Imagine if American politicians could be jailed for lying to the public? The U.S. wouldn’t have a government:
Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a two-year prison term for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on charges of lying as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election.
Lee of the Democratic Party (DP) is considered the presidential frontrunner in the event President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment is upheld, but confirmation of his lower court sentence of one year in prison, suspended for two years, would bar him from running in the next presidential election in 2027.
The opposition leader is accused of lying during a media interview in December 2021 that he did not know the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive of Seongnam Development Corp., which was behind a corruption-ridden development project in Seongnam, south of Seoul, when Lee was the city’s mayor.
During the final hearing of his appellate trial in the day, the prosecution said Lee deserves “a heavy punishment for distorting voters’ choices by telling a lie.”
You can read more at the link.
It is amazing how many of Korea’s elites have been involved with plagiarism to attain their degrees:
South Korean first lady Kim Keon Hee’s master’s thesis submitted to Sookmyung Women’s University looks set to be deemed plagiarized, according to local reports Tuesday.
In 1999, Kim earned a master’s degree in art education from the Graduate School of Education at Sookmyung. Plagiarism allegations first surfaced decades later, in December 2021, as scrutiny of her credentials intensified after her husband, Yoon Suk Yeol, emerged as a strong presidential candidate at the time.
Following an accusation filed by an alumnae group calling themselves the “Democratic Alumnae Association,” Sookmyung’s research ethics committee officially launched a preliminary investigation into the case in February 2022. After 10 months, in December 2022, a full-fledged probe began.
The process was criticized for taking an unusually long time, far exceeding the 60-day period designated for a preliminary review and the 30 days within which a decision to launch a full investigation should have been made.
Finally this January, the university concluded that Kim in fact committed plagiarism.
You can read more at the link, but Kim Keon-hee may lost her Master’s degree and possibly even her Phd due to this plagiarism finding.
Yoon wants to make changes to the Constitution if he is reinstated and the changes are made he will step down:
Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday he will focus on revising the Constitution if reinstated, suggesting he could step down before the end of his single, five-year term.
Yoon made the remark in his final statement before the Constitutional Court, which is expected to deliver a ruling by mid-March on whether to uphold or dismiss his impeachment over his short-lived imposition of martial law in December.
“I will gather the will of the people and swiftly push for a constitutional amendment, doing my best to produce a Constitution and political structure that fit the changes in our society,” he said during the final hearing of his impeachment trial at the court.
“If a constitutional amendment and political reform are pursued correctly, I believe the separated and divided people will unite in the process,” he said.
“If that happens, there will be no reason to cling to the remainder of my term as guaranteed under the Constitution, and if anything, it will be a great honor,” he added.
South Korea’s Constitution limits presidents to a single, five-year term, but Yoon’s remark suggests he could accept calls to change the limit to two four-year terms and apply the rule to himself.
You can read more at the link, but this seems almost like a last effort hail mary in order to sway the court to not uphold the impeachment.
A new development in this story: the restaurant owner was confronted by another Japanese livestreamer and got on his knees to bow in apology.
He claimed he regrets making threatening phone calls to the other streamer and will close his restaurant. https://t.co/7i58U9SA9s pic.twitter.com/A2LyLFp1z2— Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸 (@mrjeffu) February 21, 2025
Here is a horrible bridge collapse accident in Anseong:
A bridge collapsed at an expressway construction site in Anseong on Tuesday, killing four workers and injuring six others, authorities said.
The accident occurred at around 9:50 a.m. in the city some 65 kilometers south of Seoul during construction on a section of the Seoul-Sejong expressway.
Several slabs placed on a pier fell to the ground, knocking off or burying 10 people working at the site. Of them, four died, five were seriously injured, and one sustained minor injuries, according to the fire authorities.
One of the four killed was pulled out from under the rubble at around 2:20 p.m., after which the authorities ended their rescue work.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
With the high quality of life now being offered on Camp Humphreys it should not be a surprise that accompanied tours in South Korea have been increased:
The Pentagon has tacked a year on the length of a tour of duty for service members who bring their families with them to South Korea. Troops on accompanied tours — those who bring their spouses or dependents with them to South Korea — are now expected to serve 36 months in the country, according to a Feb. 11 memo from Tim Dill, assistant secretary of defense for manpower and reserve affairs. Service members on accompanied tours were previously expected to stay two years and may still be eligible for the shorter term with a waiver from their service branch, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s office.
You can read more at the link.
Things are not looking good for Yoon with the majority of the ROK public wanting his impeachment upheld:
More than half of South Koreans said the Constitutional Court should uphold the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol to remove him from office for his short-lived martial law declaration, a survey showed Monday.
In the same survey, 50.7 percent replied they viewed the Constitutional Court’s impeachment trial process to be “fair,” while 45 percent said it was “unfair.”
According to the survey by Realmeter on 1,006 people aged 18 and older conducted last Thursday and Friday, 52 percent of the respondents said the court should rule to dismiss Yoon, while 45.1 percent said it should reinstate him as president following his impeachment by the National Assembly in December.
You can read more at the link.
