South Korea: "Junstone" meets the Republic of Lawyers

"Junstone" is the popular nickname of the young representative of the People's Power Party, Lee Jun-seok (seok 石, is the hanja character for stone). Lee was taken on as the conservative party representative even though polls showed that Na Kyung-won was more favored in popular polls among conservatives. Na was the former conservative party leader in the National Assembly. It was hoped that Lee Jun-seok's popularity among young voters would result in a successful demographic formula for Yoon Seok-yeol's presidential campaign. Yoon is favored by large margins among the elderly (over 60 years of age) voters. PPP party members felt that an appeal by the party to the youngest generation of voters would give Yoon the votes for a successful election campaign. However, it became somewhat apparent during their meetings and their campaign stops together that the younger Lee Jun-seok was the subject of interest among young voters and not presidential candidate Yoon. "Junstone" is the youngest person to be selected as a party representative in South Korea. Yoon's inability to address social policy issues and provide proposals to remedy lack of opportunity in housing and labor issues, characterized by low pay and long hours, for the younger demographic has resulted in his image as old fossil (ggontae) being reinforced rather than lessened by the PPP's failing campaign formula.

(Source 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube 12.27) (Right) Lee Kyung-jin, PPP election planning committee, chief of the standing public information group quoted by MBN Newswide: "If Lee Jun-seok doesn't return within two days, I don't know, he may have to spend a long time in a dark tunnel." Lee Jun-seok (left) quoted from CBS radio: "Whoever said that if I don't return within a few days, my political career will be over, rather than having an intention to solve a problem, is more intent on thinking of how to threaten me."

Worse for conservatives, the expanding media coverage of alleged corruption of Yoon's wife and mother in law in the respective areas of academic qualifications and real estate investment hit sore points with young voters. Recent disclosures alleged that twenty three Choi Eun-sun real estate properties were subject to collection by various jurisdictions.* Young voters might think "why do the privileged own many properties while I cannot afford one?" There seems to be a hard core of conservative voters who will vote for Yoon no matter what evidence comes out concerning his family's alleged corruption at about 35 percent of potential voters. Yoon appears to have recently lost his margin above that level because of a court verdict against his mother in law in a bank certificatation forgery case, and his wife's half hearted public apologies for repeated instances of "exaggerations" on her academic resumes submitted for teaching positions. It is not lost on the public that the latter issue is similar in nature to that for which Yoon had initiated prosecution of former Justice Minister Cho-guk's family. Cho's wife, Chung Kyung-shim, was charged with "forgery" of a certificate of voluntary service issued by a university to Cho Guk's daughter, Cho Min, along with unfounded charges of financial misconduct. The case appears to be faltering upon final appeal in the Supreme Court due to numerous irregularities in the investigation and prosecution. Cho's wife, professor Chung Kyung-shim, has already been convicted, and sentenced to four years imprisonment by lower courts. She was confined pending trial and appeal. So where does this leave Yoon's campaign, ostensibly based on the keywords, fairness, justice and common sense?

*Correction edit: These collection seizures appear to be mostly related to Choi's National health insurance fund criminal case rather than tax related. SBS News "윤석열 장모 압류 부동산만 수도권·충청·강원 23곳" 12.18.21, https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1006573704&plink=TOP&cooper=SBSNEWSMAIN

(Source 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube 12.28) (quoted from YTN) Lee Jun-seok, "There is a suspicion that Yoon's election committee isn't trying to win the election but rather to reorganize the political world in accordance with some different plan with another political goal."

A rift has erupted between the putative party leader Lee Jun-seok and the so called core of Yoon supporter's on the "unified" party election committee. Yoon's "core" members on the election planning campaign committee consist primarily of former prosecutors. There are differences in how the Yoon "core" on the committee and Lee as PPP party representative wish to react to the increasing problem of Yoon's family, particularly his wife's "risk" to the success of his campaign. There had been up until now, rumors and leaks about disputes between Yoon's committee members and Lee. The committee doesn't want to hear any criticisms of Yoon or his family from party members. Lee threatened to leave the committee if leaks about his discussions with the committee weren't stopped and apologies issued. The Yoon faction's responses could be characterized as critical, if not openly hostile, to Lee. There is speculation whether Yoon's resignation from the party and campaign is even a possibility. Yet it is Lee's threat to leave the party election planning committee that elicited threats from the Yoon "core." Lee wants the party opened up to younger candidates on more competitive basis and less reliance on seniority and the status based system for selection of candidates. At first it was implied if Lee didn't come back to the committee, it would portend a dark future for his his political career. Lee implied he wanted to solve problems but was receiving only threats from the Yoon core on the committee. The aftermath suggests that Yoon supporters are only interested in silencing critics.

