals of democracy could definitely help.

All this would be comical if the stakes weren't that vital for the future of democracy in Korea. Let's hope democrats from all parties will join to make sure this infamous bill doesn't pass.

This episode does raise interesting issues though : even with their flocks of assistants, Supreme Justices have much too much work to do. According to the Chosun Ilbo, "in 2009, a total of 32,361 cases were brought before the Supreme Court, where 12 judges handled around 2,700 cases each that year, or seven a day".***

But this reform can certainly not be masqueraded as a "stopgap measure" : adding 10 members wouldn't make each justice's workload any lighter since each one must be as much aware of each case as the others, and the best way to improve the situation would be, as the Chosun suggests and as many countries do, to leave smaller appeals to High Courts.

If letting a few quick-tempered extremists decide of the future of justice in Korea would be a mistake, considering that all members of the ruling party want the end of democracy in Korea would be another. And I'm glad to see that, according to the same Chosun Ilbo, a committee working under the Ministry of Justice is considering the partial legalization of abortion which could, unlike some may think (see "Wrong question, wrong answer"), have positive effects on natality in Korea.

Seoul Village 2010

* The Supreme Court of Korea : scourt.go.kr. 13 of the 14 Supreme Justices render opinions, the 14th is only a Minister of Court Administration.
** "GNP aiming to sacrifice judicial independence for party ideology" (The Hankyoreh)
*** "Hiring More Supreme Court Judges Is a Stopgap Measure" (The Chosun Ilbo 20100318)

Korean War : a photo exhibition at Cheonggyecheon

Don't get fooled by the UN flag : a highly conservative "freedom" movement is behind the photo exhibition on Cheonggyecheon Plaza which, instead of promoting peace and progress, too often radiates pure resentment and hatred.

Don't get me wrong :
- here is an interesting exhibition about key episodes of the Korean War (until March 18)
- that tragedy was started by the North
- Korea can thank the UN and all the countries who helped save not only half the peninsula, but also more than a few Northeners who refused to subscribe to Kim Il-sung's agenda (including NK POWs, who overwhelmingly opted for the South after 1953)

It's just that the not so subtle propaganda trickling down every other panel (along with a persistant rain that day) almost ruins the visit. And instead of Confucian wisdom and hope, the final message ("Never changed") exudes blind anger. It can be summed up like this : stop talking to North Koreans, they still want to get South Korea, and there will never be peace with such obtuse and stubborn people (I second that : peace is not likely to happen with this kind of dangerous ultra-radicals in Seoul to face that kind of dangerous ultra-radicals in Pyeongyang).

So it's a little bit like visiting Seodaemun Prison : you only have one side of the coin, a clumsily edited good v. evil, black-and-white fairyscarytale. There, you learn a lot about the horrors perpetrated for decades by Japanese torturers, but not one single word is written about the abuses that followed, perpetrated for many long years by the Korean government (as if you wrote the final book about Abu Ghraib without mentioning the post-Saddam mess). Here, you can expect many lyrical digressions about religion, but certainly not the full picture of a really nasty civil war (yeah, I know : all wars are nasty, and all civil wars are even nastier).

The only way to fix things and to prevent such tragedies from happening again is to promote truth and reconciliation, not to maintain obsolete propagandas and censorships. Praise the heroes yes, but please show some respect for innocent victims from all sides.

Ultra-conservatives will probably consider this exhibition a success because it exposes in the most direct fashion their basic points of view to the face of the world. Unfortunately for them, just like their attempt to silence the Truth and Reconciliation Commission*, this exhibition backfires and eventually exposes their imposture, sending the worst possible message to foreign visitors : not only North Korea is not changing, but some retrograde people in South Korea still refuse to see their own country become a great nation, and only manage to bring more shame upon themselves.

As a French citizen, I am very much humbled by the courage of countrymen who fought for peace and freedom in Korea, but ashamed to see the tricolore flag associated with such an agenda.

Seoul Village 2010

* see "TRCK lost in translation or lost in transition ?"

TRCK lost in translation or lost in transition ?

According to OhMyNews*, translators are considering suing Lee Young-Jo, the new President of Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission**, for defamation.

One of the first decisions of Lee Young-Jo was to ban the English brochure published by the TRCK in March 2009 to present its recent achievements ("Truth and Reconciliation - Activities of the Past Three Years") because "it is biased and the English is incorrect". Translators deny the charges and OhMyNews couldn't get any example of translation errors from the organization.

