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Troll_Bait
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: [T]eaching experience doesn't matter much. -Lee Young-chan (pictured)
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 Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:24 pm Post subject: UniFICTION ministry won't be dissolved |
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Bad news. Very bad news. It looks like the Unifiction ministry won't be dismantled and sold for parts.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2008/02/08/0200000000AEN20080208002200315.HTML
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Rival parties agree to retain Unification Ministry
President-elect Lee Myung-bak's transition team and rival parties on Friday reached a tentative agreement to retain the Unification Ministry in the lineup of Lee's incoming government, spokespersons for the team and parties said.
The fate of the Unification Ministry, which is in charge of inter-Korean relations, has been at the center of a political confrontation, with Lee determined to close it and four other ministries under his government reorganization bills submitted to the National Assembly last month. |
If you'd like to see a list of just some of the many crimes against North Koreans that these anti-American, pro-Kim Jong Il, fcktrds deliberately ignore, look here. |
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Troll_Bait
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: [T]eaching experience doesn't matter much. -Lee Young-chan (pictured)
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| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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http://blog.360.yahoo.com/choseh
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It Must Go
A political uproar of sort erupted in South Korea a few days ago after President-elect Lee Myung-bak�s transition team, paving the way for the new administration to be inaugurated in a month, recommended the abolition of the Unification Ministry as part of its plans to form a small but efficient government.
The strong opposition to the plan, of course, came from the leftist and pro-Roh Moo-hyun government party that suffered a crushing defeat in last month�s presidential election.
It is understandable why the proposed abolition of the Unification Ministry upset them. After all, it was President Roh himself who said he would stake his presidency on the success of his predecessor and former President Kim Dae-jung�s so-called Sunshine Policy.
�I don�t care if I mess up everything (as president) as long as I can carry out the North Korean policy successfully,� Roh said shortly after his inauguration five years ago. And the Unification Ministry has been implementing his North Korean policy.
No wonder the death knell for the ministry came a great shock to Roh as well as his pro-government party and its presidential candidate.
However, the conservative party�s Lee won the election by a landslide on campaign pledges, one of which was to make the government small and more efficient. In other words, Lee has a mandate from the people to reorganize his administration by abolishing or merging some ministries, as he sees fit.
By the way, before the Dec. 19 presidential election, President Kim Dae-jung warned that if the conservative party candidate were elected, there could be another war in Korea. In other words, there would be a possibility that North Korea would invade the South again.
Despite the warning, however, an overwhelming majority of South Koreans voted for Lee, underscoring their belief that the Sunshine Policy aimed at appeasing Kim Jong-il had failed. Hence, the Unification Ministry, which had been the executor of that policy, lost its usefulness.
And the officials of the outgoing Roh administration and the soon-to-be opposition party, therefore, have no say in the matter, especially on the planned abolition of the Unification Ministry.
Personally, I have always wondered what the Unification Ministry was doing for the unification of the country. One of its obvious functions was said to be sending taxpayers� money, amounting to tens of billions of won, to North Korea in order to keep Kim Jong-il�s dictatorial regime afloat.
To write that kind of checks, though, one or two high-ranking officials either in the finance or foreign ministry can do the job, I think.
Sure, President Roh and his followers who have been fawning over North Korea�s Dear Leader, have been talking grandly about �economic cooperation and exchanges of people� between the two Koreas. But what do they mean by the �economic cooperation�?
It meant a one-way flow�from the South to North�of virtually unlimited amount of blind money. Nothing whatsoever came from the North in return. I mean there was no quid pro quo. Kim Jong-il�s wishes simply had been the inviolable commands for President Roh�s administration.
As for the exchanges of people, there are a couple of inter-Korean arrangements under which South Koreans are allowed to tour the scenic Kumgang (Diamond) mountains in the North and the ancient capital of Korea in Kaesong, just north of the Demilitarized Zone, in the western part of the peninsula.
For these tours, South Koreans pay exorbitant amount of money to Pyongyang.
But the areas for the visits by capitalists from the South are off-limit to ordinary North Koreans. Only the fanatical followers of Kim Jong-il and the Communist party faithful are allowed to come into contact with the visitors for fear of ordinary North Koreans being �contaminated� by their rich cousins from the South.
Is this any way for �exchanging� people? The answer, I think, is obvious.
In any case, these tours can also be arranged and conducted more effectively by the Korea Tourism Organization in Seoul, rather than the Unification Ministry.
The Unification Ministry has also helped to build the industrial complex in Kaesong and has been overseeing the operation of factories owned by the South�s private sector. The idea was for the South Korean manufacturers to take advantage of North Korea�s cheap labor. But the bulk of payments for the North Korean workers go to the Kim Jong-il regime in Pyongyang. This business, too, can easily be handled expertly by one of governmental agencies other than the Unification Ministry.
Oh yes, come to think of it, there is one other role the Unification Ministry has been playing. And that was, it often acted as a kind of a spokesperson for the Kim Jong-il regime.
In fact, the Unification Ministry, under President Roh�s approval, obviously, did not hesitate to risk the deterioration of its relations with South Korea�s traditional allies�the United States and Japan�in order to defend or apologize for North Korea whenever Pyongyang found itself in a tight corner with regard, in particular, to its nuclear ambition and the mounting international pressure to scrap it.
But the South Korean government doesn�t have to act for North Korea. After all, they have their own government, and I am sure they know what they are doing. At least, they don�t need any help from the South.
Viewed in this light, then, the Unification Ministry lost all reason for its existence. What is more, South Korea will have enough problems of its own, the economy, for instance, before worrying about Kim Jong-il�s regime, as the two preceding administrations have done. |
I hope that Lee Myung-bak sticks to his guns and and disbands the ministry and merges its members with those of other ministries. Korea needs the Ministry of Unifiction like it needs a hole in the head. |
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Typhoon
Joined: 29 May 2007
Location: Daejeon
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| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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| You are right. A waste of money and time. However, he won't because he is a policitican and needs votes on both sides of the aisle. Too bad because it would send the right message to North Korea. It is time for a equal relationship between North and South and the Unification Minstry does nothing to promote one. |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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| I think it would have actually been more productive under the umbrella of MOFAT. |
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