The latest episode in the PPP intraparty dispute now involves a leak from the so called "republic of lawyers" also known as "Yoon's division" from prosecution offices, associated with Yoon as a senior prosecutor, up to and including his position as South Korea's prosecutor general. Allegations from an old investigation of Lee Jun-seok (Junstone), have been leaked to the press, indicating that Lee was the recipient of favors and gifts on two separate occasions in August 2013 while he served as a committee man on the Saenuri Party committee. The alleged gifts and favors amounted to 1,300,000 won and 9,000,000 won respectively. Pundits believe this information could only have come from prosecution offices. So the option appears to be to drive Lee to play ball or drive "Junstone" out of the party. Whether there is evidence to support the allegations is not clear at this point. But this doesn't matter as a practical matter to Yoon supporters. This is the same tactic that Yoon engaged in as a senior prosecutor and prosecutor general by politicizing the office.

The tactic reflects those used against his opponent in the presidential campaign, the democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung. Yoon and the PPP made unfounded charges of corruption against Lee Jae-myung, in his former role as Mayor of Seongnam city, with respect to the Daejang dong real estate scandal. As it turned out, Lee appears to be clean, but multiple former politicians from the conservative ranks at the time were implicated and are now under investigation. The significant point is that the South Korean public now knows what to expect if Yoon Seok-yeol is elected president of South Korea. Rather than a military dictatorship, it can expect to be ruled by a campaign of intimidation and arbitrary arrests and prosecutions by the corrupt lawyers in the prosecution offices and their collaborators in the mainstream media in South Korea. There is a reason Yoon was disciplined by the Ministry of Justice for conducting unlawful investigations of sitting judges. Such investigations allow prosecutors the opportunity to improperly intimidate and coerce them on pending cases. Similarly, the practice can be used to intimidate, drive from office, and jail, elected or appointed officials not to their liking, regardless of whether there is a actual factual predicate for investigations or prosecutions. Yoon has said it is up to the electorate to decide if what his wife has done is a crime and whether her half hearted apologies are sufficient for her conduct. Ironically, after her second public apology, JTBC reported new allegations that her masters degree thesis submitted at Sukmyeong Women's University College of Education was also suspected to be "42 percent" plagiarized. One academic expert commented that the paper wouldn't have been accepted in an undergraduate program. This is in addition to more than ten mispresentations alleged on her academic resumes submitted in the past to obtain teaching positions, and the prior allegation that her doctorate thesis from Gukmin University was also plagiarized.

삼부토건 조남욱 회장 Oops, there it is!

열린공감TV 12.22
1 day ago

열린공감TV는 삼부토건 조남욱 회장에게 양재택 전 검사를 소개받아 동거해온 김건희가 양 전 검사를 통해 자신 가족의 이권을 위한 법적 뒷배로 활용하다 2007년 3월경 양 전 검사가 검찰을 떠나자 곧바로 또다시 삼부토건 조남욱 회장의 주선으로 윤석열을 김건희에게 소개해 동거에 들어간 것으로 보인다고 취재를 통해 주장했다.

당시 김건희와 모친 최은순은 정대택 씨와의 송사로 법적 분쟁중이었다. 윤,김 그들이 결혼을 한건 2012년 이지만 이미 훨씬 전부터 동거를 해왔음을 여러차례 보도했다.

당시 김건희는 ‘쥴리’로의 활동에서 신분 상승돼 ‘김교수’ ‘김작가’등으로 불렸다.

