Hyon-Joo’s Everyday Life

Korea’s “Internet economic president”, or the doomsayer Minerva got arrested in Jan. 10, 2009. Puzzled Korean Internet users are trying to figure out why.

• Was it because Minerva revealed national secrets that KOSPI would go down to 500 and won-dollar exchange rate would soar soon, I mean, obviously?
• Was it because Korean president Lee Myung-bak was afraid that Minerva was more popular than he was?
• So was it because his pride got seriously damaged and he wanted to get a revenge on him?
• Or was it because President Lee Myung-bak wanted Minerva to give his dump economic strategists some crash course trainings?
• Was it because Minerva “disdained” not only “King Lee” but Lehman Brothers? How dare you speak ill of such a great company of the US?
• Was it because the Lee government’s officers were wondering how Koreans would react when they told them to shut up?
• Maybe, it was because the trend comes and goes. Remember the 80’s of Korea, when people were secretly sent to jail or Samchungdae with ridiculous reasons?

So, what did Koreans learn from this ridiculous arrest? We all should learn something, right?

It’s hard not to leave comments when you surf the Internet. But now Koreans know the tricks. They just need to make sure that they add these remarks:

“I didn’t write this, Not original! I just copied it from somewhere else. Don’t arrest me!!!”
“I don’t have any intention to scare people or to cause any kind of intelligent discussion!”

Or being a bright netizen, hide your IP address by using proxy servers, vpn, tunneling or international IP laundry sites. It’s not 100% guaranteed but it will probably work. Isn’t it amazing to see how the government can change people?

S. Korea is one of the few non-Muslim countries where an extramarital affair makes a criminal offense. Under the adultery law, the convicted can be sent to jail up to two years. For the last two decades, there have been a few challenges to overturn the law, but the country’s constitutional judges upheld it every time. This issue became huge again in 2008 when a well-known actress Ok So-ri was indicted on charge of adultery.

Short history of Korean Adultery Law

There were various kinds of adultery laws throughout many Korean dynasties as in most countries . The first modern-age law was implemented by the Japanese government in 1908, 2 years before they colonized the country. The law applied the charge unequally to married women.

This adultery law was re-written in 1953, 8 years later after Korea got its sovereignty back, with the intent to establish monogamy, and to protect women’s rights. It was meant that the adultery charge should be applied to men and women equally under the law. However, the reality was different, and it was controversial if the law was beneficial for wives at all as the society was still very patriarchal. In most cases, men still had a better deal in divorce suits because men’s extramarital affairs were generally accepted.

Yet, for a long time, ironically, it was women’s organizations that strongly supported the law. They believed that the law would give wives better chances to receive financial settlement from divorce.

Changes

Korean women’s legal status has been improved and more of them have became economically independent. They don’t tolerate unfaithful husbands and try to hold on unhappy marriage any more. Adultery isn’t something that only husbands could do. More women think they could have extramarital affairs themselves and they actually do.

Naturally, the number of husbands suing against their wives on charge of infidelity has been growing. Now it’s criticized that in many cases, the law is being abused for spouses to get a revenge on each other or to secure financial settlements from divorce courts.

There have been four petitions to abolish the adultery law in 1990, 1993, 2001 and 2008 and all of them were overruled.

Numbers

Every year about 1200 people are indicted under the adultery law, and about 40 percent of them are sent to jail.

The number of divorced in S. Korea in 2007 was 124600.

About 11,240 couples out of them fought over divorce because of infidelity. About 40 percent of those, it was the husband accusing his wife.

There was a survey carried out last year that reported nearly 68% of South Korean men and 12% of women confessed to having sex outside marriage. According to my friends, the number is actually higher, higher enough to make them say that almost everyone does it!

Ok So-ri’s case

Ms. Ok, a famous Korean movie star, filed a petition in 2008 that the adultery law was an infringement of human rights after she was sued by her ex-husband Park Chul.* She admitted that she was guilty under the adultery law after her efforts failed by the constitutional court.

* After she was sued by her ex-husband in 2007, she had a news conference where she confessed that her husband and she only had handful times of sex during their 11-year marriage. She asked him to work on it or divorce her if he didn’t want to try. Mr. Park didn’t show any interest in resolving the issue. He didn’t divorce her, either, and it’s believed he didn’t do it because he needed her money. He always had large credit card bills due, allegedly spent on drinking and “enjoying” at places like “room-salons” or massage parlors. After 11 years of efforts, she got frustrated and had an extramarital relationship with a popular pop singer. Mr. Park refused to reveal his credit card statements. (In the divorce suit that he filed, he was asking for custody, two thousand dollar monthly expense cost for the child, half of their assets, 2 million dollars and three hundred thousand dollar settlement money for him.)

Many people expressed their contempt on Ms. Ok. They didn’t like that Ms. Ok shared her and her husband’s bed time story, especially her husband’s sexual interest, which wasn’t really acceptable to them.

Issues

Did Ok commit such a “crime” that she needs to serve several months in jail?

