Tag: Lee Jae-myung

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.

I don’t think this is a smart political decision because Koreans I think have hit their limit on lockdowns and restrictions:

Ruling Democratic Party presidential nominee Lee Jae-myung asked the government on Tuesday to immediately tighten social distancing rules to curb the surge in coronavirus infections.

Lee issued the call in an “emergency statement” read by a spokesperson at DP headquarters, saying “it is time to take special measures beyond an all-out response.”

“Regrettably, we need to pause the return to normal temporarily,” he said, referring to the loosening of virus restrictions that began under a government initiative last month.

Lee said small business owners should be compensated in advance for the losses they are likely to suffer under the tightened rules.

Details of the strengthened measures should be determined in consultation with health authorities and experts, the spokesperson, Park Chan-dae, said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The ruling party’s candidate for President Lee Jae-myung is doing what left wing politicians always do, promise spend a lot of money:

Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung, named presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party Sunday, vowed to adopt universal basic income if elected, claiming that he would turn South Korea into the world’s first nation offering the subsidy package, even to the wealthy.

In his acceptance speech on Sunday, Lee highlighted his “basic agenda package,” which is expected to be the backbone of his economy policy if elected president. The package consists of a universal basic income plan, a basic housing program and a basic loan scheme, but has immediately sparked divided responses from onlookers for its impact on the economy and lack of resources.

The universal basic income scheme, under Lee, would provide all Korean citizens annual cash subsidies of at least 250,000 won ($209.16) from 2023. Koreans aged between 19 to 29 would start receiving an annual 1.25 million won each from 2023. 

Lee plans to ultimately raise the bottom line to 1 million won within his years in office. 

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but I wouldn’t mind these heavy spending proposals so much if these politicians would be honest and also explain what taxes would be raised to pay for it.

The ruling party has been attacking the opposition party’s presidential hopeful with corruption allegations so now they are fighting back with corruption allegations themselves against the ruling party’s candidate:

Clashes between rival political parties intensified Tuesday in connection with a sprawling regional development corruption scandal, causing disruptions of a series of parliamentary audit sessions of the government amid opposition calls for an independent counsel investigation.

At the start of at least three audit sessions, lawmakers of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) hung banners on their desks calling for a special prosecutor probe and other slogans attacking the ruling Democratic Party and its presidential hopeful Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung. 

In response, DP lawmakers boycotted the sessions, accusing the PPP of trying to take political advantage of the audit. Some DP members even put up their own banners claiming that the opposition party is to blame for the scandal.

The scandal escalated over the weekend with the arrest of Yoo Dong-gyu, widely considered a close aide to Gov. Lee, on charges that he played key roles in helping a private asset management firm collect astronomical profits from a land development project in Seongnam, south of Seoul.

Lee was mayor of Seongnam at the time.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if Gov. Lee Jae-myung is found to be some how involved in this scandal this is far more serious than the allegations being thrown at his rival former Prosecutor General, Yoon Seok-youl.

Yoon’s popularity as a presidential hopeful continues to grow:

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl saw his support rating reach a fresh record high in the latest poll of potential presidential candidates released Thursday, amid signs of his imminent political debut.

In the Realmeter survey on 2,013 voters nationwide conducted from Monday to Tuesday, 35.1 percent picked Yoon as their most favored candidate for next year’s presidential election, up 4.6 percentage points from last month.

It is the highest support that Yoon has received in Realmeter’s monthly poll, outnumbering the previous high of 34.4 percent tallied in March.

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung, affiliated with the ruling Democratic Party (DP), came in second with 23.1 percent, losing 2.4 percentage points of support compared to last month.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is another example of how Korea’s libel laws are used to attack people for political reasons. In this example they were used by the Moon administration to attack a liberal political rival for the Presidency:

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung will be able to retain his position after the Supreme Court sent his case back to an appeals court, Thursday, which had previously found him guilty of violating the Election Law.

The ruling also cleared the way for Lee to pursue a presidential bid on the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s (DPK) ticket in 2022.

In a 7-to-5 vote, the court ruled that he had not violated the Election Law. 