결국 삼부토건 조 회장이 이일의 설계자다. 오늘 밤 9시 삼부토건 2대 주주였던 제보자가 직접 출연하여 삼부토건 비긴즈를 한다. 삼부토건의 미스터리가 하나씩 풀릴 것이다.

https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxSloV-l_QpqwzpL0Uqdkc5A5js1BfLYyR

Yoon Seok-yeol's polling falters amidst family disclosures

Balgan Agae ( 빨간아재 ) independent news journalist on youtube in South Korea reporting live from the the Uijonbu court building, says that Choi Eun-soon, conservative candidate Yoon Seok-yeol’s mother in law was just found guilty in a separate case of submitting a forged certification of bank deposit document in the amount of billions of won as part of a business transaction. The court sentenced her to only one year in prison but apparently she was not committed to confinement. This appears to be the same courthouse where she was sentenced earlier this year to three years in prison for illegal receipt of medical insurance funds. At that time she had been taken into confinement. Then when the review court took her appeal under consideration she was released pending her appeal. It may be that this trial level court is now reluctant to confine her under the circumstances.

The latest NBS poll shows that Yoon’s popular support has fallen below 30 percent. So democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung now leads Yoon 35% to 29% breaking out of the typical margin of error of 3 percent on these type phone polls with approximately 1000 respondents. ( NBS 여론조사 Dec 22 reported by 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube ) Depending on the poll source, there will be different numbers, but this is the first time that Lee has taken such a substantial lead over Yoon in the polls in recent weeks. It’s fairly apparent that Yoon’s camp was trying to put the matter of the alleged corruption of his family on the back burner with the unorthodox visit with the ROK army unit at the DMZ but it may not work.* Yoon has said that his wife won’t be participating in the campaign, and that she won’t operate an office of the first lady in the Blue House as he seeks to distance himself from his wife and her family. Ironically there was a report yesterday, that Hong Jun-pyo the most popular conservative candidate whom the People’s Power Party convention did not select as their candidate, announced that he was giving up his desire to become president. What timing! There are reports of infighting and resignations on Yoon’s campaign committee allegedly over the matter of how to handle the recent disclosures of alleged misrepresentations on his wife’s resumes submitted in support of applications to colleges for teaching positions over the years.

*UN Command investigating alleged armistice breaches after presidential candidate’s DMZ trip, Korea Times Dec 22;
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2021/12/205_320990.html?tw

Korea times also criticized the democratic Moon administration today for not taking pro-democracy positions against China, relative to Taiwan and Hong Kong issues. Democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung’s position on foreign policy issues is similar to Moon’s. Yoon, the conservative presidential candidate, thus far has been the favored candidate by the US and Japan. The official cut off for registration of presidential candidates is February 13-14, 2022, for the March 9, election.

On Rahm Emanuel's confirmation as US Ambassador to Japan

The US military occupation of Japan was initially conceived as a check on Japanese militarism. During the latter phases of WWII and in the lead up to the Treaty of San Francisco, the major role of post war Japan was recast by the US as the bulwark against communism in East Asia. Japan became the rear area of support for US forces in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

The US has become so comfortable with the view that Japan will always be the reliable ally to count on in Asia, the notion that it still harbors revanchist goals, and seeks to reassert its status in Asia as a "normal country with a normal military" is hardly perceived as a risk. In fact, open discussion of "unleashing Japan," and "strangling China" has recently appeared in American media with US fears of China's emergence as a "peer rival." Necessarily, the right wing LDP leadership of Japan encourages this inclination.

War in Korea, and war in Vietnam was good for business in Japan. Wouldn't war over Taiwan, the former Japanese colony, also be good? The plutocrats in Japan encourage the worst inclinations of Washington. Won't Washington come to Japan's defense if it gets in a military confrontation over the Senkaku Islands? Oh, yes of course we will, Biden reassured them. And Japan's leadership has assured its former colony Taiwan that they will come to its aid, if it is attacked by China. Almost without any critical public discussion, the US has abandoned a more finessed policy toward the PRC and the Taiwan issue adopted during the later stages of the Vietnam era.

