hankyoreh

A letter dated Nov. 23

As expected, it turns out that the Blue House was the executive producer behind the establishment of the Mir Foundation. The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) was the assistant director, following orders from the Blue House, and the chaebols were little more than extras, forced to appear in the production against their wishes.

In an internal document from one chaebol that only the Hankyoreh was given, there is vivid evidence of the “irresistible power” that drove the establishment of the foundation. From beginning to end, the corporations played a subordinate role. When they were told to pay, they paid, and when they were told to get together to sign some documents, they came running. The government had the business world under its thumb just like the military dictatorships of South Korea’s past.

“Promoting the establishment of a corporation organized by the government (the Blue House) and the business world (the FKI) in order to improve South Korea’s national brand,” “The top 18 groups will take part and their contributions (50 billion won, around US$45 million) will be assigned according to their revenues” – these are headings that appear in an internal document of one chaebol that donated money to the Mir Foundation.

The amounts of money donated by the corporations – 12.5 billion won for Samsung, 6.8 billion won for SK and 4.8 billion won for LG – were not random. As the document indicates, the total amount of money to be raised (50 billion won) was determined from the beginning and was then allocated to the companies in advance. This clearly illustrates the present predicament of South Korean companies, which do not dare to protest against a project organized by the Blue House.

The way the companies signed the documents needed to establish the foundation is even more remarkable. On their day off, representatives from the companies suddenly received an emergency summons from the foundation: they were supposed to meet the next day with the necessary documents. So the next day, those representatives rushed to the designated hotel and stamped the documents with their corporate seals.

Those documents were all fakes, though – none of them had undergone the proper procedures. The whole event was a fake document-stamping competition. Both the foundation, the FKI and the companies themselves all knew that this was the case, but no one said a word. How could they dare to raise an objection when this farce was being orchestrated by the Blue House?

The Mir Foundation hounded the companies just like a moneylender. It even sent them a letter pressuring them to make their contributions (dated Nov. 23, 2015) and giving them four days in which to do so. There is only one way to explain this topsy-turvy situation in which the recipient of a donation makes demands of the donor. Namely, the foundation had a powerful backer in the form of the Blue House.

The undisclosed details about the Mir Foundation have now mostly come to light. Now all that remains is for the Blue House and the FKI to deal with the consequences and to make an honest confession, offer an apology and hold the guilty parties accountable. The time has come for the ending credits to roll on this farce.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]