Category: Politics-Korea

A positive from the North Korean perspective that has come out of Kim Jong-un’s extended time out of the spotlight was that these recently elected defector lawmakers have been greatly discredited:

The ruling party on Monday urged two North Korean defectors-turned-lawmakers-elect of the conservative opposition parties to stay away from the National Assembly committees that handle top-secret security information.  
   
Rep. Kim Boo-kyum of the Democratic Party (DP) made the request to Thae Yong-ho, elected as a lawmaker in last month’s general elections for the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), and Ji Seong-ho, a proportional lawmaker-elect of the satellite Future Korea Party (FKP) affiliated with UFP.  
   
Thae and Ji are the first North Korean defectors to be elected to the National Assembly by South Korean voters.   

“You must never again mix your wishful thinking with false information and spread it to the media,” Kim said in a Facebook message, criticizing Thae and Ji for claiming that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was in a critical health condition.    

As the young dictator of the reclusive communist state conspicuously remained out of the public eye for nearly three weeks, Thae and Ji fueled media speculation by saying Kim was gravely ill. Ji even claimed that he was “99 percent certain” that Kim was dead and predicted that the North would formally announce his death in the coming weekend. Thae also said Kim “could not stand up by himself or walk properly.”   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

So does anyone believe the Blue House did not know about this:

The main opposition party on Monday accused the Blue House of arranging Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don’s resignation and admission of sexual assault to take place after this month’s general elections, following a revelation that a law firm hired to communicate with the victim was once headed by President Moon Jae-in. 

“No one can possibly believe that the Blue House and ruling Democratic Party [DP] had no prior knowledge of the incident,” Rep. Shim Jae-cheol, floor leader and acting chairman of the United Future Party (UFP), said Monday. “Who will believe that Oh did not inform the party about this important incident?” 

Busan Mayor Oh resigned Thursday after admitting to molesting a female employee of the city government. The resignation of the 71-year-old politician, the first DP member to win the mayor post of the southern port city in 2018 after three unsuccessful runs, took place one week after the ruling party’s landslide victory in the April 15 general elections. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but to be fair even if the Blue House knew and wanted to keep this out of the headlines, the victim said she did not want this incident publicized before the election either. However, even if this did come out before the election I doubt it would have made much difference nationally considering how big the Korean left won the parliamentary elections.

What I find of interest from President Moon’s plan is that the government is not going to fund major infrastructure projects but instead digital projects and small neighborhood projects:

President Moon Jae-in proclaimed a “Korean New Deal” on Wednesday to create jobs in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.  

He also announced that the government plans to give 1.5 million won ($1,200) to people who lost their jobs but aren’t covered by employment insurance, which has never been done before.

Preventing layoffs and creating jobs have become the top priority of the government with job losses hitting their highest numbers in a decade.  

During the government’s fifth economic emergency council meeting on Wednesday, Moon promised a Korean New Deal.  

“New Deal jobs should not be temporary positions but innovative growth projects that will continue through the post-Covid-19 era,” Moon said. 

“The government has to boldly push forward major projects that would create new jobs.”  

According to Finance Minster Hong Nam-ki, the Korean New Deal projects will be digital, have jobs that don’t have much face-to-face contacts and also include small neighborhood public projects.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Koreans will soon see some money heading their way for voting for the DPK this past week:

Following its win in Wednesday’s general election, the ruling party is reigniting the drive to offer emergency disaster relief money to every household to ease economic strain from the coronavirus pandemic ― in the face of the government’s opposition due to pressure on financial soundness. 

On Sunday, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) held a trilateral meeting with Cheong Wa Dae and the government in Seoul to seek an understanding on expanding the scope of recipients. DPK Chairman Rep. Lee Hae-chan and floor leader Rep. Lee In-young sat with Senior Presidential Secretary for Policy Kim Sang-jo and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki. 

The initial government scheme was to deliver between 400,000 won ($328) and 1 million won in accordance with the number of household members in the bottom 70 percent of income-earners. But during the election campaign, the DPK pledged to give the disaster allowance to every citizen in an effort to gain votes.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing the amount of corruption the ruling party is involved in and they are now demanding the prosecutor general that President Moon appointed last year resign because he has the nerve to investigate the corruption:

Other members of the DP and its ally also attacked the prosecutor general. Kim Yong-min, a lawmaker-elect of the DP, said in a radio interview on Friday that Yoon was abusing his power to stop an investigation into an allegation that a reporter and a senior prosecutor had formed an inappropriate relationship. 

Other liberal politicians elected Wednesday such as Kim Nam-kook have also demanded Yoon’s resignation. Choe Kang-wook, former Blue House secretary indicted for having allegedly provided a fake internship certificate to Cho’s son to help his law school applications, was elected as a proportional representative for the Open Minjoo Party on Wednesday. During the campaign period, Choe has argued that Yoon must be the first suspect to be probed by the new investigation agency for senior public servants. 

The DP leadership refrained from making a direct attack on the chief prosecutor. DP Chairman Lee Hae-chan urged the CP to take into account the position of the DP and its lawmakers-elect because the two parties are a coalition. 