The political landscape of the emerging anti China alliance of the US, UK, and Japan resembles the turn of the 20th Century consensus on Asian imperial alliances of convenience that led to a series of wars, resulting in Japan's conquest and acquisition of Taiwan and Korea, and ended ultimately in WWII. The notion that Japan might be considered a revanchist power in the 21st Century, led by the modern day heirs of the Meiji imperialists and war criminals may seem absurd to Americans today, but the Japanese overestimated their reach before. The US is overestimating its reach now encouraged by Japan's leadership. In the echo chamber of alliance enthralled members poring over their geopolitical theories and legalistic rationalizations, the tactics and policies promoted and adopted by the politicians, admirals and "diplomats" in Japan and the US have become more extreme and inclined to take unwise risks staking out untenable positions.

Does anyone think Rahm Emanuel would provide wise counsel and sober restraint concerning such matters? During his hearing Emanuel spoke of the Indo-Pacific concept as a strategy formulated by Shinzo Abe and embraced by the US. He also confirmed that Japan was the paramount US ally in Asia, and that other allies needed to unite with the US-Japanese vision of the Indo-Pacific. Further he asserted that it was the Chinese (and North Korea) who sought to divide the alliance, and construct a world order in which "all roads lead to Beijing." As far as any allies, specifically South Korea, that had grievances or issues with Japan's excesses during the 20th Century, they needed to look to the future, not the past, and see the "possibilities in the 21st Century." In other words "ignore the past." This is truly ironic and in the category of the philosophy behind former President Obama's statement "we tortured some folks." Or as Wendy Sherman once asked, "when are they going to get over it?"

The possibility of the future for South Koreans is to reach some level of social, commercial, and political accomodation over time with North Korea. Our South Korean "ally" was devastated by Japan, who literally followed policies of inhumane brutality, economic expropriation and cultural destruction, during its half century colonial administration. Then Korea was divided permanently by US strategic design after the liberation and remained so after the brutal Korean war. It is clear the US and Japan have no intention of allowing their "ally" South Korea any initiative with respect to its destiny on the Korean peninsula. They will not allow a land based integration through North Korea with the rest of Asia. It might be said in terms of US policy, that all roads lead to Tokyo. The division of China from Taiwan is a similar geostrategic artifact regardless of how it is framed in terms of "our values." The notion expressed by Emanuel that all the nations of Asia are craving US leadership to confront China is a dangerous illusion.

Hankyoreh article on Yoon campaign's "wife risk" doesn't go far enough

This article, "Yoon's hard line on "fairness" backfires," quoted, in part, below from today's Hankyoreh, may be one of the only English language news articles on the current crisis brewing over the Yoon presidential campaign in South Korea:

...It was revealed that in the resume Kim submitted to Suwon Women’s University in 2007 for an adjunct professorship, she falsely wrote that she served as an executive at the Korea Association of Game Industry and that she won the top award at the 2004 Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival. After submitting this resume, she was hired as an adjunct professor and worked at the university for 11 months.

Although Yoon’s remarks in the morning criticized the media coverage of his wife, he exhibited an about-face that afternoon. After his wife expressed her willingness to apologize to the public “for causing distress,” Yoon also changed his tone.

“No matter how much [my wife] may have to say on this issue, and no matter how much this feels like an unfair and planned offensive by the ruling party, if [she] was not able to live up to the high expectations of the public in even a small way then it is correct to feel apologetic,” he said.

“I just saw [her apology statement] and I think that her stance seems appropriate,” he added...*

*Yoon's hard line on "fairness" backfires, Hankyoreh, 12.16.21 by Kim Mi-na; https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1023629.html

(Source- 빨간아재 12.16 youtube) People's Power Party candidate for President Yoon Seok-yeol yelling at reporters for asking questions about wife, Kim Geon-hee's, teaching application record. "Raising suspicion is unjust!"

This is just the tip of the iceberg concerning presidential candidate Yoon, his wife, and mother in law. Mother in law Choi Eun-sun was for some reason not prosecuted in 2015, when her partners in a medical rehabilitation care financial fraud scheme were convicted and imprisoned. She was convicted after reinvestigation of the case earlier this year, sentenced to three years, jailed, and then released on appeal. There are recordings in which mother in law brags about revenge taken on at least one earlier business partner, whom she allegedly defrauded of approximately 2 million dollars. In another instance, the Deutsche Motors stock manipulation case, in which she and her daughter are allegedly implicated, she confided to an acquaintance in a phone conversation, that the statute of limitations has passed after an incriminating admission. In that case, similar to the medical fraud case, her daughter Kim Geon-hee, Yoon's wife, unlike other participants, has not yet been arrested and indicted. This year, Yoon himself has been found to have violated professional ethics by a Ministry of Justice disciplinary board by interfering in cases, abandoning poliical impartiality, and unlawfully investigating sitting judges as Prosecutor General. Yoon quit his office rather than submit to professional discipline. He was suspended from official duties for two months. The suspension was upheld by two reviewing courts. His harshest critics remark that Yoon's history requires that he run for office to keep from going to prison. (Why would one conduct unlawful investigations of sitting judges other than to improperly influence their decisions?)

