Koreagate is the name of a political bribery scandal revealed in 1976. It involves the Central Intelligence Agency South Korea (KCIA), Korean political figures and several U. S. congressmen. In 1971, U. S. President Richard Nixon announced his intention to withdraw U. S. troops from South Korea. The President of the Republic of Korea, Park Chung-hee, disagreed with Nixon's decision to withdraw soldiers from South Korea and felt that it was urgent to obtain support to preserve the remaining military presence of the United States. In 1976, KCIA spent millions of dollars to finance a project called Intrepid. The purpose of this program was to bring both President Nixon back on his decision and to ease the growing tensions between the two countries.
KCIA bribed some U. S. congressmen through Korean businessman Tongsun Park to seek favors and influence, for South Korean purposes.
The scandal was exposed just before the 1976 elections, leading to the failure of the "Intrepid" program. The new president, James Earl Carter Jr., had campaigned on a promise to phase out the remaining division in South Korea, and the revelation of the scandal further solidified that position. As promised, President Carter began withdrawing his troops on 13 December 1977. In 1978, congressional investigations revealed that 115 members of the Democratic Party were involved in the project, including the Speaker of the House, Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Several members subsequently resigned or were sanctioned.
President Carter finally reconsidered the U. S. military commitments in South Korea and, on 29 June 1979, suspended the withdrawal.[1]
In May 1980, democratic protesters were killed, wounded, and tortured by armed forces under the command of General Chun Doo-hwan, who had seized control of the government through the Coup d'état of December Twelfth of 1979. Although the government maintained that 190 people were killed in the Gwangju Uprising, unofficial estimates report up to 2,000 casualties.[2][3]
The Lee–Chang scandal is a South Korean financial scandal that took place in 1982 under the presidency of Chun Doo-hwan. Jang Yeong-ja was a curbside market operator who provided loans to industrial companies, demanding notes worth several times the value of the loan, provided the notes were not resold. In this way, starting with $7 million saved through the alimony of her two former husbands, Jang personally manipulated nearly $1 billion through her underground lending network, or 17 percent of the total South Korean money supply. The network was discovered when one of the companies, whose Jang notes had sold at a reduced price, complained to the authorities.
The collapse of Jang's loan network caused the bankruptcy of two large industrial companies, the resignation and arrest of the bank directors Chohung and Sanop, and the suicide of a bank manager involved in the scandal. The scandal spread as the involvement of various political figures emerged. Jang's husband, Lee Chol-hui, was a former deputy director of KCIA and a classmate of Park Chung-hee. In addition, Jang's brother-in-law, Lee Gyu-gwang, was the uncle of President Chun himself, and he was considered to have played a key role in carrying out the fraud. Eleven cabinet members resigned and four others were replaced.[4]
The Hanbo scandal or Hanbogate[5] refers to the corruption involving senior South Korean government officials and top executives of Hanbo Steel conglomerate, then South Korea second biggest steelmaker and 14th biggest conglomerate.[5][6] The resulting corruption scandal and trial of the first half of 1997 has been described as one of the largest ever in South Korea.[7]
Hanbo Steel received illegal preferential treatment from the government of Korean president Kim Young Sam, including in form of loans, issued by banks to the company under pressure from bribed high ranking politicians and bankers. Losses from corruption and bribes are estimated at US$6 million.[5][6][7]
Following a trial, by early June 1997, Chung Tae Soo, company's founder, was jailed for 15 years. His son Chung Bo Keun was jailed for 3 years.[6] Eight other prominent figures, including former Home Minister, Kim Woo Suk, several presidential aides and parliament members, and two former presidents of the Korea First Bank, were handed sentences as well.[6] Son of the president, Kim Hyun-chul, was also arrested in a related investigation[6] and was sentenced to three years in October that year.[8][5]
The scandal is seen as having contributed to the Korean economy troubles of that time (see also Asian financial crisis of 1997), exposing South Korean's economy weaknesses and corruption problems to the international financial community. Hanbo was also one of the first in at least 10 of series of large South Korean conglomerate bankruptcies that occurred shortly afterward (involving major companies like Kia Motors and Daewoo; the latter also part of a major corruption scandal).[5] In politics, the presidents involvement also undermined his father's anti corruption campaign.[5][9]
Furgate refers to the late-1990s corruption and scandal involving senior South Korean government figures and their wives, who have spent bribery money on luxury items, primarily furs and jewelry. The resulting scandal and trial of the first half of 1997 has been described as one of the largest ever scandals in South Korea.[7]
The X-file scandal is a 2005 South Korean political scandal. The scandal revolves around the unveiling of wiretap conversations to the media. Most of the conversations were conducted by Conservative politicians of the Grand National Party organizing bribes during the 1997 South Korean presidential election. However the recordings were made illegally. The scandal does not end there, as the authorities also examine the general role of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in political and personal affairs.
