Category: Politics-Korea

Here are some interesting comments from President Yoon on the First Lady’s handbag scandal:

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that first lady Kim Keon Hee failed to “cold-heartedly reject” a visitor armed with a hidden camera, speaking for the first time on allegations she accepted a luxury handbag from the man in 2022.

Yoon said in an interview with KBS TV that the bag was given to her as a “political maneuver” as it was filmed with a camera hidden inside a watch and the footage was only released last year ahead of an election year.

“The fact that she was unable to cold-heartedly reject him was the problem, if one can call it a problem, and it is a little regrettable,” he said. The interview was filmed on Sunday and aired Wednesday night.

Yonhap

Here are the details on how this was a planned political setup:

Yoon had come under growing pressure to address the allegations surrounding the first lady, even as his office maintained the Christian Dior bag, valued at around 3 million won (US$2,200), was given to her by a Korean American pastor in September 2022 as part of a premeditated hidden camera trap.

The issue was seen as a liability for the ruling party ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections, as the incident occurred after Yoon took office as president in May 2022.

Yoon said in the interview that the incident took place when the couple were still living at their private apartment unit in southern Seoul, where his wife kept an office in the basement, before moving into the new presidential residence.

He suggested the pastor visited her at the office after claiming to have had ties with her late father and insisting that they meet.

“From now on, now that we have moved into the residence, not only will such things be managed well, but I think we will have to be clear so as not to cause any misunderstandings or anxieties or concerns among the people,” he said.

You can read more at the link, but the First Lady early in the administration was still living in their private home without a staff that would normally vet and advise on visits like this. When Kim Keon-hee was given the bag she seemed surprised which demonstrates she was not expecting it and thought this was only going to be a meeting with a pastor her father supposedly knew.

The fact this camera trap was executed early in Yoon’s presidency in 2022, but released shortly before the 2024 elections shows how this was a political setup to infleunce the upcoming election. President Yoon has made it clear there is a process in place now to prevent political setups like this from happening again.

Two former Park Geun-hye administration officials have received pardons from President Yoon after they had already completed their jail sentences. However these pardons will allow them to run for public office again:

This combination of file photos shows Kim Kwan-jin, left, former defense minister, and Kim Ki-choon, former presidential chief of staff. The two officials, who served in key positions during the Park Geun-hye administration, have been included on the special pardon list on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, the Ministry of Justice said on Tuesday.

Former Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon ― both of whom served under former President Park Geun-hye before her impeachment ― have been included on a special pardon list, the Ministry of Justice said on Tuesday.

The two were among the 450,000 people expected to be granted pardons and regain rights, including the right to run for public office, by President Yoon Suk Yeol on the occasion of the Lunar New Year.

Kim Kwan-jin, 74, who served as defense minister and national security adviser under Park, was convicted in 2019 of meddling in politics by ordering the military cyber command to post online comments to sway public opinion in favor of conservative politicians.

He is currently serving as vice chairman of the presidential defense innovation committee.

Kim Ki-choon, 84, who served as chief of staff to Park between August 2013 and February 2015, was found guilty in 2017 of playing his role in creating a blacklist of artists critical of the administration.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Even though Korea’s First Lady was setup to create a political scandal, she should not have accepted the handbag and that is what President Yoon should have stated shortly after this whole issue erupted:

This photo shows first lady Kim Keon Hee sending a prayer at a Catholic church in Sorokdo island in South Jeolla Province during her visit there in November. (Presidential office)

President Yoon Suk Yeol is facing mounting pressure to clarify his stance regarding the revelation of an alleged graft case involving first lady Kim Keon Hee.

A Gallup Korea’s poll on Friday showed that 63 percent of South Korean people disapproved of Yoon’s performance in the fourth week of January, up 5 percentage points from the week before.

Yoon’s disapproval rating has hit its highest point in nine months since April 2023, when his remarks suggested that the past during Japan’s colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century, including forced labor conscription, should be left behind. His approval rating also came to 31 percent, his lowest in three months.

