Tag: politics

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.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I hope Yoon Suk-yeol has some good lawyers because the Korean left will not be satisfied until him and his wife are thrown into jail:

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea-controlled National Assembly on Thursday passed contentious bills mandating special counsel probes into charges and scandals surrounding former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife, Kim Keon Hee.

Three probe bills reintroduced by the Democratic Party were approved during a parliamentary plenary vote held in the afternoon. One pushes to launch a permanent special counsel to investigate 11 charges tied to Yoon’s failed martial bid in December; another seeks to mainly investigate Kim’s alleged inappropriate interference in the People Power Party’s candidate nomination process in previous general and by-elections as well as her luxury bag scandal; the third looks into the allegations that the Yoon administration interfered in the military’s investigation into a young Marine’s death in 2023.

All three bills were passed in a 194-3 vote with one abstention, in a package deal.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

I am assuming all the computers were pulled out of the presidential office as part of the martial law investigation. Additionally all the prior personnel that worked there were reassigned to other areas of the government when President Yoon was impeached:

President Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday jokingly pointed out the lack of preparation for the handover by officials of the previous administration, saying that there was nothing prepared at the presidential office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

“I just came to the Yongsan office, and it’s like a graveyard. There’s nothing, not even an employee to give me something to write. No computers, or even printers,” he told reporters on his first day as the new leader of Korea.

Announcing the first batch of key nominations for key members of the administration, he stood where his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol stood on Dec. 3 to declare martial law, which ultimately was his downfall from the leadership position.

He joked about how the presidential office, which had ceased function after the parliament impeached Yoon on Dec. 14, did not have any system for him to sign off on key documents.Kang Yu-jung, the spokesperson of the presidential office, told reporters later that it had been “physically impossible” to conduct work at the presidential office on the first day. She said the office lacked basic infrastructure and tools such as an internet connection or even pencils and paper, not to mention that the previous administration did not leave transition instructions for the incoming administration.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the personnel reassigned after Yoon’s impeachment have been asked to return to work at the presidential office. Addtionally the article says that Lee Jae-myung expects to move the presidential office back to Cheongwadae in the next six months.

It looks like all the opinion polls were correct because Lee Jae-myung won the ROK election by roughly the same amount he had been leading in the polls:

Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea has clinched the presidency, turning the page on six months of relentless political upheaval and a leadership vacuum left by ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s troubled legacy.

The liberal Democratic Party will take power from the conservative People Power Party after a whirlwind 22-day campaign, just three years after the 2022 presidential election. That year, Yoon defeated Lee by the narrowest margin on record—just 0.73 percentage point.

As of 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, with 93.84 percent of the votes counted in Tuesday’s early presidential election, Lee had effectively secured victory with 16,012,324 votes, or 48.77 percent, while Kim trailed with 13,826,777 votes, or 42.11 percent. About 2.18 million ballots remained uncounted at that time.

“I express my respect for the people’s great decision,” Lee said as he left his residence for the party headquarters in Yeouido, after his win was deemed certain by the nation’s major broadcasters just before midnight.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but this election was over the minute that the PPP could not get third party candidate Lee Jun-seok to unify with Kim Moon-soo. If they had a combined ticket they had a chance of defeating Lee Jae-myung, but they both chose mutual defeat instead and will now will have to suffer the consequences of handing pretty much all levers of power to the DPK.

This is one of those stories where someone from America is just amazed that coordinated comment campaigns against another candidate may be a crime in Korea:

A wave of accusations of online opinion manipulation by a conservative education organization has gripped the final days of the presidential election campaign as the nation gears up to elect its new leader this week.

Last week, the online news outlet Newstapa reported that the education group Rhee Park School has been operating a team of online commenters to sway public opinion in favor of conservative People Power Party (PPP) candidate Kim Moon-soo and against liberal Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung.

The team allegedly instructed its members to write online comments praising Kim as well as ones critical of Lee in a coordinated manner, according to Newstapa.

In response, the DP has filed a complaint against the “far-right” group, named after former Presidents Rhee Syng-man and Park Chung-hee, who are revered in conservative circles, with police launching an investigation into the case.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but political activist groups in the U.S. are solely dedicated to influencing online opinion with misleading information and bot farms. Here is what the likely next President of Korea had to say about these claims:

DP candidate Lee Jae-myung has called the allegations an act of “insurrection” that destroys the constitutional order while suggesting the PPP’s possible involvement in the alleged opinion rigging.

“It does not make sense that the PPP is not involved. I think there is a clear connection,” Lee told reporters Monday. “By praising PPP candidate Kim Moon-soo and disparaging Lee Jae-myung, (they) conducted a political attack by spreading false information, with Kim and the PPP reaping the benefits.”

Judging by his rhetoric it looks like Lee after he is likely elected President will use these claims to launch prosecutions against PPP figures.

The article is claiming declining voter turn out is bad news for the conservative Presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo. I think this is because many conservatives voter know the race was lost when Kim Moon-soo could not create a combined ticket with Lee Jun-seok and are staying home. With liberals united around Lee Jae-myung the conservatives unless something extraordinary happens, have no way to win this election with a divided vote:

Public officials on May 30 move boxes filled with ballots cast during the presidential election’s early voting period in Seoul. [YONHAP]

“Early voting turnout in the Daegu-North Gyeongsang region had dropped compared to the last presidential election — from 37.66 percent to 28.69 percent — despite both major parties encouraging early voting because voter sentiment has not solidified as much as expected,” said Cho Gwi-dong, head of political strategy at Min Political Consulting. 
  
“The real variable is how many of these disheartened voters can be mobilized for Election Day.” 
  
Much also depends on whether swing voters and anti-Lee Jae-myung conservatives gravitate toward People Power Party (PPP) candidate Kim Moon-soo or Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok. Analysts suggest these voters remain undecided, caught between a “bandwagon effect” favoring the perceived front-runner and an “underdog effect” that draws support to a surging outsider. 
  
“This election is fundamentally unfavorable to the PPP because it was the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol that led to the snap election in the first place,” said Lee Jae-mook, a professor of political science at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

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.