Category: Politics-Korea

Really nothing new came out of this final debate, each candidate hammered the same talking points that those who follow ROK politics already know:

From left, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party, Kwon Young-kook of the Democratic Labor Party, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party and Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party pose for a photo ahead of their third and final debate on May 27 at the MBC studio in Mapo District, western Seoul. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Lee also said it is important not to “ignore the relationship with China and Russia,” calling to “appropriately manage” these ties. He said “there is no need to unnecessarily antagonize” these relationships, underscoring that “peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula is very important.”   
  
Kim in turn said that North Korean leader “Kim Jong-un’s dictatorship threatens our lives and property with its nuclear weapons and missile provocations.” He warned that within South Korea “there are forces advocating for the withdrawal of U.S. troops stationed and the dismantling of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, shaking the foundation of our nation. 
  
He raised Lee’s alleged links to illegal remittances to the North during his time as Gyeonggi governor and called to “create a transparent and dignified inter-Korean relationship.” Kim further pledged to “strengthen nuclear deterrence based on the South Korea-U.S. alliance.”  

Joong Ang Ilbo

Basically Lee Jae-myung wants better relations with China, Russia, and North Korea without going into detail on what concessions he plans to give to do this. Kim Moon-soo on the other hand wants to focus on deterrence. Part of that deterrence is bringing tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea which Lee disagrees with:

When asked by DP’s Lee on his stance on South Korea’s nuclear armament, PPP’s Kim replied, “Rather than arming ourselves with nuclear weapons, we should achieve a nuclear balance,” stressing it should be done so “carefully within the scope of maintaining the Korea-U.S. alliance.” 
  
Lee accused the former labor minister of being wishy-washy, and Kim clarified that if nuclear armament comes at the cost of the Seoul-Washington alliance, “then arming ourselves with nuclear weapons will be ineffective.” 
  
Lee questioned Kim on his position supporting redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea.   
  
“If we redeploy tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula, we can’t demand North Korea’s denuclearization,” Lee said. He noted that there is speculation that the United States placed South Korea on its “sensitive and other designated countries list (SCL)” because of suspicions of Seoul’s nuclear armament intentions.  

How long must this fiction of North Korean denuclearization go on? There is no way Kim Jong-un will ever denuclearize. That possibly vanished a decade plus ago. North Korea’s nuclear weapons can now at best be managed not eliminated with negotiations. Here is what was discussed about the THAAD missile defense system located outside of Seongju:

The two Lees in turn clashed over the deployment of the U.S.-led Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) antimissile system to South Korea. 
  
Lee Jun-seok noted Lee Jae-myung had previously claimed that “Thaad deployment is for U.S. defense,” arguing that the DP candidate misunderstands the weapons system and echoed arguments typically raised by China. 
  
Lee Jae-myung replied, “South Korea’s defense should be based on its own independent missile defense system.” But he said that since the Thaad system has been deployed despite much controversy, further debate is unhelpful to Seoul’s diplomatic and security strategy.

Lee Jae-myung has made it clear in the past that he does not support THAAD in part because he believes it antagonizes China. China has long made false claims that THAAD was deployed to spy on them instead of to better protect South Korea from North Korean ballistic missiles.

As far as developing an independent missile defense system this is something the ROK has been trying to develop for many years. The US would likely support ROK efforts to improve domestic missile defense in order to take pressure off US air defenses which are in heavy demand around the world to include having to deploy a Patriot battalion off the peninsula to support world-wide defense obligations.

The overseas voter turnout for the Korean presidential election is extremely high. It will be interesting if this race is close if these votes will be what decides it:

The preliminary overseas voter turnout for the June 3 presidential election has reached a record high of 79.5 percent, the election watchdog said Monday. 

Of an estimated 1.97 million eligible overseas voters, 205,268 out of 258,254 people registered on the voter roll cast their ballots during the six-day overseas voting period that began last Tuesday, the National Election Commission said. 

That tentatively represents a voter turnout of 79.5 percent, the highest since the country adopted absentee voting for presidential and general elections in 2012. 

Overseas voting took place from May 20-25 at 223 polling stations across 118 countries. 

The turnout rates for the past three presidential elections were 71.1 percent in 2012, 75.3 percent in 2017 and 71.6 percent in 2022. The highest turnout for general elections was recorded last year at 62.8 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If you believe the Korean presidential polling, Lee Jae-myung is still the front runner by 9 percentage points. For Kim Moon-soo to win this he needs to some how get Lee Jun-seok to back him with his 10% of voters:

 A three-way presidential race tightened as Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung lost some of his lead in the latest opinion polls, while People Power Party (PPP) candidate Kim Moon-soo gained ground.

With the election just eight days away, opinion polls have still put Lee in front, but the gap between Lee and Kim had narrowed, while Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party (NRP) garnered his double-digit support.

