South Korea

NOVANEWS By Global Research News Global Research Global Research, Montreal, December 18, 2014 PRESS RELEASE A path breaking decision which will have far reaching impacts on civil and political rights in the Republic of Korea (ROK) is forthcoming. A decision from the Constitutional Court in South Korea regarding the dissolution of the Unified Progressive Party (UPP) is imminent. On November 5, 2013, the South Korean government requested that the Korean Constitutional Court initiate dissolution proceedings against the Unified Progressive Party (UPP), the third largest political party in Korea, following the arrest of one if its members, the parliamentarian Lee Seok-Ki. Representative Lee (image right) was accused (allegedly on trumped up charges) and later convicted of violating South...

NOVANEWS OCDG: Do I really have to say anything? This is too easy. A child in Seoul studies a Jewish text sells his “seoul” to beelzebub The JC The South Korean ambassador to Israel, Ma Young-sam, raised eyebrows recently when he told reporters the Talmud was mandatory reading for Korean schoolchildren. South Korea is a country with a deep Buddhist history, but one which has embraced with vigour the Christianity brought to its shores by missionaries in the late 1800s. Official statistics say some 30 per cent of South Koreans are church-going. In such a country, Jews are few and far between. Yet, pop down to the local corner shop and along with a pot of instant rice or dried noodles, you can buy a copy of Stories from the Talmud. It is not rare, either, to come across book-vending machine...

NOVANEWS By Inder Comar Global Research South Korea’s struggle towards greater democracy has taken significant setbacks in the last few months, and basic freedoms are now at risk in a manner reminiscent of the Park Chung-hee dictatorship. For example, did you know that members of parliament have been jailed for their political speech? Representative Lee Seok-ki of the Unified Progressive Party (the UPP), along with six other individuals, were convicted last May of criminal acts related to a speech given by Representative Lee in which he warned of US aggression on the peninsula and considered what would happen in the outbreak of war, which he argued the US wanted. Based solely on his speech, Representative Lee was found guilty by a South Korean trial court on February 17, 2014 of t...

NOVANEWS Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem, Sr   In partnership with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which represents 176 million workers in 161 countries and territories and has 325 national affiliates.   On Tuesday 25 February, the first anniversary of President Park's inauguration, the South Korean trade union confederation the KCTU will be holding a nationwide "people's strike", with the slogan "After one year under Park's Government, we cannot stand it anymore!" For the last twelve months, human and trade union rights have been attacked and democracy in the country has been undermined. Almost all of the public commitments made by President Park during her election campaign have been broken. The KCTU is organising the strike together with broader social mo...

NOVANEWS Pyongyang condemns aerial activism, labelling it a "foolish act of puppet warmongers" and campaigners as "human scum". S Korean police try to stop the launches, as Paju residents fear retaliation from the North [AFP] South Korean activists have launched an anti-North Korea balloon campaign, sending packages containing leaflets, USB drives and money across the border, despite the North's government threatening to target the "human scum" involved. The balloons started floating over the border on Wednesday containing US dollar bills, DVDs detailing human rights abuses in North, and transistor radios. "There is clearly enormous hunger for outside information in North Korea," said Thor Halvorssen, the president of the US-based Human Rights Foundation, which suppo...

NOVANEWS Statement from the newly formed Solidarity Network for Democracy in Korea South Korean President Park Geun-hye with U.S. President Barrack Obama. The right-wing, repressive Park Geun-hye administration has received the full backing of the U.S. government The following appeal was issued by the newly formed Solidarity Network for Democracy in Korea. The ANSWER Coalition encourages all of its supporters to sign the petition referenced below. Hard-won democracy is under a serious attack under Park Geun-hye administration, which has been in power only less than one year. Especially, interference and surveillance by the Korean National Intelligence Services have increased, and government repression of the social movement has intensified. And then there is Lee Seok-ki's case p...

NOVANEWS Statement from the newly formed Solidarity Network for Democracy in Korea South Korean President Park Geun-hye with U.S. President Barrack Obama. The right-wing, repressive Park Geun-hye administration has received the full backing of the U.S. government The following appeal was issued by the newly formed Solidarity Network for Democracy in Korea. The ANSWER Coalition encourages all of its supporters to sign the petition referenced below. Hard-won democracy is under a serious attack under Park Geun-hye administration, which has been in power only less than one year. Especially, interference and surveillance by the Korean National Intelligence Services have increased, and government repression of the social movement has intensified. And then there is Lee Seok-ki's case p...

NOVANEWS The fate of democracy Lee Seok-ki of the Unified Progressive Party By Gregory Elich Originally posted on Counterpunch. It made worldwide news when Lee Seok-ki, representative in the South Korean National Assembly, was arrested on charges of treason. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) fed media outlets with a transcript of a meeting that Lee attended, which appeared to reveal plans by the Unified Progressive Party to take up arms against the South Korean government in the event of war with the north. The release of the transcript came at the height of national protests against interference by the NIS in the national election of December 2012. The Unified Progressive Party (UPP) was at the forefront of the anti-NIS demonstrations, and the furor that resulte...