Controversy surrounding Kim’s alleged breach of the Improper Solicitations Act, and Yoon’s poor communication with the public, were two of the three major reasons respondents to a recent poll gave for their disapproval of Yoon’s performance, along with high costs of living.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It appears the whole Dior handbag scandal involving Korea’s first lady, Kim Keon-hee was a setup with a spy cam and a acquaintance giving Korea’s first lady the hand bag with her responding “Why do you keep bringing me these things?”:

Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Hwang Un-ha speaks as the controversial video footage of first lady Kim Keon Hee accepting a Christian Dior bag from a pastor is being shown in the background during a meeting of the National Policy Committee at the National Assembly in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap)

When a YouTube video of South Korea’s first lady receiving a Dior handbag went viral last year, it initially made few waves in mainstream news media.

In the weeks before April’s general election, the footage has become a wedge that is straining relationships among People Power Party lawmakers, as well as a piece of political ammunition for the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea.

Opposition lawmakers have been raising their suspicions that first lady Kim Keon Hee violated anti-graft legislation that forbids public officials and their spouses from receiving gifts valued at one million won ($748) at a time or a total of three million in a single year from the same person. (…….)

Kim is featured in the 86-minute video for less than a minute, as the rest of the video is filled with commentaries and discussions among panels. Wearing a casual T-shirt, she asks Choi, who visited her at the headquarters of her company Covana Contents located in southern Seoul, “Why do you keep bringing me these things?”

The box of the Dior handbag is shown perched up on the coffee table between Kim and Choi next to glasses filled with water, but the video does not show Kim accepting the gift. It was revealed that Kim had accepted the gift through a statement released by the presidential office and ruling party which said the bag was “being managed and stored as a property of the government.”

The footage was filmed with a spy cam in September last year, Choi admitted through a press conference held at the National Assembly on Monday. Choi said he was able to meet Kim because he shared an acquaintance with her father.

Choi claimed that he decided to film the video to expose how Kim was abusing her power as the first lady.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Korean youth are criticizing the Democratic Party for campaign posters that make them look dumb and selfish. With that said the majority of young Koreans will probably keep voting for the Democratic Party so the slogans are probably true:

Ruling party lawmakers on Sunday blasted the main opposition party for releasing new political banners that contain phrases it called “demeaning to the youth.”

On Friday, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s election campaign committee revealed new political banner designs aimed at young voters in their 20s and 30s ahead of the upcoming general elections in April. The new banners included controversial phrases such as, “The party for me,” “I don’t know about politics, I just want to live a good life” and “I have no idea how the economy works but I want a lot of money!”

Through an official statement, the Democratic Party stated that the new political campaign centers on respecting the individuality and diversity of young voters in their 20s to 30s and hopes that it can transform its image into being a party that can be helpful to individuals and their needs.

The party said that the newly released teaser banner designs will be followed by final designs to be revealed through an official party event on Thursday. Until then, the teaser banners will be displayed across major cities and provincial areas for a week.

The phrases included in the political banners have been criticized by some members of the party. Padong, a youth opinion group for the party, criticized the phrases used on the banners, saying that the level of word choice is, “shocking.”

“What on earth does the Democratic Party think of the young generation?” said Padong in an official statement on Saturday. “Are young people an ‘ignorant’ generation that thinks only about having a lot of money, or are they a ‘dumb’ generation that doesn’t know anything about politics?”

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It is not so much that Lee Jun-seok switched to English, but what he said, “You became one of us but you don’t look like us as of now” that is really racist:

Naturalized South Korean doctor Yohan Ihn’s appointment as reform head of the ruling People Power Party in October came as a surprise move in a country with a relatively short history of racial or ethnic diversity in politics.

Following his appointment, the 64-year-old Ihn, also known as John Linton, who is white and the descendant of US missionaries, has faced personal attacks over his ethnicity from political opponents who sought to undermine his power, overshadowing his reform agenda.

At the same time, the issue has opened up opportunities for counterattacks by Ihn’s supporters over the bigoted nature of the attacks.

On Saturday, Ihn made a surprise appearance at a conference in Busan, where disgraced ex-People Power Party Chair Lee Jun-seok was scheduled to speak. Ihn attended the conference to meet Lee face-to-face, two days after his party membership suspension was lifted upon Ihn’s recommendation.

Lee appeared to give Ihn the cold shoulder and, while onstage during the conference, switched to English and argued to Ihn that he thought it was not the right time to hold such a meeting.

