Left Flank

A South Korean law designed to manage international marriage brokers due to take effect in June 2008 will be too late for Tran Thanh Lan and four South Koreans indicted for human trafficking in The Philippines. But,the two incidents dramatize the consequences, when South Korean men go looking for brides in lesser-developed states.

The business began in the late 1990s by matching South Korean farmers or the physically disabled mostly to ethnic Koreans in China, according to brokers and the Korea Consumer Protection Board. But by 2003, the majority of customers were urban bachelors, and the foreign brides came from a host of countries. The board says 2,000 to 3,000 agencies operate now.

The widespread availability of gender-screening technology since the 1980s has resulted in an overabundance of South Korean males. What is more, South Korea's growing wealth has increased women's educational and employment opportunities, even as it has led to rising divorce rates and plummeting birthrates.

"Nowadays, Korean women have higher standards," said Lee Eun Tae, the owner of Interwedding, an agency that last year matched 400 Korean bachelors with brides from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Mongolia, Thailand, Cambodia, Uzbekistan and Indonesia. "If a man has only a high school degree, or lives with his mother, or works only at a small- or medium-size company, or is short or older, or lives in the countryside, he'll find it very difficult to marry in Korea."

Critics say the business demeans and takes advantage of poor women. But brokers say they are merely matching the needs of Korean men and foreign women seeking better lives.

"But this business will get more difficult as those countries get richer," said Won Hyun Jae, the owner of i-Bombit, another agency. "Now, even a disabled Korean man can find a Vietnamese bride. But eventually Vietnamese women will ask why they have to go marry a Korean man when life in Vietnam is good."

For now, Vietnam remains a popular source of brides, second only to China. Marriages with Vietnamese women are considered so successful that the local government of at least one city, Yeongcheon, in South Korea's rural southeast, subsidizes marriage tours only to Vietnam.

There are other sides to these stories. Last October, during the Pusan International Film Festival, I also watched Hello, Stranger, in which a North Korean defector helps a Vietnamese guest worker find his Vietnamese girlfriend. Events turn to tragicomedy as he learns, that his only love, who lied when she claimed only to be working, is actually married to a South Korean man, and that his odyssey to ROK to rescue her and marry her was only a miserable failure replete with a bullying, exploitative boss and language barriers.

Whether another layer of bureaucracy can prevent such regrettable incidents is questionable, but at least it's a recognition of sorts, that all is not right. ROK is a a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking, according to Human Trafficking.

Two Koreas underscores the consequences of a classic disconnect (the Joong-ang Daily's online site continues to frustrate easy reading) between South Korean law, enforcing bureaucracies, and businesses: illegal immigration.

According to the Justice Ministry, there were an estimated 223,000 illegal aliens in the country as of last year. About 22,000 illegal migrants were caught and deported last year, down from 23,000 in 2006, according to the service.

The risks of combating illegal immigration, say officials, run both ways. On Jan. 30, an immigration officer was stabbed in the thigh by a Bangladeshi illegal migrant who was trying to flee an inspection raid. Twenty immigration officers were injured last year, compared to six during similar enforcement drives in 2004, according to the service.

«Because the media and civic groups protect illegal workers' rights, some illegal's do not respect the officers' authority and are not afraid of attacking them,» said another official, who refused to be named.

It's so hard to get a well-paid desk job enforcing bad laws these days!

Oh, Busan!

The Busan Regional Labor Office has begun a probe into a Chinese laborer who informed authorities there that he received no severance pay even though he worked for three years at a factory in the southern port city. If he is found to have worked in Korea without a work visa, then he faces deportation. But even faced with that possibility, the laborer hoped to receive his severance money. A day before he was set to appear before Busan labor officials, he received a call from his factory saying his money was ready. When he visited the factory, he was arrested by police and handed over to immigration authorities.

A similar incident took place in August of last year. A laborer from the Philippines who worked for 15 to 20 hours a day for two years at a factory in Pohang appeared before labor officials in the southern port city after his employer allegedly refused to pay him wages and severance pay. This laborer was also arrested by an immigration officer while he was being investigated by labor officials along with his employer. The employer had called immigration authorities. These are cases that have been revealed by a civic group in Busan working to help foreign migrant workers.

But, ROK has just elected a pro-business president (via DPRK Studies), right? So, nasty stuff like this will dwindle, right?

I worry, then, that when Koreans say that Lee Myung-Bak is "pro-business," what they really mean is that they hope he is pro-Korean business, in the sense that he will return the country to the days when the government subsidized Korea companies (who then guaranteed lifetime employment) while protecting the local economy from the rigors of global competition. Business is, after all, so much easier when one isn't forced to worry about being profitable.

