Korea is a country where judges tend to factor in public sentiment when making decisions. That is why you see both the DPK and PPP trying hard to court public opinon against and for Yoon before the court’s impeachment decision:
Police buses surround the Constitutional Court in central Seoul, Wednesday, to prevent violent clashes as a verdict on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment nears. Yonhap
As political gridlock deepens over the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, meaningful policy debate has all but vanished from Korea’s political landscape.
Following Yoon’s sudden release from detention last week ahead of the Constitutional Court’s ruling, both the ruling and opposition parties have escalated their rhetoric, with loud protests now dominating the National Assembly. With the Assembly’s role as a national representative body increasingly sidelined, concerns are mounting that the growing partisan conflict will not only undermine the court’s decision but further destabilize the country, according to experts.
The ruling People Power Party (PPP) said Wednesday that it would not directly confront the opposition’s escalating street protests calling for Yoon’s impeachment.
“If serious issues arise, the PPP will take collective action, just as the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has. However, we will not resort to street protests or hunger strikes to pressure the Constitutional Court, as the DPK is doing. Instead, we will express our stance through official parliamentary channels,” PPP floor leader Kweon Seong-dong told reporters at the National Assembly in Seoul.
However, the conservative party’s decision appears to be driven more by political strategy than policy concerns. The party seems cautious that organizing an official rally could give a platform to the more extreme voices within Yoon’s support base, potentially alienating centrist voters, whose support is already fragile.
Reenactment of 1919 independence movement People clad in traditional costumes clash with others portraying Japanese police officers in the southeastern port city of Busan on March 11, 2025, reenacting the independence movement in 1919, which students of Busanjin Ilshin Girls’ School led as part of the popular movement the same year that protested for independence from Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)
The U.S. nationwide cattlemen’s group asked the Trump administration Tuesday to help lift South Korea’s import ban on American beef from cattle aged 30 months or older, noting that similar curbs have been lifted in China, Japan and Taiwan.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) sent its comments to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer as the USTR has requested those comments to “assist in reviewing and identifying unfair trade practices, and initiating all necessary actions to investigate harm from non-reciprocal arrangements.”
The age restriction on U.S. beef was put in place in 2008 amid fears over mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
You can read more at the link, but the violent mad cow riots in 2008 has to rank up there as one of the most ridiculous anti-US protests ever in Korea. The 2000 Yongsan Water Dumping Incident protests are probably the only ones more ridiculous than the mad cow riots.
This is not much of a hunger strike considering the impeachment ruling from the Constitutional Court is imminent any day now:
Some lawmakers of opposition parties on Tuesday launched a hunger strike calling for a verdict by the Constitutional Court to officially remove impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol from office over his failed bid to impose martial law.
A group of opposition lawmakers, including from the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), the Rebuilding Korea Party and the Progressive Party, went on the hunger strike urging the court swiftly dismiss Yoon, who was released from detention last Saturday.
Yoon’s release came as another court allowed him to stand trial without physical detention, citing some questions about the legality of investigations over his charges.
I don’t think Yoon’s release is really going to impact the upcoming impeachment decision from the Constitutional Court. I think what will influence their decisionmaking is public sentiment. If public sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of President Yoon I think it will be less likely he is convicted for impeachment:
As President Yoon Suk Yeol was released from detention on Saturday following a court decision, all attention is now channeled into how the release will affect the impeachment trial on his Dec. 3 martial law declaration, as any influence could add further complications.
The ruling People Power Party (PPP) and Yoon’s legal defense team hailed the decision as “confirmation” that there were serious violations of procedural rules throughout the investigation process, with some calling on the Constitutional Court to “correct” its own such violations before issuing a verdict on whether to formally oust the president from office.
On the other hand, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) played down its significance, claiming that the ruling will have “no impact” on the impeachment trial and that any procedural flaws will not reverse the fact that his martial law imposition was unconstitutional.
On Friday, the Seoul Central District Court said it approved Yoon’s request for release after determining that the prosecution’s Jan. 26 indictment of him on insurrection charges, which allowed his arrest to be extended, had come hours after the 10-day initial detention period had already expired. It did not accept the prosecution’s usual way of calculating the duration of detention.
UPDATE #1: It is now being reported that not one, but two KF-16’s mistakenly bombed the village. I am not a fighter pilot, but how does something like this happen?:
Several people were injured Thursday in Pocheon city after two South Korean fighter jets accidentally released eight live bombs outside a practice range, according to South Korea’s air force. The MK-82 bombs were “abnormally” dropped at 10:04 a.m. Thursday beyond an unspecified live-fire range by a pair of KF-16 fighters, according to an air force statement to reporters that day. Each jet dropped four bombs, according to the air force. The bombs were not practice rounds, a Ministry of National Defense spokesman said by phone Thursday. The MK-82 is a 500-pound, 7-foot-long free-fall bomb also employed by the U.S. military. The KF-16 is the South Korean air force’s variant of the U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon. At least 15 people, including area residents, were injured in the incident, Yonhap News reported Thursday.
Original Posting: This a huge mistake that hopefully will not have repercussions on USFK’s continued use of Rodriguez Range as a live fire location:
An Air Force fighter jet on Thursday misdropped eight bombs outside a training range during live-fire drills, injuring civilians in the area, officials said.
The KF-16 fighter jet taking part in a live-fire exercise “abnormally” released eight MK-82 bombs outside the training range in Pocheon, 42 kilometers northeast of Seoul, at 10:04 a.m.
The Air Force said it is conducting an investigation into the accident and apologized for the damage to civilians.
You can read more at the link, but locals have complained about live fire training at Rodriguez Range near Pocheon. It will be interesting to see what caused this horrible accident because I have never heard of something like this ever happening before.
If it seems like there are a lot of foreigners living in South Korea now a days it is because there are compared to the recent past:
The number of foreign residents in Korea reached a record high last year, accounting for more than 5 percent of the country’s total population, justice ministry data showed Monday.
According to the Korea Immigration Service, a justice ministry agency, the number of foreigners living in Korea stood at 2.65 million, making up 5.17 percent of the total population. This marks an increase of 126,127 from the previous high in 2019 and surpasses the 4.89 percent level recorded in 2023.
Over the past decade, Korea has seen a steady rise in foreign residents, from 1.9 million in 2015 to 2.52 million in 2019. Although the numbers declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they rebounded in 2022 and have continued to rise since.
