Category: Politics-Korea

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.

What bothers me just as much as the resume inflation is that no one bothered to verify easily checkable things in her resume that would have caught her years ago:

 The wife of Yoon Suk-yeol, presidential candidate of South Korea’s main opposition party, apologized Sunday over allegations of past misdeeds that have continued to plague Yoon’s campaign for the March 9 election.

Kim Keon-hee, wife of Yoon who is running in the election as candidate of the People Power Party, has faced allegations that she falsified her credentials when applying for teaching positions at two local universities in 2007 and 2013.

“I shouldn’t have done it. In retrospect, it was too shameful,” she said during a televised press conference. “All was my fault and carelessness. Please forgive me.”

 The wife of Yoon Suk-yeol, presidential candidate of South Korea’s main opposition party, apologized Sunday over allegations of past misdeeds that have continued to plague Yoon’s campaign for the March 9 election.

Kim Keon-hee, wife of Yoon who is running in the election as candidate of the People Power Party, has faced allegations that she falsified her credentials when applying for teaching positions at two local universities in 2007 and 2013.

“I shouldn’t have done it. In retrospect, it was too shameful,” she said during a televised press conference. “All was my fault and carelessness. Please forgive me.”

Yonhap

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.

It will be interesting to see if the Moon administration tries to implement max mail in voting due to the latest COVID surge:

 Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung and his main opposition rival Yoon Suk-yeol are in an increasingly tight race, with one opinion poll putting Lee ahead of Yoon and another survey showing contrary results.

In a Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) survey of 1,008 adults, Lee led with 40.3 percent against Yoon’s 37.4 percent, though the gap was within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

But a Realmeter poll of 3,043 people put Yoon ahead with 44.4 percent against Lee’s 38 percent. Their 6.4 percentage point gap is outside the margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points, with a 95 percent confidence level.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It seems like resume padding in Korea’s universities is an ongoing problem that Yoon Suk-yeol’s wife has decided to come clean on:

The People Power Party presidential nominee’s wife is under fire for possibly exaggerating her career history on top of allegations of her involvement in academic plagiarism and stock manipulation.

Kim Keon-hee, wife of presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, partly acknowledged in an interview with news broadcaster YTN released Tuesday that she exaggerated her credentials in successfully applying for a professor position at Suwon Women’s University in 2007. She served in the teaching job for a year.

In the application form obtained by the media outlet, Kim wrote that she served as a director for the Korea Association of Game Industry for three years beginning in March 2002, even though the association was officially established in June 2004.

She said she does not remember the details of her appointment and is in the process of verifying additional details. But Kim attested she was close to key members of the association in the past and often invited them to speak for seminars and lectures.

Kim also acknowledged that she did not win the grand prize at the Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival in 2004 as claimed in the application, saying the falsely written accomplishment was her attempt to have her application “stand out” from those submitted by others.

“If that can be called a crime, that will be a crime,” she said in the interview.

Yet Kim questioned whether her falsely written application is problematic, as she was not married to Yoon at the time and was not a public official undergoing the vetting process typical of those running for elected office.

“I don’t know how this could be problematic, as I didn’t even write down these accomplishments to advance to schools or anything,” she said during the YTN interview.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but I don’t think voters will hold this against Yoon especially since it occurred before he was even married to his wife. With that said you would think that universities would do some simple background checks on these resumes before hiring someone for a professor position. Some of the things Kim put on her resume would have been easy to verify.

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.

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.

Some people don’t want the limelight and if Yoon’s wife doesn’t want to campaign people should respect that decision:

With the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) having officially launched its presidential election committee, the party is now focused on when the wife of its presidential candidate, Yoon Suk-yeol, will join her husband’s campaign.

It has been over a month since Yoon become a candidate, Nov. 5, and less than 100 days are left before the election. But Yoon’s wife, Kim Kun-hee, has yet to make a public appearance in sharp contrast to Kim Hye-gyeong, the wife of Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) who has frequently accompanied the former Gyeonggi Province governor, and even personally appealed to voters.

Although Yoon said she will make an appearance at the appropriate time, the DPK continues to take aim at Kim due to allegations of illicit behavior surrounding her. Kim has been accused of playing a role in a stock manipulation case involving Deutsch Motors, a BMW car dealer in Korea, and academic plagiarism among others. In addition, she is also haunted by her mother’s conviction in a series of fraud cases. (……….)

Kweon added that Kim was not the kind of person who enjoys the spotlight. 

Im Tae-hee, a senior official of the PPP election committee, also said rather than coming to the fore, she may support Yoon behind the scenes. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like ex-Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye will continue to rot in jail for at least another year:

President Moon Jae-in is unlikely to grant Christmas pardons to his predecessors Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak, a Blue House source told the JoongAng Ilbo Monday.    
   
“There will be no pardon for politicians, including former presidents,” the source, a high-ranking Blue House official, told the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity.    
   
The official cited public opinion, which is against pardons for former presidents.  
   
The source added that the idea is unpopular not only with the general public and the ruling Democratic Party, which was the opposition during the administrations of former presidents Lee and Park – both jailed for corruption – but even with the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), which worries that a pardon for either could be deadly for its chances in the March presidential election. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.