Will South Korean Companies Continue to Provide Funds to the Left?

2019-6-27, PennMike

[Note 1:  For easy approximate conversion from Won to Dollar, drop three zeros.]

[Note 2:  Here, the “right” defends liberal democracy and the market economy; the “left” attacks liberal democracy and the market economy.]

In April 2006 when the Roh Moo-hyun government was in power, the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (참여연대, Chamyeo Yeondae,  http://www.peoplepower21.org/English), a left-wing organization, held an event called “Sponsorship Night for Chamyeo Yeondae to Create a Nest [funds].”  The organization, which has frequently attacked South Korea’s large corporations by exploiting their weaknesses, sent invitation letters containing sponsorship agreements to 3,500 individuals, including senior personnel in the 850 listed companies and other businessmen ahead of the sponsorship event.  The maximum amount of donation [per person] was ₩3,000,000 (~$2,912; at $1=₩1,030) seven months prior in September 2005 at the sponsorship meeting to mark the anniversary of its founding day. The ceiling was increased to ₩5,000,000 (~$5,235; at $1=₩955). The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy was due to release a list of major companies targeted for “Investigation on the Reality of Management Succession,” and most of the 38 major groups invited were on the list.  The act by People’s Solidarity caused a controversy.

At the time, the People’s Solidarity told a Dong-A Ilbo reporter “Every year, we hold a sponsorship meeting on the anniversary of our founding and have been asking for voluntary support from corporations in similar ways,” and said it is unreasonable to make an issue of linking the announcement of management succession investigation and the sponsorship event [as if it is wrong].  A corporate executive who received an invitation, however, confessed, “there won’t be that many large corporations that can reject People’s Solidarity’s request for support, when it has incessantly raised the question about the most sensitive issue of corporate governance and management succession. I will leave it to the readers to decide which of the two arguments is closer to reality.

There is another case in which Korean leftist groups have made large corporations as their hosts in a similar way and have collected funds.  In October 2005, the Korea Green Foundation [환경재단, http://www.greenfund.org/en/] held a sponsorship event at a top luxury hotel in Seoul and requested funding from major corporations in the name of the “Children’s Environment Fund.”  At that time, the Foundation also sent an official letter in the name of the permanent director of the Korea Green Foundation, who has great influence in the environmental movement on the left, and requested company-specific amounts of support of ₩5,000,000 or ₩3,000,000, etc., ranging from ₩1,000,000 to ₩10,000,000.

Parasitized to Capitalists as a New Way of Life by the Korean Left

Former National Assemblymen Cha Myong-jin (차명진), along with Kim Myung-soo (김문수) (former Gyeonggi Province Governor), National Assemblymen Kim Jin-tae (김진태), National Assemblyman Park Dae-chool (박대출), former National Assemblymen Park Sun-young (박선영), and former National Assemblyman Cho Hyun-hyuk (조전혁), are well known for their sharp attacks against Moon Jae-in’s leftist regime.  Cha’s Facebook post titled “Parasite = new survival method of the left” is worth reviewing. He wrote “despite the end of world socialism in the 21st century, the left wing of Korea did not give up this ideology. Instead, they changed the way of life.” He assessed the current Korean leftists’ thinking as follows. “Fighting the capitalist system head-on only breaks us. Instead, let us get to their positions.  Of course, we do not have the industrious and pioneering spirit of the capitalists. Then let’s go after their achilles’ heel. Let’s dive into the daily life of the dreary-minded capitalists and dig inside. Yes, let’s become parasites!”

Cha Myung-jin said that the left-wing parasitism is widespread in our society. “They are sucking blood and nutrients by sticking to their host.  At the highest peak of the parasite are the left-wing political groups that have taken power.” Because of this, “the people of this country should check their backs–in the workplace, at school, in the newspaper, on the TV monitor, in the advertising market, on the election board–to see whether they are now hosts to those who suck their blood!”

