Tag: politics

It is kind of surprising that South Korea had a female President before ever having a female governor:

Choo Mi-ae, a ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate who has repeatedly shattered gender barriers throughout her career, broke new ground again, as she was projected to secure the governorship in Gyeonggi Province in the local elections, Wednesday.

If her victory is confirmed, she will be the first woman to lead a provincial or metropolitan government. 

Choo garnered 60.4 percent of votes against the main opposition People Power Party’s (PPP) Yang Hyang-ja at 34.1 percent in a joint exit poll conducted by broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Have conservatives in South Korea ever been this weak politically before? The stain of the Yoon presidency continues to impact conservative candidates to the benefit of the Democratic Party who will likely win 13 of 16 major races to include ousting the PPP mayor of Seoul:

This composite photo, taken June 3, 2026, shows lawmakers and officials of the ruling Democratic Party (top) and the main opposition People Power Party watching exit poll results for the local elections in Seoul. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) was poised for a sweeping victory in the local elections in a crushing defeat for the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), interim vote counting showed Thursday, a result expected to give President Lee Jae Myung a stronger mandate in his second year in office.

The DP was projected to win as many as 13 of the 16 metropolitan mayoral and gubernatorial posts at stake, while the PPP was headed to secure two key races, according to early ballot counts by the National Election Commission (NEC).

Eleven out of the 16 key races were called or close to being called as of 3 a.m., with the ruling party winning 10 of the 11 races. The DP was also ahead in three of the rest of the five races where it was still too close to call.

Wednesday’s elections were held exactly one year after the Lee administration took office on June 4. 

A clear victory for the ruling party would likely solidify the government’s mandate to push forward with its reform measures, while dealing a blow to the embattled PPP as it struggles to rebuild conservative support following former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ouster.

It would also mark a sharp turnaround in voter sentiment from four years earlier, when the then ruling PPP had claimed 12 out of 17 major gubernatorial and mayoral positions in the last local elections. The 2022 local elections were held a month after Yoon took office.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Let me get this straight, President Lee gets to choose who the special counsel will be that will have the power to acquit him of all the corruption charges he previously faced before becoming President? Could you imagine if Trump did something like this, the left in the U.S. would be going crazy. However, in Korea you will hear nothing from the left there:

Hong Ihk-pyo, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, speaks at a press briefing at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on May 4, 2026. (Yonhap)

 President Lee Jae Myung has stressed the need for public input and careful deliberation, a presidential official said Monday, as the ruling Democratic Party (DP) pushes for a special probe into allegations that he was indicted in multiple cases based on fabricated evidence during the previous administration.

Hong Ihk-pyo, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, made the remarks at a press briefing, citing the president, after the DP proposed a bill last week to mandate a special counsel probe.

The bill calls for an independent investigation into suspicions that the prosecution under the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration indicted Lee, then head of the main opposition party, in multiple cases, including a real estate development scandal, based on fabricated probes and evidence.

Lee was standing trials on various charges before proceedings were suspended or indefinitely postponed after he took office in June last year.

The bill allows a special counsel to take over Lee’s cases from the prosecution and decide whether to proceed with them, while giving the president the authority to appoint the counsel from among three recommended candidates. 

Opposition lawmakers have argued that the proposed bill would give the special counsel grounds to drop charges against Lee, calling it a move to acquit him in the cases.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but wouldn’t it be funny that if another Korean conservative takes power that they choose a special counsel to investigate the special counsel that dropped charges against Lee in order to reinstate them? We all know these charges will be dropped because otherwise President Lee would not be doing this.

The impeachment of former President Yoon continues to drag down the PPP’s favorability in Korea:

One year after former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ouster over his botched martial law crisis, the People Power Party (PPP), to which he belonged, is facing its worst slump in years. A new poll shows the main opposition party trailing the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) by 30 percentage points — the widest gap between the two parties since 2018. (…..)

The nationwide survey by Gallup Korea released Friday and conducted on 1,001 adults from March 31 to April 2 shows the DPK’s approval rating at 48 percent while the PPP’s was at 18 percent.

The 30-percentage-point gap is the largest since November 2018 by-elections, when the Liberty Korea Party, the predecessor to the PPP at the time, lost four seats in the National Assembly in the aftermath of the 2017 impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye, also a member of the conservative bloc. It is also the PPP’s lowest Gallup Korea result since November 2020.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It makes me wonder how many other members of the National Assembly were taking bribes like she allegedly did?:

Kang Sun-woo, a former ruling party lawmaker and currently independent, speaks ahead of a parliamentary vote on a motion for her arrest during a plenary session at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Feb. 24, 2026. (Yonhap)

The National Assembly on Tuesday approved a motion to arrest Rep. Kang Sun-woo over bribery allegations related to a nomination by the ruling Democratic Party (DP).