The attacks on the top prosecutor were made as the prosecution started investigations into election law violation cases involving both ruling and opposition politicians. On Thursday, the prosecution raided the campaign office of Lee Sang-jik, the DP’s lawmaker-elect for Jeonju B District, on charges of election law violations.

The prosecution also resumed investigations into politically-sensitive cases which key members of the Moon administration are suspected to be involved in. The prosecutors are investigating illegal stock trading of biotechnology firm SillaJen and an accusation that Lime Asset Management, the country’s biggest hedge fund, covered up losses. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the prosecution is also investigating the rigging of the Ulsan mayoral race as well.

Here is at least one positive highlight from the parliamentary election beatdown South Korean conservatives took in this week’s voting:

 A high-profile North Korean defector won a constituency seat in this week’s general elections, becoming the first person hailing from the communist nation to be chosen directly by South Korean voters as their representative.

Thae Yong-ho, a former No. 2 diplomat at North Korea’s Embassy in London, was elected to the National Assembly as the main conservative opposition United Future Party’s candidate in Seoul’s southern affluent district of Gangnam.

Thae received 58.4 percent of the votes cast Wednesday in the Gangnam constituency, one of the conservative party’s main strongholds, far ahead of his opponent Kim Sung-gon, a four-term lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party who earned 39.6 percent.

“I plan to devote the best of my ability so that our parliament and government can face the reality, and implement sustainable and feasible policies on North Korea,” Thae said Thursday when his election victory became almost certain.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Thae is going to be a rule thorn in the side of the Korean left in the parliament as they likely attempt to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the Kumgang Resort, and other projects with North Korea to circumvent international sanctions.

This should come as no surprise to people following this topic that the ruling Democratic Party in Korea is expected to win the parliamentary election that just occurred:

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) is forecast to win a majority of parliamentary seats in Wednesday’s elections as voters apparently supported the government’s efforts to contain the new coronavirus.

South Korea held the quadrennial parliamentary elections to fill the 300-member unicameral National Assembly — with 253 directly contested seats and 47 proportional representation (PR) slots — in the midst of the country’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of 11:24 p.m. when 58.2 percent of the votes had been counted, the DP had taken the lead in 154 constituencies across the nation, followed by the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) with 94 districts, according to the National Election Commission (NEC), the state election watchdog.

If combined with potential PR seats to be distributed to the Platform Party, the DP’s satellite party that only targets PR slots, the ruling bloc may be able to secure around 170 parliamentary seats.

South Korea’s general elections have been closely watched from overseas as the country became the first major country to hold nationwide polls since the COVID-19 crisis began sweeping the globe.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the ruling party had a number of factors going for them to ensure they won the election. The coronavirus response by the Moon administration is obviously the most prevalent. The administration overall did a good job handling the pandemic and even the areas where they obviously screwed up they did not have to worry about a partisan media continuing to hype it like what you see in the US with the Trump administration.

The Moon administration very early on in their tenure made sure to take control of most of the media in the country to include jailing journalists who publish articles they do not agree with. This led to largely positive domestic and then international press coverage even though the administration’s pandemic response was not as strong as other countries in the region.

The ruling party also passed an election law bill that ultimately allowed them to increase the amount of unelected proportional parliament members. The Democrat Party then went and created satellite parties that shared their same ideology to take these proportional seats. This effectively decreased the amount of seats their conservative rivals could win in the elections.

Then you throw in the online opinion rigging to include the Democratic Party reportedly being backed by China’s 50 Cent Army it should come as no surprise they were able to win the parliamentary elections. What we have to wonder about is what comes next? Will the Korean left use their political power to try and change the ROK constitution to give President Moon another term in office? Or will they also use it to advance their Kaesong and Gumgang Resorts projects and ultimately their confederation ideas with North Korea? I guess we will find out over the next two years of what will largely be an unchecked Moon administration.

It looks like South Korea’s ruling party is going to do very well in the upcoming parliamentary elections, especially when you consider all the underhanded tactics they have implemented as well to ensure they win:

The official pointed out that President Moon’s approval rating rose to its highest level in more than a year at 52.9 percent in a survey released by pollster Realmeter, April 2. The disapproval rating was 44 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from a week earlier.

The survey result came after the President announced a massive financial aid package for low-income households and small businesses as part of his government’s efforts to prop up the coronavirus-battered economy.

Realmeter noted that the self-employed and other small-business owners were behind the rise in Moon’s approval rating.

Some 49.6 percent of them, up from 44.8 percent in the previous poll, said Moon was doing a good job.

The DPK also had 43 percent support, while the UFP had 28.2 percent.

The gap between the two parties had narrowed to just a little more than 5 percent in late February, when the government fell short of taking preemptive measures against the spread of the coronavirus.

Korea Times

The Korean public clearly has short memories about how President Moon initially refused to stop travel from China which helped lead to a surge of coronavirus cases in South Korea. Blaming the Shincheonji church for the spread obviously worked to blunt the Chinese travel criticism. Since then I agree the pandemic has been managed very well.