This immunity from competition, in addition to producing inefficient firms, has allowed a host of other problems to fester within the country: companies have less incentive to hire and promote females; a simultaneous system of collusion and gridlock amongst labor, government and business has taken root; and Korean universities produce a lot of managers, but precious few leaders. It may be a oversimplification to say that making Korea a free trade zone would solve these problems overnight, but such a policy would be a necessary step in that direction.

As Hussain notes, Korea's economic structure worked well when it was a developing nation, trying to catch up with and join the league of advanced economies. The problem is, this catch-up structure won't allow Korea to excel in the 21st century and compete in the global economy, particularly in light of the rise of a certain neighbor to the west (the proximity of which can also be an asset, if used properly).

None of these changes, however, will come easily. Lee Myung-Bak is going to face some brisk resistance if he does in fact move forward with the changes necessary to revitalize Korea's economy. In particular, I wonder if he's up to the task of confronting the culture of corruption that has permeated Korean government and business circles, particularly when those in need of confrontation on this front may include the likes of his former associate, Hyundai's Chung (pictured above).

One reason, among many, that the United States is the world's leading economy is that it offers a high degree of relative transparency and investor protection (recent woes aside), such that the likes of Jeff Skilling of Enron and Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco go to prison for their crimes. In Korea, by contrast, men like Chung are let off when judges decide that imprisoning him would have an adverse effect on the economy. What results, however, is this "Korea discount," described by Hussain as "the underperformance of Korea's stock market due to its lack of transparency and minority shareholder protection."(183) Hussain further notes that "Korea's notoriously poor ratings in terms of corruption are an indication of the excessive power of a few interest groups." We're thus left with a system that allows convicted criminals like Chung and Kim Seung-youn (above) to walk free, but which hounds foreign investors who've made a local profit.

As Korea's constitution only allows presidents to serve a single five-year term, Lee Myung-Bak will be necessarily limited in what he can accomplish during his time in office. My guess is that, while he may make some headway toward liberalizing the Korean economy, the interests of the government bureaucracy, the conglomerates and the labor unions (a post topic in itself) are so entrenched that five years won't be enough for Lee to do much more than set a tone for the following administration. Even that modest goal, though, will be a battle.

Holy Mancur Olson nightmares, Batman!

I could make so many comments - it's election season in ROK, and Japan could use some positive, cheap diplomatic news - but, more Sakhalin Koreans are arriving in Seoul for repatriation.

Lee and her husband, who speak Russian at home, now live in a small but modern flat about an hour west of Seoul. It took years of negotiations among Japan, Russia and South Korea to devise a repatriation plan.

Japan, which says all its compensation claims with South Korea were settled by an accord the two signed decades ago, has quietly and on humanitarian grounds helped fund the return, South Korea's Overseas Information Service said.

The Koreans receive rent subsidies, pensions and health insurance from the South Korean government with Japan kicking in money for their transport and appliances for their new homes.

The first group of 900 Sakhalin Koreans came back in 2000. The current program, open to Koreans 65 and older, has been relocating another 610 people since the start of October.

«My parents wanted to come back so much. They spent their days crying until they finally passed away,» said Chung Young-ja, 67, who went with her parents to Sakhalin when she was a toddler.

South Korea says there are still 3,200 first-generation Koreans on Sakhalin.

On leaving Russia Chung and her husband, Chang Jung-gi, left behind three children and seven grandchildren who are settled in the country and are never likely to live in South Korea.

I can't help but think Japan gets the better part of this deal - Tokyo doesn't need to take care of these elderly people, and it gets to keep the younger workers. 

After leaving the DPRK, a «virtual prison», a North Korean defector, Kim Duk-hong finds himself in a prison of another sort, the ROK.

So this is the picture: South Korea, determined to improve relations with North Korea at all costs, is blocking top North Korean defectors from moving about freely and speaking their mind. It doesn't want them to blab about how bad things are in the North for fear that Pyongyang will be piqued.

After all, traitor Kim did leave the South Korean progressives' paradise up north, so it's only loyal of them to take care of him for their dictator. 

Perhaps, I was a little harsh about the Massengill Commission back in May. Virginia's Governor Tim Kaine (D.) convened the Massengill Commission following the April 16 Virginia Tech shootings, in which Seung Hui Cho murdered 32 of his fellow students before committing suicide, and it has delivered its report. Virginia Tech's president, Charles W. Steger, has refused to resign. One one hand, university employees, some of whom implicated within the report, support him, but parents' groups do not. It's unfair for one man to be the fall guy when so many others erred, but he can in no way claim innocence.