Kang, now an independent lawmaker who formerly belonged to the DP, is accused of receiving 100 million won (US$68,300) in exchange for supporting the nomination of former Seoul city councilor Kim Kyung as a DP candidate ahead of the 2022 local elections. Kang was ousted from the party after the allegations surfaced last month.

The arrest motion passed in a 164-87 vote with three abstentions and nine invalid ballots during a parliamentary plenary session.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I have to give President Lee credit, he has been governing smartly since taking office and his approval rating continues to show this:

President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating rose to 56.5 percent last week, a survey showed Monday, driven by the government’s efforts to stabilize the property market.

The rating was up 0.7 percentage point from the previous week, while the negative assessment fell 0.2 percentage point to 38.9 percent, according to the survey by Realmeter, commissioned by a local business news outlet.

Realmeter attributed the increase to Lee’s ongoing push to curb home prices by ending an exemption from the heavy capital gains tax for owners of multiple homes and the stock market’s rise.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I guess with so many conservatives being tried and put into jail there are not many left to operate a Youtube channel compared to the ruling liberal party:

In the 300-seat National Assembly, lawmakers are increasingly using the US-based video platform to bypass traditional media and speak directly to voters, with some pulling in half a million subscribers.

Estimates compiled by The Korea Herald from publicly available YouTube data show that, as of Feb. 1, 25 South Korean lawmakers had more than 100,000 subscribers, qualifying them for silver play buttons. Of these, 19 were from liberal or left-leaning parties and six were conservatives.

Rep. Jung Chung-rae, a four-term lawmaker and chair of the Democratic Party, topped the list with 687,000 subscribers, followed by Reps. Kim Byung-joo and Park Sun-won with more than 500,000 each. Other Democratic Party lawmakers with large followings included Reps. Park Ju-min and Choo Mi-ae, both exceeding 300,000 subscribers, while Rep. Yong Hye-in of the minor Basic Income Party ranked fifth overall with 375,000.

Among conservatives, first-term lawmaker Rep. Joo Jin-woo led the People Power Party with 362,000 subscribers, followed by Reps. Yu Yong-weon, Ahn Cheol-soo, Cho Jung-hun and Na Kyung-won. Rep. Lee Jun-seok, chair of the minor conservative Reform Party, also surpassed 200,000 subscribers.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It appears that President Lee has found X to be a good way to communicate directly to the public just like President Trump:

President Lee Jae Myung’s increasingly frequent social media posts warning of an end to a tax waiver for multiple homeowners have put his housing agenda — and his direct-to-public messaging — at the center of a widening political debate between rival parties.

The main opposition People Power Party said Monday that Lee’s posts urging homeowners to sell amount to “intimidation.” The party went further, asking whether Lee “learned it” from US President Donald Trump, who has made social media a key tool of governance and used it to deliver major policy announcements.

Following his New Year’s news conference on Jan. 23, Lee has stepped up his use of his official X account to weigh in on major policy issues. The approach aligns with his long-standing communications style: he relied heavily on social media while serving as mayor of Seongnam and governor of Gyeonggi Province.

Housing policy has accounted for the lion’s share of his posts. Lee has posted about the issue 11 times: one post on Jan. 23, four posts on Jan. 25, three on Saturday, one on Sunday and two on Monday.

Lee’s posts largely reaffirm his determination to terminate the exemption for the higher capital gains tax on multihomeowners that began with the inauguration of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration on May 9 in 2022 and was extended each year.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if President Lee considers a pardon for Han because a 23 year prison sentence that would see him spend the rest of his life in prison is harsh:

Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo (C) arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in the capital on Jan. 21, 2026, to attend the sentencing hearing of his trial on insurrection charges. (Yonhap)

Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was sentenced to 23 years in prison Wednesday for playing a key role in an insurrection by abetting former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief imposition of martial law

The court said the former prime minister took part in the insurrection by proposing that Yoon convene a Cabinet meeting before declaring the decree.

Han did not voice his opposition to the declaration during the Cabinet meeting and appeared to have encouraged then Interior Minister Lee Sang-min to execute Yoon’s orders to cut off power and water to media outlets critical of the administration, it said.

“The defendant had a duty as a prime minister indirectly given democratic legitimacy and the responsibility for it to follow the Constitution and laws and make every effort to realize and defend the Constitution,” the judge said during the sentencing hearing, which was televised live.

“Even so, he neglected this duty and responsibility until the end, thinking the Dec. 3 insurrection might succeed, and chose to take part as a member,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.