Tag: politics

It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out because if Yoon and Ahn merge their campaigns they have a better chance of defeating Lee for the presidency:

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) faces growing pressure to form a coalition with Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition People’s Party for the March 9 presidential election, as surveys show that an alliance offers a greater chance for the opposition bloc to beat ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. 

So far, the PPP has been downplaying the recent rise in Ahn’s support rate, saying it is a “temporary phenomenon” stemming from infighting in the main opposition party between its presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol and party Chairman Lee Jun-seok throughout last month. However, anticipation is growing that the main opposition party may make a decision in the coming weeks in order to grab the public’s attention before the Jan. 31-Feb. 2 Lunar New Year holidays. 

According to a Realmeter survey released Monday, the DPK’s Lee was leading the pack with a 40.1 percent support rate, followed by the PPP’s Yoon with 34.1 percent and Ahn with 11.1 percent. It was the first time that Ahn logged a double-digit number in the weekly survey conducted by the poll agency at the request of OhmyNews. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but what is even more interesting about the polling is that not only is a combined opposition ticket outpoll Lee Jae-myung, but if Ahn Cheol-soo is the lead the ticket polls even better than if Yoon was the lead candidate.

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?

It looks like with just two months to go until the Korean presidential election that opposition candidate Yoon Suk-yeol’s campaign is in disarray:

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) said Monday all senior members of its campaign committee, excluding its chief, offered their resignations to presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol to demonstrate their commitment to overhauling the campaign amid declining support for the candidate.

The PPP initally said in a text message to reporters that the resignations were submitted by campaign chief Kim Chong-in, all the standing chairs, co-chairs, heads of divisions and the chairman of the Saesidae Preparatory Committee.

A committee spokesperson later clarified that Kim did not offer to resign, and cited an error in communication.

It was not immediately known whether Yoon accepted the others’ offers.

The move comes just two months ahead of the March 9 presidential election and follows a series of resignations by other campaign and party officials.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The controversy over Yoon Seok-yul’s wife may cost him the Korean presidency if he can’t shore up his support with conservatives. Lee Jae-myung maybe able to win this election if he is able to gain support from Ahn Cheol-soo:

On December 27, a poll showed that the lead, which Yoon Seok-youl, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, had over Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea’s candidate, has narrowed (0.7%) to within the margin of error, suggesting a very close race.

Upon the request of OhmyNews, Realmeter conducted a survey of 3,090 people from December 19 to 24, and the results this day showed that 39.7% supported Lee Jae-myung, while 40.4% supported Yoon Seok-youl. Lee managed to obtain the support of 1.7% more voters from the previous survey (Dec. 12-17), while Yoon lost 4.0% of support. The difference between the two candidates was only 0.7%, 6.4% closer than in the previous survey.

Lee Jae-myung lost 2.7% of support from the progressives, but managed to gain 2.4% more support among the moderates, which contributed to his overall rise in support. Meanwhile, Yoon Seok-youl’s approval rating dropped 5.8% among the conservatives and 2.6% among the moderates. The controversy surrounding his wife, Kim Keon-hee and her fabricated resume and his conflicts with People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok appear to have influenced his drop in support.

Kyunghyang Shinmun

You can read more at the link.

Here is some surprising news because the Moon administration had previously said they would not do this:

 President Moon Jae-in said Friday that he granted a special pardon to former President Park Geun-hye, currently serving a 22-year prison term for corruption, to bolster national unity and in consideration of her deteriorating health. 

Moon said he decided to pardon Park and exonerate former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook because there is “desperate need for national unity and humble inclusiveness,” presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee told reporters. 

“In the case of ex-President Park, it was taken into consideration that her health deteriorated a lot because (she) has served almost five years of her sentence,” Moon was quoted as saying by the spokesperson. 

Pardoning Park came as a surprise because Moon had ruled out the possibility of granting a pardon to Park.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but politically the Moon administration must have felt they had to do this if they wanted to exonerate Han Myeong-sook of corruption. It would have looked hypocritical to exonerate Han for corruption while leaving Park in jail. It is a even a worse look when one considers that Park was sent to jail for the corruption of her friend, Choi Soon-sil who took donations from business conglomerates into two sports foundations that were believed to be bribes for political favors. Choi materially benefited from the donations, but Park never did.

