The fact that Yoon Suk-yeol is joining in to namedrop for President Roh Moo-hyun could be interpreted that he is getting desperate because I can’t image Roh supporters voting for a conservative candidate:

Ahn also stressed his connection with Roh, saying the former president’s first legislative constituency was in Busan, Ahn’s hometown, and he was one of eight civilians invited to Roh’s inauguration ceremony. 

His remarks came after his main rivals Lee Jae-myung of the DPK and Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) namedropped the late president. 

On Sunday, Lee visited Bongha Village in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, where Roh is buried. While paying tribute to the former president, the former Gyeonggi Province governor got emotional at one point. 

“To establish the world where human beings live is a dream of Roh Moo-hyun, (President Moon Jae-in) and Lee Jae-myung,” he said during the visit. 

Lee also wrote in a guestbook that he will build a world without foul play or privilege.

On Saturday, Yoon paid a visit to a naval base on Jeju Island, a project launched by Roh that faced a strong backlash from residents and activists as well as his supporters, who feared that the base could set off a regional arms race and damage the island’s environment. The construction of the Jeju base was completed in 2016.

Praising Roh’s decision to build the naval base to bolster self-reliance in national defense, Yoon also got emotional, saying that he has Roh’s agony and determination engraved in his heart. Yoon paused for a moment to compose himself. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but ROK Heads likely remember that President Roh was elected on a platform that included anti-Americanism, often clashed with the former Bush administration, and was pro-North Korea. Considering all the money Roh allowed to be funneled into North Korea it is arguable that Roh could be considered the father of the North Korean nuclear bomb.

Roh often claimed how he wasn’t corrupt, but after his presidency he committed suicide to protect corrupt family members. Former President Lee Myung-bak is still jailed because he was the one that launched the investigation into Roh’s family that uncovered the corruption that led to his suicide. The Korean left never forgot and once President Moon was elected, investigations were opened to go after Lee and imprison him.

How Yoon Suk-yeol thinks he will get votes from the group of people that still support Roh is beyond me.

One South Korean speed skater claims that China is getting home town refereeing during the Winter Olympics:

As disappointed as he was that his team crashed out early in the mixed team relay in short track speed skating in Beijing over the weekend, South Korean short tracker Kwak Yoon-gy seemed even more upset that China won gold thanks to what he claimed was biased judging.

In a scrum with South Korean reporters Sunday, a day after China won the inaugural Olympic gold in the mixed relay on home ice, Kwak said it was difficult to describe the mixed bag of feelings he had about China’s path to the title.

“Looking at the way China won the gold medal, I felt bad that my younger teammates had to watch something like that,” Kwak, 32, said. “I thought to myself, ‘Is this really what winning a gold medal is all about?’ Things all just felt very hallow.” (……)

“I was watching that race unfold. I figured China, ROC and the U.S. would get penalized,” said Kwak, who didn’t compete for South Korea in the new relay event. “The Dutch skaters who were watching it with me said the same thing. But as the review dragged on, I figured China was going to be allowed to progress. And when the call was finally made, I found it difficult to accept it.”

Kwak, who is competing in his third and final Olympics in Beijing, said he had never seen a case where a relay team was let off the hook after missing an exchange entirely.

“If it had been any other country than China in that situation, I wondered if that team would still have been allowed to reach the final like that,” Kwak added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

China does have a point that in northeastern China there is a large Korean minority group present that they were trying to represent during the opening ceremony:

South Korea plans to continue global efforts to publicize hanbok, the traditional Korean attire, as its signature culture, a government official said Sunday, as people here are in an uproar over China’s use of hanbok during the winter Olympics opening ceremony.

One woman clad in hanbok appeared among those representing 56 ethnic groups across China during the event held in Beijing last Friday.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but clearly the CCP was trying to stick it to the West and their diplomatic boycott of the Olympics over human rights abuses of the Uighurs. This ceremony was intended to make it look like all the ethnic groups in China are happy and content and the West is wrong about repression of minority groups. I doubt this had anything to do with stealing Korean culture.