Returning to his spouse's situation, she appears unable to make public statements without digging herself into a deeper hole. While she claimed her private affairs were being unjustly investigated by the press, she could not help refrain from a reference to the prosecution of former Justice Minister Cho Guk's wife over an alleged forged voluntary service certificate submitted as part of a college admissions package for her daughter. Reportedly, Yoon himself instigated this prosecution against this democratic political rival and his family. Cho Guk's wife was convicted of the forgery after a very unusual investigation and prolonged trial. It is likely that the evidence was obtained unlawfully by the state, interpreted incorrectly by government forensic experts, that exculpatory evidence was withheld at the time of forensic evaluation, and at trial, etc. True to form in political prosecution cases, the chief witness against Cho Guk's wife, was himself suspected of unlawful conduct at the time, and may have been subject to prosecutorial misconduct.

Yoon's wife had the nerve to claim that her repeated misrepresentations on her resume did not amount in seriousness to the offense charged against Cho Guk's wife. She then went on to say if her "mistaken representations of facts amounted to a crime, so it's a crime" revealing her genuine attitude. Candidate Yoon claimed that the accusatory reports and queries by the press represented a plan by the incumbent party. Yoon implied that the misrepresentations in his wife's record are mistakes rather than intentional, and immaterial to the selection process of hiring adjunct or affiliated "professors." So the reference to hypocrisy oft cited by conservative candidate Yoon to justify his prosecution of the former Justice Minister and his wife, "Ne ro, nom bul," may be the aphorism for the election campaign, "when I do it, it's love, when they do it, it's adultery." The repeated misrepresentations in Kim's academic resume may be grounds for showing wrongful intent despite the argument by Yoon that the misrepresentations are immaterial to the job selection process. What the teaching resume does reflect is the complete disregard for the truth which Ms. Kim apparently learned at home. Kim and Choi were slick operators, street wise, and knew how to use a corrupt legal system to their advantage before Kim married Yoon. Now, outside the courtroom on the main stage of presidential politics, their heretofore carefully hidden characters have become more apparent.

The apologies of Yoon and his spouse are in the insincere variety, of being sorry in order to meet public expectations. Ms. Kim was video taped yesterday, leaving her offices, having her face covered and pushed down by her handler to make a quick exit so she would not have the opportunity to respond to any other inquiries concerning her past behavior. Some in the conservative party have suggested that questions about Kim's honesty and ethics aren't germane because the party "didn't nominate her." It's a weak argument after putting Cho Guk's entire family at risk of criminal prosecution, issuing 80 warrants against them, forcing Cho from office, and convicting them in the press with leaks. The power struggle in South Korea over the control of judicial administration and the state is not over.

Lee Jae-myung slightly ahead of Yoon Seok-yeol in presidential poll

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 12.1.2021) Channel A News commissioned presidential polling 11.27- 11.29 results nationwide: Democrat Lee Jae-myung 35.5%, PPP candidate Yoon Seok-yeol 34.6%, Justice Party Shim Sang-jung 4.9%, National Party Ahn Chul-soo 6.0%, Independent Kim Dong-yon 1.6%, others 2.8%, reserved judgement 14.6%. Lee's slight lead over Yoon is within the margin of error for polls of this nature which is usually 3 percent. Just over a thousand people were surveyed. The poll is believed to carry probative weight by the source democratic analyst as Channel A News is a conservative DongA media outlet.

