Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mack4289]

The naivety of the SK govt/legal system has been striking lately:

1. the courts let off the Hyundai Chairman, sentencing him to make a huge payment to charity, write articles and give lectures about corporate responsibility. The thinking behind this? Besides the claim that letting him off would be good for the economy (an imbezzler and nepotisitic investor is clearly good for the economy), there is also the claim that Chung Mong Koo would now have "a debt to the public and it is a huge shackle." http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2880276

2. the courts also let off the Hanhwa chairman for the beating of those guys who beat up his son. While the court acknowledged that, as the chairman of a major conglomerate, it was irresponsible to commit assault, Kim Seung-Young "repented and vowed not to repeat the wrongdoing." There's also his health to think about- Kim, who is not paralyzed and suffers from no physical ailments, showed up to court in a wheelchair and hospital pajamas. Apparently his depression from being convicted is so bad he can no longer walk or put on a suit. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2880408.

3. President Roh pressed George Bush for a peace agreement with N.Korea, before denuclearization was achieved http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2880270. He claims that the peace agreement will be the focus of their summit, not disarming N.Korea, since talking about that probably wouldn't make for a good atmosphere. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2880409 This comes on top of the SK govt pulling back from their promise to tie rice aid to the resolution of the nuclear issue. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2877381.

Kim Jong Il repaid their kindess by, among other things, leaving them out of a thank you list for flood aid. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2880400

4. Resolving the hostage crisis with a rumoured pay off and a confirmed pull out of SK military and charity groups. The hope here, I think, was to make a "quiet deal", since as long as only the Taliban knows about it, then it's not a problem. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2879028.

The picture you get of the SK govt/courts from the first three incidents is that they're like those people who think that if they're nice enough to someone, that person is bound to like them. The last one is different- they're not the only govt who've paid off terrorist groups. But it still makes the SK govt seem blinded to the full reality of what they're doing.