Since I'm not a native English speaker, I cannot judge what's grammatically correct... but "the Park military junta introduced an extreme right-wing Fascist regime into Korean society during a time when the nation lacked thoughts, values, and awareness of democracy" may sound politically incorrect. I reckon the cover of the report featuring civilian massacres could also hurt the feelings of ultra-conservatives who would prefer to keep the lid on such inconvenient truths (not to mention the feelings of grieving families).

Maybe Lee Young-Jo, a TRCK commissioner since 2005 and a fluent English speaker, saw the document under a different light after his nomination... I wouldn't dare imagining that his very nomination, under a conservative government, was part of a scheme to undermine the formidable achievements of the TRCK under his predecessors. Yet, several medias point out Mr Lee's own conservative credentials as an eminent leader of the New Right movement***, and a SisaIN article even evokes a possible sabotage of the organization, and past efforts from the New Right to revise history textbooks****.

If this book ban proves to be actually an act of censorship, I wonder what kind of changes could be already happening within this up to now irreproachable organization...

As we saw earlier, the TRCK did such a good job in performing its missions that it was politically impossible for ultra-conservatives to put an end to it. If their intention is to discreetly sabotage it, it is bound to backfire and at the end of the day, President Lee Myung-bak will have to make a choice : maintain the TRCK on its original tracks, or let the discredit and international uproar hurt his own image.

Seoul Village 2010.

=> all posts related to TRCK.

* "Translators upset by 'New Right Truth and Reconciliation Commission'" ("번역자들, '뉴라이트 진실화해위'에 뿔났다" - 20100113 updated 20100114).
** we mentioned his nomination last December in "Achievements and Tasks of TRCK's Activities".
*** Last month I was a little bit disturbed by his resume but didn't find any website about these organizations : Lee Young-jo was President of the Capitalism Economy and Nationalism Research Center and Secretary General of the Citizens United for Better Society
**** "New Right received by past Commission" ("뉴라이트가 접수한 과거사정리위원회" - SisaIn 20091221)

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ADDENDUM 20100225

Testimonies from proofreaders

Proofreader 1

As a proofreader, I think the English proofreading and editing is accurate. Three native English speakers read it. Personally, I have over five years of experience editing and proofreading. This includes working for a professional translation agency that works on corporate documents. I've also worked for several other government organizations. This project was probably the largest and most thoroughly read book I've worked on. I personally reread each article or piece 3-4 times. It was then usually sent out in an email list for others to read - many of these people included native English speakers and we'd ask them to comment if there were any English problems. These articles were then included in a newsletter, which was reread once more so there were probably 5-7 readings before it was put together as a book. After it was put together as a book, it was reread 4 times by just me. This doesn't include the other copy editors so in total, this book was probably proofread close to 10 - 12 times before it was finally released

Proofreader 2

I'm not involved in the politics, nor do I want to be, but I will say that the documents I helped proofread was one of the best translations I've ever gotten. I don't know at what point in the proofreading process I was, although I suspect I was one of the final proofreaders, but as a professional proofreader and sometimes translator for the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, for five years, this was one of the most well written and fluidly expressed document I have ever come across in English. In fact, one of the things that occurred to me when reading this document was how easy the process was. There were very few major mistakes to correct, and it occurred to me that the level of correction required by me was no higher than that of proofreading and academic work written by a native speaker of English. I can't comment too much on the translation aspect of this job, however, claiming that the English was incorrect, or poorly written, is simply not true. The final document. that I saw was a professional piece of well-written academic English. One might disagree with his conclusions, or the content of the document itself, but it was not poorly written.

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ADDENDUM 20100405

In yesterday's Korea Times : "Forbidden Book Haunts Truth Commission"

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ADDENDUM 20100415

According to Leigh Payne ("Banning of English Report on Findings"), Lee Young-jo doesn't seem to be consistent with his missions, and "we would expect the president of a truth commission investigating past authoritarian practices to use democratic processes and respect democratic freedoms." Ouch.

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ADDENDUM 20100506

One step beyond : "Truth commission sued for 'political censorship'"

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ADDENDUM 20100528

"Power, justice and truth", the testimony of KIM Sung-soo. The former head of the international cooperation team of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission filed a lawsuit for defamation against the President of the TRC, who didn't seem very much into truth nor reconciliation.

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ADDENDUM 20100604

First TRCK Newsletter in ages. Apparently, Mr LEE is preparing his defense : the letter is all about the TRCK's president and his personal activity over the past 6 months. But not much about cases studied in 2010...