Category: Politics-Korea

President Lee’s approval rating may be trending downward, but it is still very high for a Korean President:

 President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating slightly fell to 53.4 percent last week, a survey showed Monday, amid mixed public responses over the livestreaming of his policy briefings from government ministries. 

The survey by Realmeter showed the positive assessment of Lee’s overall performance dropped 0.9 percentage point from the previous week to 53.4 percent, while the negative evaluation rose 0.7 percentage point to 42.2 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be interesting to see how many politicians end up being connected to the Unification Church, so far one minister resigning:

The Unification Church’s alleged bribery of ruling bloc figures is hitting the Lee Jae Myung administration, with one minister resigning over his alleged money acceptance from the religious organization and several other top officials also under similar suspicion.

It is feared that the scandal will further shake the administration if more ministers and officials fall under suspicion. It could also extend to influencing the ruling bloc’s strategies and nominations for next June’s local elections.

Oceans and Fisheries Minister Chun Jae-soo submitted his resignation early Thursday, amid allegations that he received between 30 million won ($20,377) to 40 million won in cash and two luxury watches from an official of the Unification Church, which sought his influence in its project to build an undersea tunnel connecting Korea and Japan.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It appears the Unification Church attempts to bribe whoever is in power to advocate for what they want. In the U.S. this bribery is called lobbying which usually ends up with “donations” to a campaign fund:

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Wednesday that he intends to issue a public statement on Thursday addressing allegations he received bribes linked to the Unification Church, signaling confidence in his innocence.

“I will issue a statement tomorrow morning,” Chung told reporters. “So it will probably turn out to be quite anticlimactic. I will clearly lay out the basic facts and what actually happened. Please trust me. Trust my integrity.”

Chung made the remarks after the final court hearing began for Yun Young-ho, the former head of the church’s global headquarters who has been accused of providing luxury gifts to first lady Kim Keon Hee in a broader corruption scandal linked to ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Yun had earlier suggested he could reveal a list of politicians from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea who were allegedly lobbied by the church, but the final hearing concluded without any such disclosures. Chung has repeatedly been mentioned as a key figure in connection with alleged lobbying efforts.

The Unification Church has been at the center of one of South Korea’s most combustible political scandals in recent years, involving allegations of illegal political funding, influence peddling and improper ties with figures linked to the main opposition People Power Party — a controversy that is now spreading to the ruling Democratic Party.

The scandal gained fresh momentum after Yun’s court testimony on Friday suggested the church had also sought contacts with politicians from the Democratic Party.

Yun testified that the church had closer ties to Democratic Party politicians from 2017 to 2021 than with the People Power Party. He also alleged that he approached four minister-level officials of the current Lee Jae Myung administration prior to the church’s “Korean Peninsula Peace Summit” in 2022.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The purge of President Lee’s political enemies using the martial law scandal continues:

 A special counsel team indicted former People Power Party (PPP) floor leader Rep. Choo Kyung-ho on Sunday on charges related to ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed martial law bid last December.

Special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s investigation team said Choo was indicted without physical detention on allegations that he blocked party lawmakers from participating in a parliamentary vote to lift the martial law decree issued on Dec. 3 last year. (……..)

Choo, once considered a key ally of Yoon, is accused of deliberately and repeatedly changing the venue of an emergency party meeting on the night of Dec. 3 at the request of Yoon. The PPP was the ruling party when Yoon was the president.

Due to the changes, only 18 of the PPP’s 108 lawmakers took part in the parliamentary vote to lift Yoon’s decree, which passed unanimously early the next morning among the 190 lawmakers present.

Choo immediately denounced prosecutors for what he called an “unwarranted” indictment based on fabricated charges, claiming he had not received any request from Yoon regarding the martial law.

“The special counsel proceeded ahead with its political indictment without further evidence, even after its request for an arrest warrant was dismissed for failing to substantiate the charges,” Choo said in a press release, accusing the investigation team of political persecution.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This presidential aide ends up being the fall guy when he wasn’t even the one doing the influence peddling the Deputy Floor Leader for the Democratic Party was. The aide simply responded to the text message. I am sure the presidential office will find this guy some other cush job somewhere for being agreeing to be the fall guy:

The presidential office said Thursday it has accepted the resignation of a presidential aide over allegations of influence-peddling, as the aide was linked to an improper request on personnel appointment. 

The office said Kim Nam-kuk, the presidential secretary for digital communications, offered his resignation earlier in the day. 

His resignation came two days after ruling Democratic Party (DP) deputy floor leader Moon Jin-seog was caught on camera reading a Telegram message between himself and Kim during a parliamentary session.

In the message captured on Moon’s mobile phone, Moon asked Kim to recommend an acquaintance to the top post of the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association’s (KAMA). 

Kim replied that he will recommend the figure to presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik and Kim Hyun-ji, a longtime aide of President Lee Jae Myung appointed as Lee’s personal secretary in September.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this is what happened to Moon Jin-seog the actual guy trying to use his influence to get a friend of his appointed to a position:

On Wednesday, the presidential office said it issued a warning to “the official who had delivered inaccurate information in an improper manner,” referring to Kim.

The guy who tried to influence peddle gets a warning while the person who responded to the message is forced to resign.

The ruling party is continuing their purge of trying to jail or remove anyone in the government that has crossed them:

Tensions between the judicial branch and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea escalated Wednesday, as the party voted through an unprecedented motion to summon Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de for a parliamentary hearing.

The conservative opposition People Power Party boycotted the vote and condemned the move as a fatal blow to the separation of powers.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the Korean left believes Jo conspired with the ruling party to throw out a lower court acquittal of an election law violation by President Lee prior to the election.

Lee Jae-myung’s should send President Trump a thank you card because his tariff rhetoric and crackdown on illegal Korean workers has caused the ROK President’s poll ratings to rise:

 President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating edged up to 60 percent, a poll showed Friday.

In a Gallup Korea survey of 1,001 adults conducted Tuesday through Thursday, 60 percent gave a positive evaluation of Lee’s performance, up 2 percentage points from the previous week.

Lee’s approval rating, which had stayed above 60 percent following his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in late August, slid to 58 percent as he marked his 100th day in office last week.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is another front of the purge the Lee administration is trying to do across the South Korean government:

Chief Justice Jo Hee-de denied Wednesday that he had colluded with ex-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to render President Lee Jae Myung ineligible to run for president, with a guilty verdict that nearly stripped him of his candidacy to run for president in the June election.

The statement, delivered through the Supreme Court, was the first released by the judicial branch since the liberal ruling bloc ramped up pressure for Jo’s resignation.

“The political circles have raised speculations that Jo had met with former Prime Minister Han and discussed ways to handle (Lee’s) case concerning his (violation) of the Public Official Election Act,” read the statement. “But the chief justice has never discussed anything with anyone outside (the court) regarding the criminal case.”

This came amid political pressure urging that Jo resign from the post, labeling the Supreme Court’s 10-2 ruling in May to find Lee, who was then the presidential front-runner, guilty of making false claims with the intention to win the 2022 presidential election. The case was sent back to the high court, but court proceedings were halted after Lee won the June presidential election and was inaugurated.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.