In our society, the vague perception that the right is economically rich and the left is poor is still widespread.  It is true that such times have lasted quite a long time in the past. However, the situation has changed as power and influence in various parts of the society markedly tilted to the left.  In particular, as pointed out by Chae Myung-jin, the left exploits the Achilles’ heel of the capitalists and chooses a “parasite” strategy that takes benefits, and the companies, which are the symbol of wealth, have become the left’s money source by repeatedly hosting the left.  Thus, the left has grown rapidly and has become fat.

South Korea’s “rich left-wing, hungry right-wing” phenomenon is most evident in civil society organizations.  The Korean People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy wields tremendous power, along with Minbyun [Lawyers for Democracy, 민변] and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) under the Moon administration, and overpowers the “SKY” universities of Seoul University,  Koryo University, and Yeonse University. The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy boasts its own buildings in the downtown area of ​​Jongno-gu, Seoul, which is an expensive area. The number of full-time employees is not small. It was reported in July 2006 that People’s Solidarity bought the 150-pyeong (5,337.48 sq ft) site in Tongin-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul for ₩2.46 billion ($2.62 million; $1=₩940) in May 2006.  Other left-wing groups with close personal and ideological [ties] with People’s Solidarity, such as [Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s] Beautiful Foundation also have plentiful funds.

The big corporations that filled the “pockets” of the leftists and the left-wing groups are largely at fault

To the left-wing organizations, which have not truly created value to make money, the support from companies, especially large corporations, has become a major source in strengthening the financial affairs of Korean left-wing organizations.  One example is the Beautiful Foundation (아름다운재단, https://beautifulfund.org/eng/), which received ₩92.8 billion (~$85 million) in donations for 11 years after its foundation in 2000.  Among them, donations from large corporations are reported to reach tens of millions of dollars. [For instance, see here for LG donating ₩20 billion to the Beautiful Foundation, and People’s Solidarity attacks against LG stopped.]  It is said that the funds drawn from the businesses by the personal network centered around Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, the godfather of the left-wing civil society groups, have had a decisive impact on the rapid financial growth of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the Beautiful Foundation.

Many large companies, in addition to donations to the organization, have also rolled out the red carpet for individual leftists.  The major corporations that are household names designated those who lead these organizations as VIPs, and senior executives of these major corporations frequently hosted them or provided various conveniences of “preferential treatment.”  There are suspicions that the leader of the “minority shareholder movement” and the former Blue House Chief of Staff for Policy (currently Ambassador to China) Jang Ha-sung and the current Blue House Chief of Staff for Policy (former chairman of the Fair Trade Commission) Kim Sang-jo were large Korean companies’ VIPs.  Park Won-soon, whose professional expertise in corporate management is doubtful, has served as an outside director of POSCO from March 2004 to February 2009, and has received a salary of ₩357,000,000 during the five years. Similarly, a variety of left-wing organizations’ personnel have served as outside directors for large private and public enterprises.  Some companies have also provided a large sum of money for overseas training of personnel of left-wing organizations. Much of the funds that have been infiltrated into the left-wing organizations through various channels have been redistributed among the formidable left-leaning forces to be abused as “battle funds” to shake the foundation of the Republic of Korea’s free democracy, market economy, and the rule of law.

In contrast to the left-wing groups “flowing with milk and honey,” hardly any right-wing groups trying to defend the system of the Republic of Korea are currently financially adequate.  One of the most representative civil society organizations on the right, the Citizens United for Better Society [바른사회시민회의, http://www.cubs.or.kr/new/], saw its funding dwindle and its existence itself shake since the Moon administration began.  Center for Free Enterprise [자유경제원 / 자유기업원, http://www.cfe.org/eng/about_cfe.php], which was once expected to grow into a new think tank for Korea’s right with vigorous activities based on the principle of liberalism and solid human resources, sharply shrunk as the support from enterprises was virtually cut off after the start of the current administration.  As a result of the organization considerably downsizing, the president as well as the majority of female researchers–young warriors of the right who are difficult to find, went through the angst of being laid off and finding other employment.

