hankyoreh

Kim Jong-il

On the night of March 26, forty-six sailors in the South Korean navy lost their lives when the 1,200-ton corvette Cheonan went down in the waters southwest of Baengnyeong Island. The government announced that the cause of the sinking was a torpedo attack by a North Korean submersible and halted all exchange and cooperation with North Korea with the exception of the Kaesong Industrial Complex. On the afternoon of Nov. 23, North Korea carried out an unprecedented artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island in which two marines and two civilians perished.

Kim Jong-un, third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, ascended to the position of vice chairman of the Central Military Commission at the third Workers’ Party of Korea representatives’ meeting on Sept. 28. The day prior, he had been given the title of General of the Korean People’s Army. With this, a third-generation transfer of power was made official, from Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-il and now Kim Jong-un.

Confident of an overwhelming victory in the June 2 local elections, the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) was stunned by a rout, while the Democratic Party and other opposition parties were astonished at the power of solidarity, which brought about a change in local government rule. The GNP managed only six victories in sixteen mayoral and gubernatorial elections, including those for Seoul and Gyeonggi Provine, and a mere 82 victories out of 228 elections of municipal government heads.

In June, it came to light that the public ethics office within the Prime Minister’s Office had illegally monitored Kim Jong-ik, the former head of KB Hanmaum. Five months later, Democratic Party Lawmaker Lee Seok-hyun reignited the embers of the controversy by showing the National Assembly a planner from public ethics office employees. A memo in the planner indicated that a “Cheong Wa Dae daepo-phone,” registered under a stolen name, had been used for the destruction of evidence on a hard disk. Allegations then surfaced about monitoring of major politicians such as former GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye.

On Dec. 8, the GNP physically dragged opposition party lawmakers away from the platform of the National Assembly main hall and railroaded a 2011 budget and funding plan amounting to 309.1 trillion Won ($271 billion).

The South Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), which was officially signed by representatives of both countries on June 30, 2007, was concluded on Dec. 3 through renegotiations in which some content was changed via U.S. request. This prompted an outpouring of criticism from the opposition and civil society groups, who called it a “one-sided giveaway renegotiation.”

The appointment failures seen since President Lee Myung-bak came into office were also in clear view in 2010. Three of his nominees in an Aug. 8 Cabinet reshuffling stepped down: Prime Minister candidate Kim Tae-ho, Culture Minister candidate Shin Jae-min, and Knowledge Economy Minister candidate Lee Jae-hoon.

The year 2010 was difficult for neighborhood supermarkets and small-scale retailers as large corporations carried out an indiscriminate encroachment upon small-scale commercial districts with super-supermarkets (SSMs).

The Korean publishing sector in 2010 began with a Korean-language translation of Michael Sandel’s “Justice” and ended with Ha-joon Chang’s “23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism.”

At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, Kim Yu-na took the gold in women’s figure skating with an all-time high of 150.8 points and a world record combined score of 228.56 points. Following up her performances at the Grand Prix Final, Four Continent Figure Skating Championships, and World Figure Skating Championships by conquering the Olympics, Kim ascended to the position of true figure skating queen for 2010.

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