That is unlike Han who received $731,400 from a businessman for political favors. In the spectrum of Korean political corruption this case is actually on the low side, however the case took her out politically. Han has been a good Soldier for many years for the Korean left and the exoneration allows her to return to public life if she so chooses.

Here is the latest on the Seongnam Development Scandal that has become a key issue in the Korean presidential race:

 An official at a public development company was found dead Tuesday in an apparent suicide amid a probe into a corruption-ridden development project, which political foes allege involves ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. 

Police in Seongnam, south of Seoul, said they discovered the body of Kim Moon-ki, head of the development division at Seongnam Development Corp., in an office of the company in the city at around 8:30 p.m.

Police were searching for Kim after his family reported him missing at 8:13 p.m. Authorities are investigating the exact cause of death.

Kim has been probed over his possible involvement in a massive corruption scandal surrounding a public-private apartment development project in the city. It was launched in 2015 when Lee, presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, served as Seongnam mayor. 

Kim allegedly played a role in removing from the project contract a clause that would allow the city government to recoup excessive development profits from private investors.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

You have to figure since the prosecutors are controlled by the Moon administration that there really isn’t anything they can remotely find that would stick to Yoon:

Prosecutors on Tuesday decided to not pursue an investigation into main opposition People Power Party (PPP) candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, diminishing the likelihood that either presidential nominee will have their prospects affected by a prosecutorial probe.  
   
The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office said that they decided to drop a probe into allegations that Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon-hee, violated the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act when Kim’s company garnered a great number of sponsors for an exhibition held at the Seoul Arts Center in December 2016 after Yoon was named prosecutor general.  
   
Prosecutors looking into the allegations decided that there were no charges to pursue against the couple because Yoon was still the chief of the Daegu District Prosecutors’ Office at the time of the exhibition, and the anti-graft law does not address actions by a public official’s spouse. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

For anyone that thinks Democrats and Republicans are irresponsible spenders, this guy may have the craziest presidential platform I have seen yet:

 Pompously clad in a Joseon-era general’s suit of armor, a longsword in hand, Huh Kyung-young, honorary chief of a little known political party, showed up on horseback at an historic battlefield site northwest of Seoul in August to declare his presidential bid in yet another bout of his unique political gimmickry.

Enacting the Joseon army’s heroic victory over invading Japanese forces at Haengju Fortress in one of the major Imjin War battles (1592-1598), the 71-year-old made a spectacle by playing the role of a national hero who slices the enemies to death and saves the country, in front of journalists and supporters. 

He then changed into a sleek business suit and glided back to the audience in his famous Rolls Royce to declare his campaign pledge to run in the 2022 presidential election, solemn-faced throughout the whole event.

The pledges blatantly included a one-shot payment of 100 million won (US$85,258) to everyone aged 18 and above in emergency livelihood assistance upon his presidential victory, along with 1.5 million won in “public dividends” every month.

Huh also promised to give a newlywed couple 100 million won each as a subsidy, plus another 200 million won as a no-interest loan to help them buy a home. Giving birth will bring in another 50 million won per baby, he promised.

Huh said he will do away with 90 percent of the state penitentiary facilities, adopt a system to levy fines proportional to offenders’ wealth and collect “anti-tax evasion taxes” to bankroll his splurge of subsidies if he becomes president.

“Our nation is the world’s 10th-strongest economy, but the level of people’s lives is in 100th place. This attests to the fact that the country is not short on money, but it has a lot of thieves,” he rashly claimed.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it only gets wackier about Huh Kyung-young. He even went to jail before for lying about being engaged to former President Park Geun-hye.

President Moon is going to have the prosecutors office that his administration controls do the investigation into the Seongnam Land Development Scandal:

 President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday ordered a thorough probe into a snowballing corruption scandal involving a close aide to the ruling Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Park Kyung-mee told reporters Moon instructed the prosecution and the police to “actively cooperate and do their utmost to uncover the factual truth through a swift and thorough investigation.”

This is the first time Moon has commented on the scandal that centers on allegations that the aide to Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung was involved in allowing a little known asset management firm to make massive profits from a land development project in Seongnam, south of Seoul, when Lee was mayor of the city.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the opposition party wants a special counsel that would be independent to do the investigation. Clearly the ruling party does not want this because using the prosecutors office to do the investigation will likely give them more control of what is uncovered prior to next Spring’s presidential election. I would not be surprised if not much of the investigation is released prior to the election unless someone leaks it.

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.