Lee said that Ihn had “failed to meet the prerequisites” for an in-person meeting with him on the grounds that, he believes, Ihn represents the current leadership of the party over which President Yoon Suk Yeol holds sway. Lee further believes that the party leadership has not learned its lesson from its critical by-election loss in Seoul’s Gangseo-gu in October.

“The reason I spoke to you in English is,” Lee said in Korean, before switching back to English to continue: “You became one of us but you don’t look like us as of now. Please be (on) our side, and speak in the same language as we do, and speak in the language of democracy with us, please. I said please.”

Korea Herald

Dr. Ihn has also faced attacks from local media for talking positively about the late General Paik Sun-yup who is arguably one of the most important Koreans in the ROK’s modern history:

The critical public reception of Ihn has not been hard to notice in Korea over the last few weeks. Citizens’ Press Dandelion, a local citizens’ media outlet, in October described Ihn as a “special Korean” who has a “lopsided and superficial understanding of Korea’s history and politics.”

The comments were made in criticism of Ihn’s past remarks praising a controversial historical figure, the late former Gen. Paik Sun-yup, in a news report headlined, “Heavy burden on Yohan Ihn, who loves Korea but does not know much about it.”

You can read more at the link.

Is it politically smart for someone with approval ratings as low as President Yoon to be seen spending so much time with someone who was impeached?:

President Yoon Suk Yeol traveled to the conservative stronghold of Daegu on Tuesday and visited former President Park Geun-hye at her home, in what appeared to be a bid to unite conservatives ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.

The visit came only 12 days after the two met during a memorial ceremony for Park’s late father and former President Park Chung-hee. It was not on the president’s official schedule and only disclosed afterward.

Park greeted Yoon outside her home’s entrance, whereas during Yoon’s previous visit in April last year, she greeted him inside her home, according to presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting politicla appointment within the ruling PPP, a descendant of a missionary family who is now a prestigious doctor in Seoul that considers himself a country boy from Jeolla:

Ihn Yo-han, chairman of the innovation committee of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), speaks to reporters during his way to the office at the party’s headquarters in Seoul’s Yeouido, Tuesday. Yonhap

A fresh face has emerged in Korean politics. Ihn Yo-han, a naturalized Korean physician, has come to the rescue for the ruling People Power Party (PPP) as the conservative bloc gears up for a momentous change in preparation for the general elections slated for April next year.

Ihn, also known as John Linton, was appointed as chairman of the PPP’s innovation committee, Monday. He is tasked with leading the reform of the ruling party as it strives to regain voters’ trust ahead of the parliamentary elections.

Political commentators viewed that the PPP’s appointment of Ihn shows its commitment to drastic change, but said it remains to be seen how big a role the physician will play. 

“By appointing Ihn as the innovation committee chief, the PPP has succeeded in grabbing public attention and delivering a message that things are going to change,” said Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Myongji University.

“It also sends a positive message that people of diverse backgrounds are playing a major role in Korean politics.” 

Ihn is the first special naturalized Korean citizen, earning the status in 2012 thanks to his contributions to the country, such as the development of an ambulance customized for Korea in 1992. 

He is currently the director at the International Health Care Center of Yonsei University Severance Hospital. 

The 64-year-old doctor comes from a family with a long history of contributions to Korea.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The loss of this election in Seoul is supposedly not a good sign for upcoming elections for the PPP which currently holds the Korean Presidency:

Jin Gyo-hoon, center, main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate for Gangseo District mayor, speaks after his victory was declared at his campaign office in western Seoul, Wednesday. At right is DPK floor leader Rep. Hong Ihk-pyo. Joint press corps

Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea candidate (DPK) Jin Gyo-hoon clinched a landslide victory in a by-election to elect the mayor of Gangseo District in western Seoul, Thursday, which was widely seen as a bellwether of the 2024 general elections. 

The election drew considerable attention, as it was the last chance to gauge public sentiment before the general elections slated for April 10. The rival parties sent seasoned politicians to support the candidates, considering the election’s impact in the six-month race for seats in the National Assembly, and Wednesday’s result will likely boost the DPK’s crusade against the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the ruling People Power Party (PPP). 

According to the National Election Commission, Jin gained 56.52 percent of the votes, outpacing PPP candidate Kim Tae-woo with 39.37 percent. 

Jin will immediately begin the remaining term of approximately three years as the district mayor.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.