Category: Politics-Korea

Who would have thought that of all things that Yoon Suk-yeol’s wife is what will probably cost him getting elected President of South Korea? This is another major unforced error by Yoon’s wife:

Comments made by Kim Keon-hee, the wife of main opposition People Power Party (PPP) presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, have backfired as some #MeToo victims and gender experts demand an apology.

Kim Ji-eun, who worked as a secretary for the former South Chungcheong Province Governor An Hee-jung and who exposed the fact that she was sexually assaulted by him, issued a statement via the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, Monday.

“I heard her sarcastic comments on TV where she was speaking about my case. Her words are baseless and contradict the court’s judgment regarding the guilty verdict,” Kim said in the statement, urging the presidential candidate’s wife to deliver a sincere apology for her “reckless remarks.” 

“Your thoughtless words resulted in secondary victimization and internet users are now harassing me with malicious comments,” she said.

The Supreme Court handed down a sentence of three years and six months to former Governor An on the charge of sexual assault by exploiting his position of power at work against Kim Ji-eun, Sept. 2019. The case was viewed as a symbolic event in the #MeToo movement here at the time.

In the recordings of Kim’s private phone calls, revealed on Sunday by the local broadcaster MBC, Kim was heard saying, “Conservatives make sure they pay. They never use someone free of charge.” 

Kim was also heard claiming that #MeToo victims reveal sexual assault allegations because they didn’t get paid, referring to several sex scandals within the ruling democratic bloc. She went on to say that she felt sorry for the former governor and she and her husband were on An’s side. 

In a letter sent to MBC to clarify her position, the presidential candidate’s wife said that she made some inappropriate remarks while criticizing some people who were involved in sexual exploitation and she was sorry for that. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the recording and releasing to the media the private conversation is actually illegal in South Korea. So it will be interesting to see if anyone gets charged with this.

Considering the ROK’s past history of authoritarians seizing power, I think the five year term has been working very effectively for South Korea:

 Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday argued for a shift to a four-year presidential term, renewable once, from the current single five-year term, saying he is willing to opt for a shorter term if elected.

“For responsible politics, (South Korea) needs a double, four-year term under which power is decentralized,” Lee of the Democratic Party said during an interview with cable channel MBN. 

“Five years is not a span (sufficient for a president) to plan, enact and execute policies and see the results,” the presidential candidate said. 

He said a constitutional amendment for that shift is needed now, and he is more than willing to accept a shorter four-year term if elected president.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I don’t even think Yoon’s proposed stipend to new parents that would last for one year would do much to help the country’s low birth rate, due to the overall cost of raising kids in South Korea:

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol pledged Tuesday to offer parents a 1 million-won (US$837) monthly allowance for one year after the birth of their child to help tackle the country’s low birth rate.

Yoon of the People Power Party made the promise during a New Year’s press conference, saying the program should “free people from the economic burden of having children” at relatively little cost to the government, as only 260,000 babies are born a year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out because if Yoon and Ahn merge their campaigns they have a better chance of defeating Lee for the presidency:

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) faces growing pressure to form a coalition with Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition People’s Party for the March 9 presidential election, as surveys show that an alliance offers a greater chance for the opposition bloc to beat ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. 

So far, the PPP has been downplaying the recent rise in Ahn’s support rate, saying it is a “temporary phenomenon” stemming from infighting in the main opposition party between its presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and party Chairman Lee Jun-seok throughout last month. However, anticipation is growing that the main opposition party may make a decision in the coming weeks in order to grab the public’s attention before the Jan. 31-Feb. 2 Lunar New Year holidays. 

According to a Realmeter survey released Monday, the DPK’s Lee was leading the pack with a 40.1 percent support rate, followed by the PPP’s Yoon with 34.1 percent and Ahn with 11.1 percent. It was the first time that Ahn logged a double-digit number in the weekly survey conducted by the poll agency at the request of OhmyNews. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but what is even more interesting about the polling is that not only is a combined opposition ticket outpoll Lee Jae-myung, but if Ahn Cheol-soo is the lead the ticket polls even better than if Yoon was the lead candidate.

If you vote for Lee Jae-myung he is promising to help you get more hair if you are suffering from hair loss:

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), is receiving ardent support from voters who are suffering hair loss, thanks to his campaign pledge to expand national health insurance coverage to include hair regrowth treatments. 

According to an online community platform for people with thinning hair, Tuesday, a number of posts have been uploaded to express their support for the DPK candidate.
“Lee Jae-myung is a Propecia-like figure,” an online user wrote on dcinside, referring to the popular medication for people with thinning hair. Another wrote, “I will ‘implant’ Lee in Cheong Wa Dae.” 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but if a cosmetic procedure such as regrowing hair will be added to the national health insurance program than why shouldn’t nose jobs, breast enhancement, braces, etc. be added as well?

Here is what Lee Jae-myung had to say about his rival’s wife’s resume padding issue and his own son’s legal problems:

On December 29, Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, shared his opinion on Kim Keon-hee, the wife of the People Power Party’s candidate Yoon Seok-youl, and her apology to the nation for allegedly fabricating her resume and said, “When you say you’re sorry, you should mention why you are sorry, but if you offer an apology like ‘I’ll say I’m sorry because you want me to say it,’ it must make the people receiving the apology feel uncomfortable.”