Do we really want to let the government intrude beneath the quilt like this?

Why shouldn’t women talk about their marital problems, including sex life?

I’m not saying that it’s okay to have an affair because you’re frustrated or lonely, but my question is why it needs to be processed in a criminal court? Why does the society punish Ms. Ok twice when she explicitly “complained” of their sexual life? Isn’t it time to talk about our distorted sex industry if they are so concerned about society order damaged by extramarital affairs?**

** Seriously, the country has nickname of “affair republic”. Look around, there are tons of “love motels”. You won’t be able to find a regular motel in Korea. Whatever motel you go, you will hear noises. There are numerous “room-salons”, where they can sneak out to buy sex after drinks. Thanks to MB who generously doubled business entertainment expenses, now business “men” can go and spend more money at such places!

Too funny…

Sansung(산성, 山城) in Korean means a mountain fortress wall. A good example is the Great Wall in China. Obviously, the main purpose of sansung is to prevent enemies from invading one’s territory. Many great kings and leaders of old Korean dynasties built sansung throughout history. So this Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, deeply worried about safety, decided to build some sansung himself.

When? On June 10, 2008. Koreans wanted to hold candlelight protests against US beef imports as well as commemorate the revolutionary gathering for democracy of June 10, 1987.

Where? In the main streets of Seoul such as Sejong-ro or the road to the presidential Blue House.

With what? Barricades made up with shipping containers - each about 40 feet in length, about 9 feet in height and 4 tons in weight. And there was more. They didn’t think the containers were good enough. They filled the containers with heavy sand bags and put some lubricating oil on the surface of the container boxes. I’m not sure if they were concerned about catching a fire at all, but they must’ve been paranoid about people’s climbing.

Why? Um, my guess here is that President Lee wanted to show that he and his government didn’t want to listen to Koreans.

In Feb. 2008, Koreans lost the number one historic treasure Sungnyemun, or more commonly known Namdaemun, so was Myungbak Sansung the best they could come up with to replace it? No wonder that Koreans shouted that the barricades are “national treasure No. 666″ or “Castle MB, the new landmark of Seoul”.

The reason that I’m bringing up this issue seven months later is that I feel this anti-people wall, Myung-bak Sansung, is actually evolving. Now it’s only figurative, as we normally understand the expression, and sadly the sansung gets thicker and heavier. It seems the Korean government has stopped listening to ordinary Koreans’ voice with the issues like river refurbishment project, comprehensive real estate tax, suppressing freedom of speech, and many more.

So Koreans can watch a popular talk show on their cell phone in a moving bus. How cool is that? This fast-developing technology cannot always have benefits, but at least it’s moving forward in the sense that it makes our lives more convenient.

What direction does the Korean government heading into then? Stupidly and sadly, it looks like it’s heading toward one of its gloomy dictatorship eras such as the president Park’ or Jeon’s governments where they created conspiracy to brainwash, torture and kill people.

Why do I think like this? There have been quite a lot of incidents last year that made me - one who has just a remote interest in Korean politics - realize that there is something wrong with this president Lee Myung-bak and his government.

One example :

In October 2008, Korean president Lee said “Yes, I believe KOSPI will rise to 3000 next year (2009)”. Last October, KOSPI(Korea Composite Stock Price Index) plunged to 892 , 57% lower from its highest point 2085, which was just about a year ago. As of Jan. 9, 2009, it’s about 1180.

Yet, I don’t think there is anything wrong or especially, anything illegal about his remark. It’s not wise to say that in public as a country’s president, I don’t think, and I wouldn’t say it if I were Korean president. But it’s just an expression of one’s opinion.

About a month later, he also said “buy stocks, and you will get rich.”

I guess you could say that too, right? Again, I wouldn’t talk like that if I were in his shoes, but when he did, I didn’t think he was spreading false rumors. Of course, there was no accusation against him.

But when they heard about this guy, known as “Minerva”, posting his opinions and thoughts anonymously on the Internet in regard to Korean economy and Korea’s future, just like numerous other Koreans did, they didn’t think it’s appropriate. The government tracked him down and arrested him on charges of spreading groundless allegations about the country’s economy.

So what did he say in his postings? I haven’t read them yet, but according to the news, his opinions are summarized that KOSPI would go under 1000, and the Korean real estate market would go bad. Things like that. How manipulative was he?

Are the government people too ticked off because this “Minerva” guy is too accurate about what’s going on with Korean economy while the government is at a total loss? Are they jealous because he is loved too much by Korean Internet users? The majority of Koreans think the government has gone way too far and I absolutely agree with them.

I remember when I was around 10, 9 PM national news ALWAYS started with the president Jeon’s tasks-of-the-day no matter how huge accidents and events happened in Korea or in the world. No, we couldn’t just turn the channel. We only had two broadcasting companies back then and the news was broadcast when family got together and had dinner.

It’s been only a few years since I started to think that we are actually moving forward. I guess I didn’t see this coming when Lee Myung-bak was elected as the president.