The report offers over 90 recommendations, of which the most notable are:

1. «During Cho's junior year at Virginia Tech, numerous incidents occurred that were clear warnings of mental instability. Although various individuals and departments within the university knew about each of these incidents, the university did not intervene effectively. No one knew all the information and no one connected all the dots.»

2. «University officials in the office of Judicial Affairs, Cook Counseling Center, campus police, the Dean of Students, and others explained their failures to communicate with one another or with Cho's parents by noting their belief that such communications are prohibited by the federal laws governing the privacy of health and education records. In reality, federal laws and their state counterparts afford ample leeway to share information in potentially dangerous situations.»

3. «Virginia's mental health laws are flawed and services for mental health users are
inadequate. Lack of sufficient resources results in gaps in the mental health system
including short term crisis stabilization and comprehensive outpatient services. The involuntary commitment process is challenged by unrealistic time constraints, lack of critical psychiatric data and collateral information, and barriers (perceived or real) to open communications among key professionals.»

4. «Virginia is one of only 22 states that report any information about mental health to a federal database used to conduct background checks on would-be gun purchasers. But Virginia law did not clearly require that persons such as Cho?who had been ordered into out-patient treatment but not committed to an institution?be reported to the database. Governor Kaine?s executive order to report all persons involuntarily committed for outpatient treatment has temporarily addressed this ambiguity in state law. But a change is needed in the Code of Virginia as well.»

5. «The Virginia Tech police may have erred in prematurely concluding that their initial lead in the double homicide was a good one, or at least in conveying that impression to university officials while continuing their investigation. They did not take sufficient action to deal with what might happen if the initial lead proved erroneous. The police reported to the university emergency Policy Group that the «person of interest» probably was no longer on campus.»

6. «Senior university administrators, acting as the emergency Policy Group, failed to issue an all-campus notification about the WAJ killings until almost 2 hours had elapsed. University practice may have conflicted with written policies.»

One of the most compelling parts of the Massengill Report is Seung Hui Cho's mental health history, the subject of much speculation in both South Korea and the US. The most unsettling part of this section is the realization, that Cho was a very normal person. Contrary to speculation, he did not exhibit mental health problems before his family emigrated to the US from South Korea. He was shy, a characterization almost every person whom Cho came into contact used to describe him. His family was not poor, but financial problems did affect Cho's upbringing. However, Cho was traumatized by early physical health problems, and his reticence to discuss these feelings was an early sign of his later mental health problems.

The only other way Cho's mental health history is at all unique is, that he had difficulties adjusting to American life as an immigrant. The information presented places blame, not on Cho or his family, but on countless professional omissions and administrative oversights by American organizations. For example, his parents did not receive adequate translation services during school conferences. In short, Cho was a monster made by bureaucratic red tape and casual indifference typical of a modern society. But Cho was not a force of evil or a cultural «Other». Aside from his acculturation problems as an immigrant, any child could have become Cho. WaPo reinforces this argument when it subtitled its editorial, «An information breakdown in an information society.»

The fault here lies both in laws that limit the ability of educational institutions to share pertinent information regarding mental health and the misunderstanding of those laws by university officials. The review panel's report makes clear that while the laws are restrictive in some instances, they would not have prevented much greater sharing of information than took place in Cho's case. Here was a student whose writing and behavior in class alarmed several professors; whose inappropriate actions toward female students led to complaints to campus police; whose inability to interact socially or even to speak in class had been known and treated in high school; and whose suicidal statements triggered a psychiatric examination and a judge's order that he receive outpatient care. And yet the university did not act.

In the aftermath of such a devastating tragedy, it's easy to say, but nonetheless true, that public safety must trump privacy rights, particularly in a university setting where the population is young and vulnerable. Cho's dysfunction had been noted and treated by his high school counselors in Fairfax County, but they never communicated his condition to Virginia Tech. That makes no sense. As his problems intensified in his junior and senior years of college, his parents were never alerted. That makes no sense. Cho spoke with employees of the campus counseling center three times in 15 days in late 2005 and early 2006, but they failed to follow up and in fact treated his case lackadaisically. That makes no sense. Even when it came to sharing information with the review panel, university officials and state police failed to provide all relevant information. That makes no sense either.

