South Korean Politics and Elections

Farmers' Rich Harvest from FTA Fund Questioned

Chosun Daily, November 7, 2007

Some W100 million was squandered from a fund set up to aid fruit growers hit by the Korea-Chile free trade agreement which took effect in 2004, a parliamentary report said (US$1=W908).

The National Assembly Budget Office said in the report on Tuesday that peach growers were given W107.6 billion from the fund between 2004 and 2006 even though they experienced no direct damages from the FTA as peach imports were banned for quarantine reasons. The report also found that some W21.2 billion was given to fruit farmers to compensate for losses resulting from rising imports of farm products because of the FTA. But there was little evidence of a link between the losses and the FTA, with outmoded farming methods in Korea being the likely culprit.

The FTA fund was set up to distribute W1.2 trillion between 2004 and 2010. As of late 2006, W455.3 billion had been doled out.

Roh: I inherited problems

President says past policies dragged down the economy

JoongAng Daily, January 24, 2007

In remarks prepared for a nationwide television address last night, President Roh Moo-hyun defended his administration from attacks by the media and the political opposition.

On economic policies, a major factor in barbs directed at his stewardship, Mr. Roh complained that the economic problems pressing Koreans had been inherited from past administrations run by the Grand National Party. The party has been out of power since 1998, when Kim Dae-jung moved into the Blue House after defeating Lee Hoi-chang, the GNP candidate in the 1997 elections.

Speaking of the Grand Nationals, Mr. Roh said, “They are the ones who made the problems, and now they are blaming us. It’s shameless of them.”

He accused his critics of “irresponsibly stirring up the economy” because they were “blinded by political gains.” He added that he took special exception to the phrase “ruined livelihoods of the common people,” which his critics often use, but added that he regrets he had been unable to solve the problems that led to such criticism.

He boasted that he had stuck to principles by not trying to stimulate the economy artificially. “I was driven into a corner,” he said, “by critics who said I was not interested in the economy. But I endured the criticism to avoid leaving a mess for my successor.”