In July 2005, South Korean police stormed the home of Kong Un-young, an intelligence agent at NIS, retrieving 274 cassettes. Kong tried to commit suicide, but did not succeed. Following the evidence of NIS participation, some Grand National Party leaders claim that the Roh Moo-hyun administration must have been aware of the wiretapping. However, members of the pro-government party Uri have accused the GNP leaders of being equally aware of this.[11]
The corruption scandal at the 2008 Grand National Party convention prompted the departure of spokesman for the Korean National Assembly Park Hee-tae. A Saenuri party deputy, Koh Seung-duk, had revealed in early January 2008 that he had received a package of three million won from the Park Hee-tae team, a transaction confirmed by the former assistant of the latter. This case affected both Lee Myung-bak's government and the performance of the Grand National Party.[12]
The South Korean illegal surveillance incident (Korean: 민간인 불법사찰 사건, or illegal civilian surveillance incident) was alleged to have occurred in 2010 when the Civil Service Ethics Division (공직윤리지원관실) under the Prime Minister's Office of South Korea inspected a civilian, a political action that is illegal under the South Korean conventions. The incident re-emerged in early 2012 as the election approached.[13]
In the 2012 South Korean presidential election, the National Intelligence Service was accused of wanting to influence public opinion to elect Park Geun-hye. The NIS then employed psychological warfare experts and conducted an aggressive Internet campaign to discredit Liberal opponent Moon Jae-in and convince voters still undecided. After the elections, South Korean police said that a Korean National Intelligence Service official, Kim Ha Young, posted articles on politically sensitive issues on the Todayhumor website. It was later acknowledged that NIS has been involved not only in political advertisements in newspapers by conservative groups, but also in the organization of events and the distribution of brochures. South Korean national intelligence chief Won Sei-hoon was prosecuted for interfering in the elections.[14]
In 2014, the MV Sewol shipwrecked with 476 passengers on board. Of those, 304 people perished, including students of Danwon High School (Ansan) gone on a school trip. The tragedy had several causes: the ship was overloaded and insufficiently ballasted, illegal work to increase the number of cabins made the ship unstable and the crew was poorly trained and incompetent. The latter, facing the strong current, veered too quickly and capsized the ship. Additionally, the captain as well as the crew members ordered the passengers not to move while the boat sank and abandoned the boat.[15] Many criticisms have been levied against the government, Among them are accusations of mismanagement of the aftermath of the disaster, of inadequate response and of minimizing its responsibility. Prime Minister Chung Hong-won subsequently resigned eleven days after the tragedy.[16]
President Park Geun-hye.