“The law can’t punish Lee Jae-myung for disseminating false information (at the debate) unless he actively declared the false claim was a fact. Some of Lee statements in the debate were simply made to deny claims made by his opponent and this cannot be seen as a deliberate act to disseminate false information…,” Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su ― who wrote for the majority ― said during the session which was televised on TV and livestreamed on YouTube. (………..)

The governor was indicted last December for having his older brother forcibly committed to a psychiatric care facility in 2012. The prosecution also claimed he violated the Election Law by lying about the brother in a nationally televised debate with other election candidates in 2018. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the libel laws were also used to go after his wife as well for posting supposed false information on Twitter. She was previously cleared of the allegations as well. Could you imagine if in the U.S. politicians and their supporters could be charged for libel for giving false information on Twitter and during debates? We would have no politicians left.

Anyway this is just an example of how clever and ruthless the Moon administration was to win the Presidency. ROK Heads may also remember that they got Ban Ki-moon to drop out of the race by using what he called deliberate “fake news” against him. With Ban and Lee out of the race Moon then had a clear path to the Presidency after former President Park’s impeachment.

Charges of libel from Twitter messages from the wife of Gyeongi province Governor Lee Jae-myung have been dropped, but it appears unsurprisingly that Governor Lee was the primary target of the prosecutors all along: 

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung will stand trial for telling falsehoods about a series of allegations raised against him and about his family during his election campaign for the governorship. 
The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Lee without physical detention on charges of violating the national election law, it said.
Lee has been under investigation for allegedly lying about his brother’s institutionalization due to a mental illness during his campaign in the runup to the June local elections. 
He denied when he appeared on TV debates as a governor candidate that he had used his authority as the then Seongnam mayor to have his now-deceased brother institutionalized against his will.
The governor also faced accusations after an actress claimed she had an extramarital affair with Lee. Prosecutors decided to not press any charges against Lee, citing insufficient grounds.
“It’s what I expected. I’m not baffled,” he told reporters following the prosecution announcement.
Lee also hinted that he would not give up his seat over the indictment and will fight the matter in court. 
“I still am a proud member of the Democratic Party. I will do my utmost to not cause any more trouble for the party,” he said

You can read more at the link, but Governor Lee was a major rival to current President Moon Jae-in during the last election.  The Moon administration has effectively eliminated him now as a future political rival. 

Here is the latest on the Moon administration’s attempt to take out another political rival using South Korea libel laws:

Prosecutors summoned the wife of Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung for questioning on Tuesday over allegations that she defamed her husband’s political rivals online.

Kim Hye-kyung, who police identified as the owner of the Twitter handle @08_hkkim, told reporters she was tired and frustrated at being wrongly accused as she entered the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi.

“I only hope the truth is revealed,” she said, echoing the words of her husband who underwent his own 13-hour interrogation last week over a number of different criminal accusations.

A police investigation into Kim’s case revealed last month that the @08_hkkim Twitter account posted thousands of political messages supporting Lee and defaming his political rivals. Some of the political figures publicly defamed were Rep. Jeon Hae-cheol of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and President Moon Jae-in.

Prosecutors say that Kim may be charged with spreading false information about Jeon in the run up to the Gyeonggi gubernatorial election in June and smearing the reputation of Moon’s son, Moon Joon-yong, with allegations that he obtained a public sector job through his father’s influence.

Both Kim and the governor deny the accusations, claiming that she never operated the Twitter account.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but with a Twitter handle with her named attached to it she obviously wasn’t trying to hide her identity if it was her.  On the other hand it could have been someone else who set up the Twitter handle to set her up.  After all the misinformation we saw over the “discovery” of the PC tablet that brought down President Park, anything is possible.

By the way I do like how the prosecutors are going after Governor Lee Jae-myung, a political rival to President Moon Jae-in than they were after fellow Governor Kim Kyoung-soo for his part in the far worse Druking Scandal.  I have always said South Korea is not a rule of law country, but instead a rule by law country which means it helps to be the President’s close friend in regards to Governor Kim.