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.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye enters a voting booth in Seoul on April 13, 2016. The quadrennial polls are to elect a new 300-member National Assembly and take on extra significance as the results will affect how Park wraps up her remaining term in office, as well as set the tone for who will succeed her. (Yonhap)
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]
Farmers pick green tea leaves at a tea plantation in South Korea’s southern county of Hadong on April 8, 2016, in this photo provided by the county office. The harvest was the first of its kind in the region. (Yonhap)
Kids and parents look around KidZania Busan which opened in South Korea’s largest port city on April 8, 2016. The indoor theme park, the 22nd of its kind in the world, enables children to role-play and experience a variety of professions. (Yonhap)
At least the Korean courts have decided to keep this dirt bag in jail. I can remember the days when the Korean courts were so weak on sexual assault that they were letting rapists routinely go free:
The Seoul High Court turned down a sexually abusive stepfather’s appeal for a lighter sentence Sunday.
The convicted, 48, was charged for abusing his sleeping stepdaughter, 25, and later threatening her with physical violence in an attempt to prevent her from alerting authorities.
In the original trial he received five years in prison for incestuous sexual assault, but later appealed, saying his sentence was too heavy.
The appeals court turned down his plea in a decision saying, “The nature of the defendant’s crime is malignant as he had not only sexually assaulted his own stepdaughter, but also threatened her with a weapon to cover up his crime.” [Korea Herald]
This undated Yonhap file photo shows Lee Boo-jin (L), president of Hotel Shilla, and Sky Park, vice chairwoman of E-Land Group, whom Forbes magazine has put on its annual list of Asia’s 50 Powerful Businesswomen in 2016 on April 7. (Yonhap)
Unionists and civic group members rally in downtown Seoul on April 6, 2016, demanding that the minimum wage be raised to 10,000 won (US$8.66) to guarantee basic livelihood. The rally took place a day ahead of the first meeting this year of a panel that reviews minimum wage. The minimum pay was set at 6,030 won for 2016, and the usual increase rate is 7 to 8 percent. (Yonhap)
That is what the popular Air Force blog JQ Public believes:
Last year, commanders at Osan Air Base in Korea decided to install high-definition, 24/7 surveillance cameras in the common areas of dormitories housing some 3,000 airmen. The rationale stated at the time was, generically, the safety of those airmen. Not litigated at the time was whether the cost of the new capability would be offset by the marginal gain in safety, but such debates are rarely entertained in such an authoritarian system. Ideas are presumed valid, good, and lawful the instant they gain command sponsorship.
Fast forward a year and the system has predictably loosed from its “safety” moorings and morphed into a tool for the control and criminalization of the base’s junior airmen. Over the past few weeks, we’ve received several reports that commanders are not using video footage merely to aid in criminal investigations after a report of wrongdoing, but are proactively reviewing all footage to scan for unreported wrongdoing.
For many, the new policy feels like pre-emptive criminalization — demonstrating that the chain of command is not genuinely concerned about safety or well-being so much as it cares about nailing airmen for innocuous or minor transgressions that would normally fall well below the threshold of official notice. [JQ Public Blog]
You can read much more at the link and it is an interesting debate. However, overall I like the cameras in regards to being a tool that can be used to collect evidence if a crime in the dorms was to occur. However, I don’t think the cameras should be used as a substitute for leadership presence in the dorms. Instead reviewing hours of video tape leaders should instead be walking in the dorms and communicating with their troops instead.