Choi Soon-sil scandal and removal of Park Geun-hye (2016)
The Choi Soon-sil scandal, also known as Choigate or Choïgate, is a major political scandal that took place at the end of 2016 involving Choi Soon-sil, South Korean businesswoman and confidante of the president, Park Geun-hye. This case resulted in a process of dismissal of President Park for abuse of authority. Indeed, thanks to her close ties with the president, Choi had access to confidential documents, became involved in various state affairs and put pressure on different chaebols (national companies). Park and drew them 77.4 billion won ($60 million) for her personal use. On 13 February 2018, Choi Soon-sil is sentenced to twenty years in prison. On 6 April 2018, the President was convicted of abuse of authority, corruption and coercion and sentenced to 24 years in prison.[17][18]
Blacklist scandal (2016)
Under the Park Geun-hye administration, a blacklist of 9473 artists deemed critical of the government had been established by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism to exclude them from public subsidies and participate in the France-Korea cross year in 2015-2016 to celebrate the 130 years of relations between the two countries. The document included four categories: a group that took part in a statement calling for the government's Sewol decree to be overturned, a group denouncing the government's management of the Sewol shipwreck, a group that supported candidate Moon Jae-in and a group that supported the Park Won-soon candidate. Culture Minister Cho Yoon-sun was sentenced to two years in prison for her role in establishing the blacklist.[19][20]
The 2018 opinion rigging scandal in South Korea is a political scandal that erupted in April 2018 after a group of ardent supporters of the South Korean President Moon Jae-in had been charged with online opinion rigging.[21] The accused suspects were the members of the ruling Democratic Party (DPK).[22] The main perpetrator, as well as the leader of the pro-Moon group, was a well-known power-blogger called "Druking."[21]
The history of South Korea begins with the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945. At that time, South Korea and North Korea were divided, despite being the same people and on the same peninsula. In 1950, the Korean War broke out. North Korea overran South Korea until US-led UN forces intervened. At the end of the war in 1953, the border between South and North remained largely similar. Tensions between the two sides continued. South Korea alternated between dictatorship and liberal democracy.It underwent substantial economic development.
Kim Jae-gyu was a South Korean politician, army lieutenant general and the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. He assassinated South Korean President Park Chung Hee—who had been one of his closest friends—on October 26, 1979, and was subsequently executed by hanging on May 24, 1980.
Kim Jong-pil, also known colloquially as JP, was a South Korean politician and the founder/first director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. He served as Prime Minister twice, from 1971 to 1975 during the presidency of Park Chung Hee (1961–1979) and from 1998 to 2000 during the presidency of Kim Dae-jung (1998–2003). He was a nine-term National Assembly member.
The National Intelligence Service is the chief intelligence agency of South Korea. The agency was officially established in 1961 as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, during the rule of general Park Chung Hee’s military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, which displaced the Second Republic of Korea. The original duties of the KCIA were to supervise and coordinate both international and domestic intelligence activities and criminal investigations by all government intelligence agencies, including that of the military. The agency’s broad powers allowed it to actively intervene in politics. Agents undergo years of training and checks before they are officially inducted and receive their first assignments.
On August 8, 1973, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) kidnapped South Korean dissident leader and future president of South Korea Kim Dae-jung from a conference of Korean anti-authoritarian reformers in Tokyo, Japan.
Park Geun-hye is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017.
The Fourth Republic of Korea was the government of South Korea from November 1972 to February 1981.
"Koreagate" was an American political scandal in 1976 involving South Korean political figures seeking influence from 10 Democratic members of Congress. The scandal involved the uncovering of evidence that the Korea Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) was allegedly funneling bribes and favors through South Korean businessman Tongsun Park in an attempt to gain favor and influence in American politics. Reversing Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter's pledge to withdraw American military forces from South Korea is thought to have been one of their primary objectives.
Park Chung Hee, the third President of South Korea, was assassinated on October 26, 1979, during a dinner at the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) safe house near the Blue House presidential compound in Jongno District, Seoul, South Korea. It was the first assassination of a head of state in South Korea and in Korea in 605 years, since the assassination of Gongmin of Goryeo. Kim Jae-gyu, the director of the KCIA and the president's security chief, was responsible for the assassination. Park was shot in the chest and the head, and died almost immediately. Four bodyguards and a presidential chauffeur were also killed. The incident is often referred to as "10.26" or the "10.26 incident" in South Korea.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2012. They were the sixth presidential elections since democratization and the establishment of the Sixth Republic, and were held under a first-past-the-post system, in which there was a single round of voting and the candidate receiving the highest number of votes was elected. Under the South Korean constitution, a president is restricted to a single five-year term in office. The term of the then incumbent president Lee Myung-bak ended on 24 February 2013. According to the Korea Times, 30.7 million people voted with turnout at 75.8%. Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri party was elected the first female South Korean president with 51.6% of the vote opposed to 48.0% for her opponent Moon Jae-in. Park's share of the vote was the highest won by any candidate since the beginning of free and fair direct elections in 1987 and the first such election in which any candidate won a majority. Moreover, as of the 2022 election, this is the latest South Korean presidential election in which the winning candidate won an absolute majority of the vote.