A Realmeter survey released Saturday showed support for the DP’s Lee at 46.6 percent, followed by Kim with 37.6 percent and the NRP’s Lee with 10.4 percent. The margin of error was 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

According to a Realmeter survey released on May 11, a day before the official campaign began, the DP’s Lee garnered 52.1 percent support against Kim’s 31.1 percent in the hypothetical three-way race that also included the NRP’s Lee, who earned 6.3 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

None of these ideas being proposed will do anything significant to raise the birthrate because they all simply involve throwing money at the problem:

Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung pose for a photograph with children during his campaign in South Gyeongsang on May 14. [KIM SEONG-RYONG]

The rival candidates, Kim and Lee, are seemingly on different paths regarding how to help couples conceive babies, strengthen child care and housing support and provide tax benefits for families with children. 
  
While Lee only stated his promise to strengthen medical services for couples struggling with infertility, Kim suggested more detailed plans: the state health insurance covering costs of freezing sperm and ova and state funding for fertility testing. 
  
Lee stressed “public” support in parenting services to establish a “society where everyone partakes in child care.” 
  
Instead of the current scheme where elementary schools autonomously decide the service period and curriculum, Lee plans to reinforce the central and local governments’ direct responsibility for after-school child care services. 
  
Kim kept his child care-related pledges brief. He promised to expand 24-hour and emergency care facilities and provide one-on-one care for babies and infants. When it comes to housing, Lee presented “public housing for newlyweds” as his key initiative. 
  
Public housing, provided by state authorities, offers leases for 30 to 50 years for low-income families. Currently, a two-person household can apply for public housing if their combined monthly earnings are 5.89 million won or below. 
  
However, as of Tuesday, Lee has not specified how many units will be supplied, nor potential locations. 
  
Kim also promised to supply 100,000 housing units annually, which makes the residents receive state subsidies for their housing expenses. Newlyweds would qualify for three years of support. An addition of a single child will extend the benefit for three more years.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

To raise the birthrate Korea needs couples to marry earlier. Right now Korean women on average get married at 31.6 years of age. By the time women reach 40 they probably do not want to have children so this leaves effectively about 8 years to have kids. Then you throw in that many women now work and manage careers plus the high costs of raising kids that is why there is a low birthrate.

Besides reducing costs there needs to be a cultural change in South Korea for couples to marry earlier which would conflict with women pursuing careers early in life before marriage and having kids. As long as this remains the cultural norm Korea will continue to have a low birthrate.

Lee tries to make the point that if there was election fraud how did Yoon win the last Presidential election? The argument from the Korean right is that election fraud occurred in the follow on Korean National Assembly elections because Yoon won the Presidency. This fraud allowed the Korean left to impeach government officials at will to stop Yoon’s agenda which ultimately led to Yoon’s failed martial law attempt:

Democratic Party (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday hit out at former President Yoon Suk Yeol for attending the screening of a documentary film on alleged election fraud. 

Yoon, who was ousted over his failed martial law bid and is standing criminal trial on insurrection charges, has claimed that allegations of election fraud were one of the reasons why he declared the martial law decree. 

Yoon, who left the conservative People Power Party (PPP) last week, made the first public appearance since his ouster on April 4, excluding his appearances at the insurrection trial, with the presidential election less than two weeks away. 

“Did he not win his own election through that system?” Lee told reporters during a campaign rally in Incheon, questioning the logic behind claiming election fraud.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The DP must be really concerned that this judge will not be in favor of convicting Yoon if they are going through all this trouble to remove him:

The Democratic Party (DP) on Monday disclosed photos it claims show a judge overseeing the insurrection trial of former President Yoon Suk Yeol at a hostess bar, shortly after the judge denied allegations in connection with such a hostess bar.

Jee Kui-youn of the Seoul Central District Court has been at the center of the allegations, but flatly denied such allegations of being treated to multiple visits to the hostess bar.

However, Rep. Noh Jong-myeon, the spokesperson for the DP’s election committee, presented images of Jee seated alongside pixelated two individuals at the bar, in what he claimed was taken inside the bar in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam district.

“The interior patterns and props in the two photos are identical,” Noh said, without elaborating on when the photos were taken. “We cannot entrust an insurrection trial to a judge who blatantly lied despite clear photographic evidence.”

Noh called for Jee’s immediate removal from the bench, saying that the party is considering filing the case with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Nothing surprising appears to have come out of the first Korean Presidential debate; Lee Jae-myung thinks orange man is bad and Korea shouldn’t be in a hurry to make a trade deal while Kim Moon-soo says holding an immediate summit with Trump would be a top priority:

The specter of trade negotiations with the United States under President Donald Trump loomed large Sunday night as Korea’s presidential hopefuls offered sharply divergent strategies during their inaugural televised debate.

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate, advocated for a measured, interest-driven path in dealing with Washington, while Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party championed a rapid, trust-based summit approach.

Lee said there was “no need to rush” into an agreement. 

“The foremost principle in trade negotiations is to prioritize the national interest,” he said. “We shouldn’t feel compelled to concede just because the United States makes demands.”

He stressed the value of strategic patience, pointing to Japan and China as examples of countries that have successfully employed this approach.

“Japan, which initially demanded early negotiations, has taken a step back. China also set strong conditions before ultimately adjusting its position. We need to navigate this wisely, too,” he said. 

Lee added that Korea should seize the moment to pivot away from export dependency and steadily increase domestic demand.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.