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 12.1.2021) Who will you vote for in next year's (3.9) presidential election? By age group, percentage of prospective votes for Lee Jae-myung on the left and Yoon Seok-yeol on the right. Voters in their thirties favor Lee by a significant margin. Voters in their forties overwhelmingly favor of the democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung. Voters in their fifties are about evenly split between the two candidates. Voters in the sixties or older favor the conservative candidate Yoon Seok-yeol by a wide margin. Lee Jae-myung has apparently changed the momentum among the voters 18 to 29 somewhat in his favor. Yoon's "talk concert" campaign at youth campaign venues may have been counterproductive ( see my previous post "Bro" Seok-yeol, Nov. 30). Yet many of the youngest voters appear to be reserving their choice at this point. Not happy with their social and economic prospects during the current five year term of democratic President Moon Jae-in, they may not like what they're hearing from the conservative Yoon campaign either, particularly concerning housing, wages, and labor conditions. Yoon's polling bounce after his nomination at the PPP convention appears to be over. Democratic pundits believe the more campaign exposure Yoon and his family receive the more support he could lose because of multiple allegations of unlawful acts currently under investigation.

On the other hand, conservative media sources had accused Lee of spouse abuse after a recent incident in which his wife lost consciousness and fell injuring her head. She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. The accusations appear to be unfounded but probably caused Lee to lose some votes among young women. Equal opportunity for women, and feminist issues have been a stumbling block for both parties in recent elections. A power struggle is under way in the conservative PPP between Yoon's camp and the party leader Lee Jun-seok. The struggle for control of the party's central committee involves both the youth vote and women's issues, as Lee Jun-seok is regarded as representing young male backlash against women's EEO issues. Democrats lost the mayoral campaigns in Seoul and Pusan in April this year in part because of deceased Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon's improper office affair with his young secretary. This led to the democratic mayor's suicide when he was publicly accused of rape and sexual assault and allowed the right to pose as defenders of women's rights.

*See Reality Check in Seoul and Busan, 4.7.2021
https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2021/04/reality-check-in-seoul-and-busan.html
and Deceased Mayor Park Won-soon- Trial by Media in South Korea 9.14.2020
https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2020/09/deceased-mayor-park-won-soon-trial-by.html

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 12.1.2021) Prospective presidential voting survery results by region, with democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung, left, and conservative PPP candidate Yoon Seok-yeol, right. From top to bottom. Seoul where Yoon has a substantial lead; Incheon and Gyeonggido (where Lee is governor presently) Lee leads; Daejeon, Sejong, and Choongcheong, Lee has a significant lead; In Kwangju and Cholla, Lee has a huge lead ( because of Yoon's Chun Doo-won gaffes* ) ; In Daegu and Kyeongbok, Yoon has a huge lead (this is the center of conservative regional dominance); In Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam, Yoon has a significant lead, and finally Yoon has a small lead in Gangwon and Jeju Island.

*Yoon Seok-yeol's "apple" apology and the Chun Doo-hwan dictatorship, 10.23.2021; https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2021/10/yoon-seok-yeols-apple-apology-and-chun.html

"Bro" Seok-yeol

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube 11.30) Five gaffe's from Yoon Seok-yeol before he was selected by the "People's Power Party" to be their candidate for president of South Korea in the March 2022 election. Top left "But for its early emergence in Daegu, the covid pandemic would have resulted in a rebellion." Left bottom: "People must be able to work close to 120 hours a week." Right starting at top: "No radiation leaked from Fukushima;" "Poor people should be able to buy defective goods;" and "Feminism made politics worse."

After becoming known as "gaffe a day" Yoon, also styled as another day, another Yoon gaffe (망언) Yoon's political handlers tried to get him under positive control. Yet he went on to praise the former dictator Chun Doo-hwan in another public appearance, and then was forced to go to Kwangju and make a stilted and insincere apology to the people there, where Chun had massacred hundreds in 1980. After his appearance there, his spouse Kim Gon-hee, posted a series of sarcastic and disrectful respectful images and comments on Yoon's online account* to lampoon the "forced apology."

