It is now official that President Park Geun-hye’s Saenuri Party has lost their majority in the Korean parliament after recent elections:
Saenuri Party leaders — Reps. Kim Moo-sung (C), Won Yoo-chul (L) and Kim Tae-ho — attend a ceremony marking the disbandment of the party’s election campaign committee at the National Assembly on April 14, 2016 (Yonhap).
“We will make sure to get rid of our arrogance and self-righteousness by gravely reflecting upon the warning issued by the people through this election,” read a group text message a defeated Saenuri Party candidate sent to his constituents on Thursday.
Such humble words were echoed by a number of his colleagues, as the ruling party was reeling from the crushing defeat that stripped it of the status of majority and No.1 parliamentary party.
Indeed, protracting economic doldrums, the party’s factional fighting, and the Park Geun-hye government’s inflexibility and lack of interaction with the legislature, ordinary citizens and other members of society are blamed for the party’s landslide loss in Wednesday’s general election, observers said. [Korea Herald]
The big winner in the parliamentary election was former presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo:
Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chair of the minority People’s Party, was seen as the biggest winner in the elections. His party won 38 seats, far more than the 20-seat requirement to form a parliamentary negotiating bloc.
The party pledged to become a “genuine representative” to realize people’s aspirations for a change in politics.
“We will pay back with the kind of politics that changes politics, the government and the lives of the people,” he said during a meeting with his party officials. [Yonhap]
Ahn’s parliamentary electoral success may end up being a good jumping board for him to launch another presidential election campaign, especially if the economy continues to be flat in Korea. Ahn could use his businessman background much like Donald Trump does in the US to burnish his credentials to be the next President.
From a US perspective what I think people should look at is whether the election results will cause any softening in President Park’s current hardline policy on North Korea and the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to Korea.
If the ruling Saenuri political party loses its majority it will be interesting to see if that has any affect on President Park’s current tough stance on North Korea as well as the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system to the peninsula:
South Korea’s ruling Saenuri Party is slightly ahead of its main opposition rival in Wednesday’s tightly contested parliamentary elections, though it may not win a parliamentary majority, an exit poll said.
An exit poll by South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS predicted that the ruling Saenuri Party could win between 121-143 while the main opposition Minjoo Party could secure between 101-123 seats out of the total 300 seats up for grabs.
KBS conducted the joint exit poll with two other broadcasters MBC and SBS, though they have different predictions on the results of the elections as they use different tools.
The poll released by MBC showed the ruling party winning between 118-136 seats against the Minjoo Party’s 107-128 seats.
An SBS poll forecast the ruling party winning between 123-147 seats and the Minjoo Party securing 97-120 seats.
The minor opposition People’s Party is projected to win between 31-43 seats while independent candidates are expected to secure between 8-20 seats, according to the poll released by the three broadcasters. [Yonhap]
Independent lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo speaks after being elected to jointly lead the People’s Party, a breakaway group from the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, with his ally Chun Jung-bae at a convention to mark the launch of the new party in the central city of Daejeon on Feb. 2, 2016. (Yonhap)
This is pretty predictable that the political opposition in South Korea would twist anyway that it could the comfort women agreement between the ROK and Japan to its political advantage:
The main opposition party on Tuesday called on the Seoul government to renegotiate last month’s agreement with Tokyo to settle Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women and apologize to victims for the “unilateral” deal.
Four senior lawmakers of the Minjoo Party of Korea including its floor leader Rep. Lee Jong-kul made the demands during their hour-long talks with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se at his office in Seoul.
The lawmakers also said that Seoul should not accept Tokyo’s contribution of 1 billion yen ($8.38 million) to form a foundation to support the victims, and that the foundation should be funded with civilian donations.
Under the agreement struck on Dec. 28, Japan expressed its apology and contrition for its colonial-era atrocities, and agreed to provide 1 billion yen for the foundation to be established by the Seoul government.
Criticizing the government’s failure to secure consent from the victims for the deal, the lawmakers demanded that President Park Geun-hye and Minister Yun visit each victim and tender an apology for “unilaterally” reaching the agreement.
In response to the lawmakers’ demands, Yun said that the government does not consider any renegotiation given that the agreement was announced before the international community though it is not a formal treaty. [Korea Herald]
Here is another interesting interview with the 89 year old former Korean Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil who discusses what he learned from meeting famous world leaders. What he had to say about Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill was interesting, but here is what he had to say he learned from President Harry Truman:
Kim Jong-pil, far right, poses for a photo with former U.S. President Henry Truman in September 1964, at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. [KIM JONG-PIL]
In June 1964, I embarked on my second overseas journey to ease growing protests against diplomatic efforts to restore ties with Japan.
I visited the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, in September that year and met with the former president, who had courageously decided to form the U.S.-led UN coalition forces to defend South Korea at the outset of the (1950-53) Korean War.
During our hour-long meeting, President Truman told me that one of the most regrettable things he had done in his presidency was failing to unify the Korean Peninsula despite the huge loss of life during the conflict.
He couldn’t push for the unification at the time, he said, because of daunting international opposition to that effort.
I then asked what advice he had for a young political man from Korea.
He told me a story of a tiger. “You may think a tiger is tame, and even feel grateful for the zoo keeper as he feeds him and looks after him every day. But to think so is nonsense. If a zoo keeper steps on the tiger’s foot by mistake, the tiger will jump him and try to bite. If a politician thinks of his people as the tiger and forms his politics accordingly, he will inevitably succeed in his political career.”