This morning, Lee Jae-myung appeared on the MBC radio show, Kim Jong-bae’s Focus and during the interview when the host asked Lee’s assessment of Kim’s apology, Lee also said, “As a competitor, I don’t think it is appropriate (for me to give an evaluation).”

He said, “From a broader perspective, I am also destined (for verification). We are choosing a president who is accountable for the fate of the nation as well as the lives of the people in its entirety, and he will be granted immense power. So it is right that we engage in unlimited competition on all factors that will be affected by that power.” He further said, “We need to do so by revealing everything, including family, aides, one’s own self, and the past.”

Lee also spoke on how his son, unlike Kim who made a public apology, did not publicly apologize for his illegal gambling, and said, “The first lady is a public figure who is given authority and support. The president’s son who is an adult is practically a stranger.” Lee continued and said, “I think the people can make their own judgments on the argument that my son should personally make an apology since the wife did,” and added, “Just because someone made an argument does not make it the truth.”

As for the criticism on his returning his master’s thesis following controversy over plagiarism, Lee said, “I returned it because it wasn’t something I absolutely needed in my life, so the school could just cancel it, but they wouldn’t.” He further explained, “I received a letter in the name of my professor, and it said, ‘This is enough for an evening graduate school degree.’ So I asked them to cancel it since I didn’t need it, but the school wouldn’t.”

Kyunghyang Shinmun

You can read more at the link, but you can read more about Lee’s son’s illegal gambling problems as well as the accusations he has been going to a massage parlor at this link. You can read about Lee’s plagiarism of his Master’s degree which he admits to at this link.

It looks like with just two months to go until the Korean presidential election that opposition candidate Yoon Suk-yeol’s campaign is in disarray:

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) said Monday all senior members of its campaign committee, excluding its chief, offered their resignations to presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol to demonstrate their commitment to overhauling the campaign amid declining support for the candidate.

The PPP initally said in a text message to reporters that the resignations were submitted by campaign chief Kim Chong-in, all the standing chairs, co-chairs, heads of divisions and the chairman of the Saesidae Preparatory Committee.

A committee spokesperson later clarified that Kim did not offer to resign, and cited an error in communication.

It was not immediately known whether Yoon accepted the others’ offers.

The move comes just two months ahead of the March 9 presidential election and follows a series of resignations by other campaign and party officials.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It appears that Lee Jae-myung wants to Finland-nize South Korea’s relationship between the U.S. and China:

South Korea is torn between the United States and China in their intensifying strategic competition, as Washington is a longtime security ally, while Beijing is the nation’s largest trading partner.

This situation has thereby led South Korea to take a stance of so-called strategic ambiguity, a policy of refraining from any overt actions that would suggest Seoul is taking sides. 

However, calling into question why South Korea should be the one to bear the pressure of choosing between the two superpowers, Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), instead says that it should be the U.S. and China that vie to seek Seoul’s closer cooperation for their own interests. He calls this “national interest-centered pragmatic diplomacy,” and it’s the backbone of his foreign policy platform for the presidential election, scheduled for March 9, 2022. 

“Amid the intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry, South Korea has seen less room to maneuver, but I don’t think we deserve to face pressure to pick a side because we are maintaining strategic ambiguity,” Lee said in a joint interview with The Korea Times, Reuters and the South China Morning Post at the DPK’s headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday.

“South Korea is the world’s 10th-largest economy, while possessing the world’s sixth-most-powerful military, so why should we be pressured to make a choice in accordance with other countries’ interests? I think the situation is coming where we can make decisions independently, putting our national interests first,” he added. “Any thinking that we have to choose between the two is a very disgraceful approach.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it sounds like Lee just doesn’t want to decouple the South Korean economy from China like other countries have begun to do. He just wants to maintain the status quo. Decoupling from China would be extremely painful at first, but Australia’s recent example has shown that it can be done.

The controversy over Yoon Seok-yul’s wife may cost him the Korean presidency if he can’t shore up his support with conservatives. Lee Jae-myung maybe able to win this election if he is able to gain support from Ahn Cheol-soo:

On December 27, a poll showed that the lead, which Yoon Seok-youl, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, had over Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea’s candidate, has narrowed (0.7%) to within the margin of error, suggesting a very close race.

Upon the request of OhmyNews, Realmeter conducted a survey of 3,090 people from December 19 to 24, and the results this day showed that 39.7% supported Lee Jae-myung, while 40.4% supported Yoon Seok-youl. Lee managed to obtain the support of 1.7% more voters from the previous survey (Dec. 12-17), while Yoon lost 4.0% of support. The difference between the two candidates was only 0.7%, 6.4% closer than in the previous survey.

Lee Jae-myung lost 2.7% of support from the progressives, but managed to gain 2.4% more support among the moderates, which contributed to his overall rise in support. Meanwhile, Yoon Seok-youl’s approval rating dropped 5.8% among the conservatives and 2.6% among the moderates. The controversy surrounding his wife, Kim Keon-hee and her fabricated resume and his conflicts with People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok appear to have influenced his drop in support.

Kyunghyang Shinmun

You can read more at the link.