Both leaders may be talking nice now, but we all know how this is going end up:
President Lee Jae-myung expressed his wish to build a mature Korea-Japan relationship in his first phone call with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Monday.
According to the presidential office, the two leaders spoke for approximately 25 minutes in their first exchange since Lee took office last week. They reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening bilateral relations and advancing shared national interests.
“The president expressed his gratitude to the prime minister for congratulating him on his inauguration and emphasized the growing importance of the Korea-Japan relationship amid today’s strategic environment,” presidential office spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said during a press briefing.
No phone call between President Trump & Lee Jae-myung after the South Korean election has been in the news. Then on 2025.6.6, Korean legacy media reported heavily that the 2 talked on the phone. In English, Reuters Korea reported that there was a call. But so far, nothing from… https://t.co/DzXwVGIQea
Lee visits traditional market President Lee Jae-myung and first lady Kim Hye-kyung visit a traditional market in the southern Seoul ward of Dongjak on June 6, 2025, in this photo provided by the presidential office. (Yonhap)
This is clearly a conflict of interest, but if President Lee wants his defense lawyer on the Constitutional Court he will get because the DPK controls the National Assembly which has to approve the nomination:
President Lee Jae-myung is considering nominating two sitting senior judges and a lawyer who served as his defense counsel in recent trials as candidates for two Constitutional Court justice positions, officials familiar with the matter said Sunday.
Presiding Judge Oh Young-joon of the Seoul High Court and Judge Wi Kwang-ha of the same court are under review for the nomination, according to a presidential official. (…….)
The possible nomination of Lee is sparking debate, as he previously served as the president’s defense lawyer in a series of trials concerning allegations of election violations and unauthorized remittances to North Korea.
The trials have been put on hold due to a South Korean president being immune from criminal prosecution while in office.
The opposition People Power Party (PPP) criticized the presidential office over the potential nomination of Lee, saying the move would “amount to turning the judiciary into a private law firm.”
“The biggest reason why half of the people didn’t vote for President Lee Jae-myung was the suspicion and fear that he might exert influence over the judiciary if he gained control of the executive branch in addition to the legislature,” PPP spokesperson Seo Ji-young said.
Lee sworn in as S. Korean president Newly elected President Lee Jae-myung (C), alongside his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, waves after attending his inauguration ceremony at the National Assembly in Seoul on June 4, 2025. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
DP candidate shows bulletproof vest Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung shows his bulletproof vest during a campaign rally in front of Gyeyang Station in Incheon, west of Seoul, on May 21, 2025. (Yonhap)
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.
Guilty verdict upheld for DP presidential candidate’s wife Kim Hye-kyung, the wife of Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, exits the High Court in Suwon, south of Seoul, on May 12, 2025, after the court upheld a lower court’s ruling of a 1.5 million-won (US$1,067) fine for illegal use of a Gyeonggi provincial government credit card in August 2021, during Lee’s term as Gyeonggi governor, to support her husband’s intraparty campaign to become the DP presidential runner. (Yonhap)
What exactly did this military agreement achieve that makes it worth restoring?:
South Korea’s leading presidential candidate has pledged to restore a military deconfliction agreement with the North if elected, aiming to reduce rising tension on the Korean Peninsula. Lee Jae-myung, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, said the Comprehensive Military Agreement signed on Sept. 19, 2018, should be reinstated. The deal was effectively scrapped by both countries last year. “We urgently need to ease military tensions and restore trust between the two Koreas,” he said in a recent news release.
It seems this could lead to a Constitutional crisis if Lee is convicted after he is President:
The Seoul High Court on Wednesday postponed the first hearing of Democratic Party (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung’s retrial on election law violation charges until after the June 3 presidential election, citing the need to guarantee his right to a fair trial.
The court said it postponed the hearing from May 15 to June 18 “in order to guarantee a fair electioneering opportunity to the defendant, who is a presidential candidate, and eliminate controversies about the fairness of the trial.”