He spoke the truth. A politician by nature must be willing to serve the people. If he looks to gain from his political activities, it could be the end. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
The Washington Post unsurprisingly glossed over the real issue with its claims of dictatorship coming back to South Korea. You can claim President Park is a dictator when people begin to disappear to never be seen again or in the case of Kim Dae-jung kidnapped and nearly thrown overboard on a boat before being rescued by a US intervention. The real issue here is not dictatorship, but Korea’s libel laws. The libel law has been used for years to shut people up and that is what is going on here. Heck Kim Jong-un’s own aunt is using South Korea libel laws to try and silence North Korean defectors. What is going on in South Korea is nothing new and hardly a sign of impending dictatorship:
South Korean protesters attend an anti-government rally in downtown Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. Wearing white half-masks and carrying flowers and banners, thousands of South Koreans marched in Seoul on Saturday against conservative President Park Geun-hye, who had compared masked protesters to terrorists after clashes with police broke out at a rally last month.
Hwang Yun-joo couldn’t make it to the huge anti-government protest that rocked central Seoul in the middle of November because he had to work in his woodshop. So he did what he thought was the next best thing: He printed out some posters he found on Facebook and displayed them in his shop window.
“It’s too much! We can’t take it anymore!” one declared. “Dictator’s daughter,” read another, under a picture of President Park Geun-hye, whose father, Park Chung-hee, seized power in a military coup in 1961 and served as president for almost two decades. The word “daughter” was crossed out, suggesting that Park Geun-hye was not just the daughter of a dictator, but one in her own right.
Then, last weekend, a police vehicle pulled up, and at least five officers got out and started taking photos of Hwang’s shop and its posters, Hwang recounted in an interview last week. They came in and told him the posters included false information and libeled the president, he said.
“When an officer took off one of my posters, I got very angry, so I told them to leave,” said Hwang, 44. He said he put up the posters partly because he was angry about Park’s plan to replace the array of history textbooks for middle- and high-school students, written by independent scholars, with one authorized text, as was the practice during her father’s time.
Critics say that does not allow for multiple interpretations of South Korea’s recent past, and some allege it is an attempt to rewrite history, including the draconian period during which Park’s father brutally suppressed dissent while bringing about the astonishingly fast industrialization of South Korea.
“I’m frustrated with the immaturity of democracy in South Korea,” he said. [Washington Post]
In my opinion Kim Young-sam never got the credit he deserved for his time as Korean President. First of all he was able to punish the past military dictators by charging with treason and putting them on trial before ultimately pardoning them which arguably maintained national unity. He also got stuck with the task of handling the Asian Financial Crisis and accepting the bail out loan from the International Monetary Fund. Both of these issues were widely unpopular, but history has shown that the way Kim Young-sam handled them was correct and hopefully with his passing people will better remember the great things he accomplished as President:
Kim Young-sam
The nation – political supporters and detractors alike – mourned the death of former President Kim Young-sam, an icon of Korea’s democracy movement, who passed away Sunday at age 87.
Kim died at 12:21 a.m. at Seoul National University Hospital after suffering from septicemia, or severe blood infection, and acute heart failure, hospital chief Oh Byung-Hee said in a press briefing.
He had been hospitalized since Thursday with a high fever.
Kim was previously hospitalized for 18 months from April 2013 to October 2014 for stroke and pneumonia.
A native of Geoje Island in South Gyeongsang, Kim served as the first elected civilian president of Korea from 1993 to 1998, following decades of military rule.
Former leaders of the country and current politicians flocked to the former president’s wake at SNU Hospital in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Sunday, to grieve his passing and recall his legacy of helping to build a more democratic nation.
Former Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil – who was at times a rival and at times an ally to President Kim- arrived at the wake in a wheelchair. “He will forever be remembered in the hearts of the people as a leader of convictions,” he said. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
If the New York Times wants to criticize President Park I have no issues with that, but at least provide all the facts so readers can at least make up their own minds instead of selectively publishing information to support the anti-President Park narrative:
South Koreans can be as proud of their country’s emergence from dictatorship into a vibrant democracy as they are of the rags-to-riches development that made their country a global industrial powerhouse. So it is alarming that President Park Geun-hye appears intent on backtracking on the democratic freedoms that have made South Korea as different from North Korea’s puppet regime as day is from night.
Last weekend, tens of thousands of South Koreans took to the streets to protest two repressive government initiatives. One would replace the independently selected history textbooks now available to South Korea’s educators with government-issued textbooks. The other would change labor laws to make it easier for South Korea’s family-controlled business conglomerates to fire workers. [New York Times]
Normally I say read the rest at the link, but don’t bother because it is more of the copy paste Park Geun-hye is daughter of former dictator and trying to squash dissent like her father nonsense. First of all the current textbooks were mostly written by leftists that are used by teachers who promote pro-North Korean ideology in the classroom. That is the driving factor of why the government is changing the textbooks. Secondly the textbooks have not even been written. I would be more sympathetic to textbook protests if one of these books had even been written that showed slanted history. Right now we don’t know what will be in them. Maybe they will be as bad as predicted, but maybe they won’t.
As far as the changing of labor laws the Park administration is trying to make it easier for corporations to layoff older workers in order to open slots for younger workers. South Korea has a large youth unemployment problem. Will this work? I have no idea, but the issue is not as simple as the New York Times makes it out to be. The New York Times should at least provide both sides of the issue to inform readers.