[truncated] Many big corporations and the Federation of Korean Industries [FKI, http://www.fki.or.kr/en/], the association that represents them, have been afraid of the left-wing groups, have been making tremendous efforts to provide them with generous funding, and treated them like their superiors, but they provided a measly amount to right-wing organizations and treated them as inferiors, even under the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations.

What about the behavior of large companies under the Moon Jae-in administration?  Although the specific information is not yet publicized, unlike the details of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, the Moon administration is concentrated far more to the left than Rho’s and the regime’s dominant pressures on large corporations are prominent.  Thus, there is a high possibility that the inappropriate symbiosis between large companies and the left are still continuing. Perhaps the level of companies supporting the left could be far more intense than in the past.

Tak Hyun-min announced: “My corporation lecture standard fee is ₩15,000,000 per event”

As a new source of income for leftists in recent times, unusually high amounts of fees for external lectures and events have been highlighted.  Tak Hyun-min is a member of the Presidential Events Planning Advisory Committee and the former Chief of the Presidential Protocol [main image maker], at the Moon Jae-in Blue House.  Since the Moon Jae-in administration began, Tak Hyun-min’s posting on his Facebook garnered attention. Tak wrote the post around the time a controversy arose over [pro-Moon] TV personality Kim Jae-dong, who was serially receiving extremely high lecture fees of ₩10,000,000 per lecture from the local autonomous entities [regional governments].

Tak Hyun-min said National Assemblywoman Lee Eon-joo (unaffiliated with a party) recently requested the breakdown of his lecture related materials, and posted, “It appears you are curious about my lecture fee, but I hope you don’t bother busy people about it…if possible, I turn down, but if they really need it, the flat rate is ₩1,000,000 for schools, ₩3,000,000 for local autonomous entities, and ₩15,000,000 for companies.”  Tak continued “If National Assemblywoman Lee’s office requests a lecture, I’ll consider it. It’ll be ₩15,500,000.”

He wrote sarcastically, “Do not waste your valuable time on my personal activities.  I don’t even have an official status. I hope you ardently focus on your duties.”

Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the “company lecture fee” is a flat fee of ₩15,000,000. Tak published two books, The Man’s Mind Manual (남자마음설명서) in 2007 and The More One Speaks, the More One Becomes Free (말할수록 자유로워지다).  The statements he wrote in the books caused a controversy when he was the Chief of Presidential Protocol.  He wrote in the books that “My sexual fantasy is a pregnant teacher,” “From a man’s perspective, it feels like he is being terrorized if a woman, who has no difference between her chest and back, wore a tank top,” “In my first year of high school, I shared a middle school girl with my friends,” and “In my first year of high school, I didn’t care about the look of my first sexual partner.  She was just a subject of sex.” At a public event, Tak also displayed vulgar movements, repeatedly pumping his right fisted arm in his left hand.

Tak Hyun-min has a reputation for “show-tong,” (show + extra word) rather than “sotong” (communications) as the Protocol Chief at the Blue House.  It is unclear how Tak is as a performance planner. However, one must conclude that if one invites Tak Hyun-min, who has a shameful past, and pays him ₩15,000,000 fee per lecture, it can only be seen that the person who invites Tak Hyun-min to speak is either crazy or publicly bribing a member of the younger generation of the current administration.  As his” flat lecture fee” post became controversial, Tak went on MBC radio and stated “I have not actually received fees like that to lecture. It’s a symbol and metaphor,” but the idea of his own worth related to the company lecture fee is probably true.

It is no exaggeration to say that Korean companies, especially large corporations, are the largest beneficiaries of the “Republic of Korea system,” centering on liberal democracy and market economy.  How should we interpret the fact that they have provided vast sums of money, one way or another, to the powers who want to destroy or scourge our system that made such miraculous success possible? Business officials may say, “There is an unavoidable reality,” but something is terribly wrong when those who threaten the system of the Republic of Korea lead a life filled with abundance with the money siphoned from businesses, while those who want to defend the system are in the cold, hungry and battling the lonely fight. [Truncated]

Source:  https://www.pennmike.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=20032