The South Korean illegal surveillance incident was alleged to have occurred in 2010 when the Civil Service Ethics Division (공직윤리지원관실) under the Prime Minister's Office of South Korea inspected a civilian, a political action that is illegal under the South Korean conventions. The incident re-emerged in early 2012 as the election approached.
Kim Young-sam, often referred to by his initials YS, was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the 7th president of South Korea from 1993 to 1998.
Chun Doo-hwan was a South Korean politician, army general and military dictator who served as the fifth president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988.
Choi Soon-sil is a South Korean businesswoman known primarily for her involvement in the 2016 South Korean political scandal, stemming from her influence over the 11th President of South Korea, Park Geun-hye. In 2018, a court sentenced Choi to 20 years in prison on corruption charges. Due to Choi's concurrent involvement in her father's religious cult, reporting media have called her "South Korea's Rasputin", in reference to Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin.
Choi Tae-min was the leader of the Church of Eternal Life, a South Korean cult combining elements of Buddhism, Christianity, and traditional Korean Shamanism. Choi, originally a Buddhist monk, then a convert to Presbyterian pastor, was married six times. He was the mentor of the impeached South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, until his death in 1994. He allegedly used his relationship with Park to solicit bribes from government officials and businessmen. In late 2016, a scandal involving his daughter, Choi Soon-sil, broke out, with allegations that she too has exerted undue influence over President Park.
The 2016 South Korean political scandal, often called Park Geun-hye–Choi Soon-sil Gate in South Korea, was a scandal that emerged around October 2016 in relation to the unusual access that Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of shaman-esque cult leader Choi Tae-min, had to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea.
The impeachment of Park Geun-hye, President of South Korea, was the culmination of a political scandal involving interventions to the presidency from her aide, Choi Soon-sil. The impeachment vote took place on 9 December 2016, with 234 members of the 300-member National Assembly voting in favour of the impeachment and temporary suspension of Park Geun-hye's presidential powers and duties. This exceeded the required two-thirds threshold in the National Assembly and, although the vote was by secret ballot, the results indicated that more than half of the 128 lawmakers in Park's party Saenuri had supported her impeachment. Thus, Hwang Kyo-ahn, then Prime Minister of South Korea, became Acting President while the Constitutional Court of Korea was due to determine whether to accept the impeachment. The court upheld the impeachment in a unanimous 8–0 decision on 10 March 2017, removing Park from office. The regularly scheduled presidential election was advanced to 9 May 2017, and Moon Jae-in, former leader of the Democratic Party, was elected as Park's permanent successor.
The Hanbo scandal refers to the late-1990s events involving corruption by senior South Korean government officials and top executives of the Hanbo Steel (한보그룹) conglomerate, then South Korea’s second biggest steelmaker and 14th biggest conglomerate based on the book value of their assets. The resulting scandal in the first half of 1997 has been described as one of the largest in South Korean history.
Political repression in South Korea refers to the physical or psychological maltreatment, including different levels of threats suffered by individuals or groups in South Korea for different kinds of political reasons throughout the country's history.
The National Intelligence Service of the Republic of Korea’s illegal eavesdropping case occurred during the Kim Dae-Jung administration when the National Intelligence Service was wiretapping civilians and the opposite political party’s politicians. It was revealed by the Grand National Party lawmaker Chung Hyung-Geun in October 2002, and was considered an election disclosure ahead of the presidential election; however, three years of the investigation confirmed that the allegation of NIS wiretapping was true. In December 2000, during the so-called 'Kwon No-gap's resignation scandal', the phone conversations of young Democratic Party lawmakers and those involved in Jin Seung-Hyun's gate were wiretapped. At the time of Choi Kyu-sun's gate in 2000, it was confirmed that Choi Kyu-sun's business operations, money and women relations, and the details of personnel appointments of high-ranking officials such as the NIS director were also wiretapped.
References
↑ "Koreagate". worldhistory.biz. 21 August 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
↑ Yea, Sallie (2002). "Rewriting Rebellion and Mapping Memory in South Korea: The (Re)presentation of the 1980 Kwangju Uprising through Mangwol-dong Cemetery". Urban Studies. 39 (9): 1551–1572. CiteSeerX10.1.1.894.1040. doi:10.1080/00420980220151655.
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