What also makes little sense is the quasi-libertarian sentiments expressed by one blogger. A Western Heart's MK interprets the report's findings as advocating an » 'emergency grab ankles and find a desk to hide under' plan». The system MK disparages already exists. What the report advocates is making that system work better, not creating a lesser system where «...we cannot protect you, go and get yourself a gun, learn to use it, watch your back, grow a pair, make a stand, learn to draw fast, be prepared to fight for your freedom, it's hard but that's life.» That would be an overreaction worse than transforming Virginia Tech into a fortress.

Fables of the Reconstruction's Mithras takes a tack closer to my own.

What I am really afraid of here, in both cases, is overreaction. If this report is seen as credible, the next time there is a shooting on a campus, it will mean the whole place will shut down. I live near the University of Pennsylvania, an urban campus. Shootings here are not an infrequent event. And disturbed, even disturbing, behavior by students is an unworkable grounds for kicking people out of programs. Some writer will get too creative one day and the next find herself kicked out of school with a restraining order not to enter campus again ever. In both cases, I don't think it's wise or effective.

I'm worried about this, too. Mithras' first argument about the uncertainties surrounding the actual chronology of events on April 16 is well put. But, the events in Cho's mental health history reveal a pattern, not of overreaction, as Mithras argues, but of inaction. Seung Hui Cho is the product of this ineptitude. How could anyone fear some purposeful action by some earnest administrator, when that attitude was missing all along?

How many other immigrants are trapped, like Cho and his family, within the pretensions and the realities of the American Dream?

Living in Busan, ROK, I seldom get to see anything other than a smirky glare from Korean bosses, so reading about South Korean naughtiness in The Philippines is like a secret treat. John Nery and Manuel L. Quezon III amplify my response about «Snarky» Hong (and, how often do I get to say that!):

The Korean Ambassador really only apologized for not formally advising the Philippine government that the South Korean embassy intended to put Filipinos through the wringer. So, he said sorry to the DFA but the policy remains in place. But then, no one ever said the Korean’s aren’t aggressive about their interests.

I thought about it before, and again now, in words: perhaps Brendon Carr is right. Turning the other cheek from Seoul is just not good diplomacy. Even though, in this case, ROK-US FTA will probably fail because of Democratic resistance in the US Congress, why not just send a shipment of cars back? Somehow, it's just not satisfying enough to be right about the benefits of comparative advantage for South Korean consumers.

Second thoughts, let's just start pulling USFK troops out and parking an aircraft carrier at Busan!

Who knew a South Korean diplomat had it in him to be so snarky (via MLQ3):

â€ūThey do not remit their earnings to Korea,â€? he said. â€ūThey are Filipinos in Korean clothing. Don't look upon them as invaders, they are part of your economy, especially Korean tourists who spend their money in this country.â€?

â€ūIf some misbehave, I have no intention to defend them,â€? [Consul General Hong Sung Mog of the ROK Embassy in Manila] said.

Some 600,000 South Koreans visit the country as tourists every year, he said.

That's rich, coming from a Korean! «Ambassador» Hong was defending his actions in this little diplomatic tuff between South Korea and the Philippines:

The Korean embassy hinted it would take action against the estimated 15,000 undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the peninsula if the alleged harassment and extortion by some immigration officials of Koreans here does not stop.

In a phone interview, Consul General Hong Sung Mog of the Korean embassy told INQUIRER.net that the embassy was forced to stop issuing visas—not stop accepting visa applications as earlier reported—to Korea-bound Filipino workers starting Monday because of â€ūenormous pressureâ€? from Korean businessmen in the country.

He said he was forced to do this because the complaining businessmen might lobby their government in Seoul to act against the OFWs in South Korea who have extended their stay without proper documents.

â€ūI don’t like the situation to get out of hand. I like to have it contained here. If it is not handled properly here, it could get out of hand and the complaining Koreans will write to Seoul in hundreds; then it will become a serious problem,â€? he said.

â€ūThe first victims would be the 15,000 OFWs with no papers there, including seamen living in Korea. The workers with papers are okay,â€? he added.
Government statistics confirmed his estimate of illegal OFWs in Korea.

According to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, as of December 2006, some 70,000 Filipinos work and live in Korea.

Of this number, some 6,000 are permanent residents, some 50,000 work legally, and some 14,000 are â€ūirregularâ€? or do not have the proper documents.

Hong noted that only around 200 Koreans here may be staying without proper documentation.

The Korean diplomat said the suspension of visa issuances is indefinite, but expressed hope the Philippine government will act immediately on the Korean businessmen’s complaints of extortion by immigration officials.

But, at least he's sorry! Filipinos should recognize the value of that utterance coming from a Korean. It seems hypocrisy doesn't stop at South Korea's relations with the US.