Comrade Chung to Visit Kaesong
Must be an election coming . . . .
He said he would also ask opposition party leaders to join the trip, and was pushing for a meeting with Kim Jong-il and other senior North Korean leaders. The Grand National Party dismissed Mr. Chung’s invitation yesterday, calling a trip to North Korea an old-fashioned way for politicians to promote themselves before an election.
As OFK alumni already know, Chung has a signed pact with Satan, and I have the photo that proves it. Personally, I think he should at least have bargained harder for a higher IQ. (Incidentally, if you’re interested in making your very own pact with Satan, there are instructions on line!)
Since we now know that the North Koreans at Kaesong only earn 5 cents an hour, I was interested in seeing Comrade Chung’s name on this list of Korea’s richest politicians, who somehow seem to do rather well on government salaries.
The Government Ethics Committee said Tuesday the wealth of 1,000 high-ranking officials increased on average W140 million last year. President Roh Moo-hyun reported assets worth W829.3 million, up W94.47 million from a year ago due to savings from his salary and investment in stock funds. Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan increased his assets by a mere W4.89 million to W748.9 million and National Assembly Speaker Kim Won-gi by W91 million to W1.293 billion. Chief Justice Lee Yong-hun and Constitutional Court President Yun Young-chul also increased their wealth to W3.853 billion and W2.977 billion.
In the Cabinet, Information and Communication Minister Chin Dae-je was the biggest winner, increasing his assets by W4 billion. The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs had the most financial wizards with some 150 officials or 23.2 percent boosting their wealth by over W100 million and 128 by between W50-100 million. In the Justice Ministry, 29 out of 131 high-ranking judges added more than W100 million to their wealth, with 58 reporting total assets worth more than W1 billion.
Alas, I didn’t see Comrade Chung’s name, but don’t doubt that given his new focus on redistributing wealth, he’d be thoughtful enough to take up a collection among his friends (and also, his scheming, back-stabbing enemies) and give the Kaesong workers a nice raise to fifty cents a day.
That assumes, of course, that you could give the raise to the workers without it becoming a “voluntary payment” to the regime.