Leave it to Korea’s leftists to claim that if Yoon Suk-yeol wins the South Korean presidency that it would be anti-democratic and a coup d’etat by the Korean right:

Professor Emeritus Byun Hyung-yoon of Seoul National University along with 130 members of a civic group calling for the formation of a democratic reform government stated on Jan. 28 that “an ahistorical and antidemocratic force is attempting to overturn the times,” adding that “citizens of the candlelight movement of 2017 who devoted themselves to ensure the survival of Korean democracy today should step forward again and protect [democracy] through their votes.” (………….)

Kim Dong-chun, a professor at Sungkonghoe University, recently posted the following message on Facebook: “From the very outset, Moon Jae-in and the Democratic Party were little prepared and had no blueprint for bringing about proper change in this society. Nevertheless, we mustn’t allow them to be defeated by the People Power Party and reactionaries.

We may not like Moon, but that’s no reason to cynically go along with a reactionary coup d’etat. As for the zeitgeist in the presidential election, we’re unfortunately past the stage of discussing that. We have to stop the coup.”Some will no doubt dispute Kim’s view that putting another party in power through an election is a coup d’etat. Coup or not, we have to persuade the public if we’re to stop it.

Hankyoreh

You can read more at the link, but this opinion piece in the Hankyoreh gives people an idea of how the Korean left thinks, if they win elections it is democratic, but if they lose its an undemocratic coup.

This new record shouldn’t be a surprise considering South Korea just came out of a major holiday:

South Korea’s daily virus cases hit another high Sunday, exceeding 38,000, as the highly transmissible omicron variant rages across the country following a holiday season.

The country reported 38,691 new COVID-19 infections, including 38,502 local cases, raising the total to 1,009,688, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The accumulated virus caseload surpassed 1 million on Sunday, two years after the country reported its first COVID-19 case.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The THAAD controversy has now become a major political issue in the ROK presidential campaign:

Yoon, the statement said, believes the sole battery in Seongju has limited capabilities to defend the Seoul metropolitan region.

“Peace is not a thing which clamors by mouth but shows by doing actions,” the statement said. “We will build peace through power.”

Lee, the Democratic Party candidate, cautioned against deploying an additional THAAD battery, during a presidential debate with Yoon and two other challengers on Thursday.

Lee has described the existing system, deployed under South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s conservative administration, as a harsh “reality,” and on Thursday said he would judge its usage based on future circumstances. 

Lee, in a recent campaign statement, accused Yoon of “escalating tension and intensifying confrontation.” Yoon’s pro-THAAD stance would “ruin our economy” by way of provoking China, Lee said during Thursday’s debate.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but someone should grill Lee on what he means by future circumstances? Does that mean he will demand THAAD be withdrawn and expose South Korea more to a missile attack as part of North Korean negotiations?

Something the Stars & Stripes article does not point out is that Yoon wants Korea to purchase their own THAAD battery just like they have purchased Patriot missile defense batteries:

Concerning North Korea’s continued missile tests, People Power Party (PPP) presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol said on Tuesday that, if elected, he would “establish a multi-level missile defense system that includes Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)” in order to “ensure the safety of the Korean people against the threat of nuclear missiles from North Korea, from the greater Seoul area to northern Gyeonggi.”

In a press conference Monday, a subsidiary of Yoon’s election committee in charge of the candidate’s foreign and security policy platform stated that under a Yoon presidency, the South Korean government would purchase THAAD from the US with 1.5 trillion won and directly operate the system through the South Korean military. 

The THAAD base in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, was established with US government funds and is being operated by US Forces Korea (USFK). As the THAAD interceptor in Seongju has a maximum range of 200 km and thus cannot reach missiles attacking the greater Seoul area, the Yoon campaign is arguing for an additional THAAD battery to protect the 20 million residents of Seoul and its surrounding areas from the threat of North Korean missiles.

Hankyoreh

You can read more at the link, but I think Yoon should be more clear in his argument that THAAD can better protect the Seoul area from certain ballistic missile threats, however it does nothing against the artillery and short range rockets that can easily range Seoul. THAAD is not a magic bullet that can stop all threats to the Seoul area.