Tag: politics

It looks like Lee Jae-myung and Ahn Cheol-soo are going to keep themselves relevant in South Korea’s politics by running for office again in the National Assembly:

Former presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung and Ahn Cheol-soo declared their bids, Sunday, for parliamentary seats in the June 1 by-elections, transforming the event to one of potentially high political stakes. 

Lee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is the former Gyeonggi Province governor who lost the March 9 presidential election to President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol by a razor-thin margin, while Ahn Cheol-soo, the head of Yoon’s transition committee, also ran for president and merged his campaign with Yoon’s days prior to the election.

Lee will run for the seat representing Incheon’s Gyeyang-B district, which has been vacant since former DPK Chairman Rep. Song Young-gil resigned to run in the Seoul mayoral election in April, while Ahn will run for seat representing Bundang-A district of Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, left by the Kim Eun-hye of the People Power Party (PPP), the former presidential transition committee spokesperson who is now running for the Gyeonggi provincial governor post. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

None of this is actually surprising to people who have been paying attention:

The incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration finds itself in hot water over its policy roadmap for the next five years, as some of his key election pledges ― disbanding the gender equality ministry, raising soldiers’ salaries and deploying additional U.S. missile systems in South Korea ― have been missing from a list of key tasks.

Those pledges were used as catchy slogans throughout Yoon’s presidential election campaign, after his Facebook postings that promoted such ideas grabbed voters’ attention despite their low feasibility. As the pledges were exempt from the roadmap, however, the Yoon administration faces growing criticism for backing down from its pledges. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Gender Ministry is not going any where because Yoon’s party does not control the National Assembly to actual make its abolishment law. As we have discussed before here on the ROK Drop the Yoon administration had talked of purchasing a THAAD battery. However, this is not something you just go to a car dealership and buy. This is a multi-year long process to purchase, build the battery, and train personnel for billions of dollars. As far as paying troops more that is a huge bill that means money needs to be taken from so where else when the current Moon administration is already running huge deficits.

These are all things that cannot immediately be implemented and thus focusing on more realizable short term goals initially is probably prudent for the Yoon administration.

It looks like a consequence of narrowing losing the ROK Presidential is that Lee Jae-myung is now open to being investigated:

Police raided Seongnam City Hall Monday over allegations that former presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, who was mayor of Seongnam from 2010 to 2018, took donations from companies via the city’s football club, Seongnam FC.  
    
The Bundang Police Precinct announced Monday that they raided five divisions of the city government, including the planning and policy planning divisions. Lee’s home and other locations related to the case were not raided.  
   
“We cannot confirm specific investigation details such as what kind of documents were secured through the raid,” a spokesperson from the Bundang Police Precinct said. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Critics are saying that President Moon has passed this bill in order to protect himself and others in this administration from prosecution after they leave office:

President Moon Jae-in signed into law bills aimed at limiting prosecutors’ investigative powers, snubbing protests from prosecutors and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP).

During a Cabinet meeting, Tuesday, Moon approved revised bills of the Prosecutors’ Office Act and the Criminal Procedure Act, which were passed by the National Assembly on April 30 and Tuesday, respectively.

“Despite the government’s achievements to help authorities to be faithful to their roles, there are concerns about the prosecution’s political neutrality, fairness and selective justice,” Moon said during the meeting. “I believe this is why the National Assembly took a step forward to separate prosecutors’ investigative powers from their authority to indict.”

Korea Times

Here is what the critics are saying:

The main opposition PPP has condemned the prosecutorial reform bills, claiming they are aimed at protecting Moon and former officials of the Moon government from possible investigations by prosecutors. But proponents of the reform bills claim they will limit prosecutors from abusing their authority for political purposes.

“President Moon should convince the public of the reason why he seeks to pass the bills at the end of his presidency, and what are the benefits for the people,” PPP floor leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong said during a rally in front of Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday.

“We should think of why the DPK is striving to pass the bills despite using mean tricks. … While persuading lawmakers, a DPK member said at least 20 members of the party may go to jail (if the bills are not passed). This is the nature of the party’s effort to strip prosecutors of their investigative rights.”

To pass the bills, the DPK used the so-called “salami tactic,” which is cutting the plenary session into shorter one-day sessions. Due to this, the PPP’s efforts to stop the dominant ruling party from unilaterally passing the bills through filibusters ended in vain.

You can read more at the link.

I always said these two were an odd couple to be campaigning together because the only thing they could unit around was their dislike of former political rival Lee Jae-myung:

The alliance between President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and software mogul-turned-politician Ahn Cheol-soo is crumbling.  
   
What began as a campaign alliance was supposed to lead to some form of power sharing if Yoon won the presidency.  
   
But just 36 days after that victory, the two men seem to be parting ways after Yoon ignored Ahn, chairman of his transition team, in the selection of his Cabinet.    
   
Ahn, head of the minor People’s Party, abruptly canceled his whole public schedule Thursday. He was scheduled to visit the Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters that morning. He skipped a transition committee Covid-19 response meeting later that afternoon. He also did not attend a “dosirak (packaged meal)” dinner with Yoon and other members of the transition team Wednesday evening. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

President Moon has quickly changed his mind about helping the Yoon administration move the Presidential office:

President Moon Jae-in said he will “cooperate” with President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s plan to relocate the presidential office, Monday, during their first meeting that came 19 days after the presidential election on March 9. 

“President Moon said the decision over the location of the presidential office is fully up to the incoming government,” Yoon’s Chief of Staff Rep. Chang Je-won said during a press briefing held after the meeting. “As an outgoing president, he said he will thoroughly look into the budget related to the relocation plan and cooperate with the president-elect.”

His remarks came days after the two sides had clashed over Yoon’s bid to set up a new presidential office at the defense ministry compound in Seoul’s Yongsan District, and begin his presidency there. Moon had earlier dismissed Yoon’s proposal to finance his presidential office relocation plan from the state reserve fund.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It appears the reason that Yoon Suk-yeol is asking President Moon to pardon former President Lee Myung-bak when Yoon could just do it himself when he takes office is to promote national reconciliation. If that is what Yoon wants to promote have Moon give out the pardon to the man he personally went after to humiliate and put in jail is a very symbolic way of doing this:

 President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will hold a one-on-one lunch meeting with President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday with no aides in attendance for a “heart-to-heart” discussion, his spokesperson said.

Yoon plans to use the meeting to ask for a special pardon for imprisoned former President Lee Myung-bak, spokesperson Kim Eun-hye told reporters during a press briefing. Lee has been serving a 17-year prison term for embezzlement and bribery.

“The meeting will serve as an occasion where they can hold a heart-to-heart discussion,” she said. “President-elect Yoon has long thought that he would ask for a pardon for former President Lee Myung-bak, and we hope this meeting will serve as a chance for national unity and reconciliation.”

Multiple sources in Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling bloc said chances are high that Moon will pardon Lee.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if President Elect Yoon moves forward with this campaign promise or not because he will get huge push back from not only protesters, but likely from the media as well:

Women’s rights activists called on President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol to withdraw his campaign pledge to close down the Ministry of Gender, Equality, and Family.

Meanwhile, Yoon reconfirmed his intent to keep the campaign promise, Sunday, as he said the ministry “has fulfilled its historical calling.”

On the future of the ministry, Yoon said, “We should plan a more effective government branch to deal with injustice, human rights violations, and protection of people’s rights more effectively.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.