*Yoon Seok-yeol's "apple" apology and the Chun Doo-hwan dictatorship https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2021/10/yoon-seok-yeols-apple-apology-and-chun.html

Yoon's handlers have been unable to gain control of Yoon's disastrously mismanaged campaign appearances which since have been recorded on video. In one episode recorded in a scheduled Yoon presentation on television, Yoon appeared onstage to give a speech, and stood nervously on the stage in the studio before a live audience for a full two minutes after his introduction, without saying a word, because the teleprompter was not displaying his speech. Even after the news media program host prompted Yoon to begin his presentation, he stood there saying nothing.

In another video recorded presentation, before a select body of students from Seoul University, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in South Korea, Yoon was fed softball questions from his "hoobae" ( 후배 junior) that had nothing to do with the pressing issues facing the Korean younger generation today. This revealed the "gold spoon" character of his audience of elite students from his alma mater. Yoon was wearing a colorful name tag for the occasion with his identity given as Seok-yeol eui hyung, ( 석열의 형 ) which translates as Bro Seok-yeol, an appellation no doubt designd to endear him to the young voters. In the embarrassing highlight of the event, Yoon was asked a question arising from the Chinese classics of the three kingdoms period. The question was who is your favorite character from the period? Yoon was nonplussed for some moments, twitched nervously, and then finally not knowing what to say, mentioned Russian history and started talking about the movie Dr. Zhivago. Needless to say this glaring lapse, brought up references by his critics to Yoon's notorious nine tries before he passed the Korean bar exam. The American equivalent of Yoon's performance would be if a college graduate had been asked who is their favorite character from Greek ancient history and not being able to name even one person from that period and add a sentence or two to say something positive about them. So the critical commentary is to the effect, is it possible that a person this ignorant, is considered suitable to become president of South Korea? Yoon at one point in his early campaign had made a derogatory comment about liberal arts education.

These embarrassing events, much like the emperor's new clothes, have for the most part gone unnoticed in the conservative media in South Korea. They are widely reported by independent media and discussed on social media. The latest installment in Yoon's ongoing campaign farce, was his non-appearance at a later youth media event designed to capture the hearts of the politically independent, frustrated and dissatisfied young voters who will decide the election. At first the live online event was said to have been postponed temporarily because of other events. For a period of 24 minutes, participants in the online event posted sarcastic comments about the teleprompter being broken, Yoon being unable to memorize his answers, and other critical remarks about his probable fear of the event. Apparently, he never showed up.

In another recent appearance to enhance "Bro Seok-yeol's" image with the younger generation, Yoon arrived at an event for aspiring new artists at the Seoul Art Center. Yoon arrived in a phalanx of bodyguards to visit the gallery. Some independent journalists had gotten wind of the event, and waited by the entrance to enter the lobby of the gallery which is open to the public to see if they could question Yoon. They were pushed aside by the bodyguards. One of the journalists kept asking Yoon why his spouse, Kim Gon-hee, wasn't present. She allegedly is a Ph.D. level expert in the arts, and organizes art exhibits for corporate sponsors for large commissions. Yoon blew off the question saying she was busy with other things. When the journalist persisted he was pushed aside while being repeatedly told "don't ask useless questions." The journalist who had a camera man with him, persisted, and was ultimately pushed back and kicked in the groin a couple of times by an unofficial "bodyguard" who wore a uniform type shirt with a label stitched on it saying "Patriot Patrol." Inside the gallery, Yoon posed for the cameras, contemplating an abstract painting in the gallery while his PR team moved the young people to stand next to him like mannequin props.

The police were called to do an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the assault and battery on the reporter, allegedly by someone who wasn't part of Yoon's official bodyguard detail. The reporter assaulted worked for 열린공감TV an independent investigative journalism organization that presents evidence concerning alleged corruption and fraud revolving around Yoon's wife and mother in law, and reports of alleged unlawful conduct of Yoon and his former close associates from South Korea's prosecutors' offices.*

See: South Korea: Yoon family cartoons, https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2021/11/yoon-family-cartoons.html

2020 Top 15 Defense Budgets

These charts were interesting:

(Source- 호사카유지TV youtube 11.24) Above are the top 15 countries ranked in terms of the absolute size in dollars in units of 100 million dollars in 2020. Starting left to right US, China, India, Russia, England, Saudi, Germany, France, Japan, S.Korea, etc. The US spends multiples beyond China.

(Source- 호사카유지TV youtube 11.24) Here is the same ranking from left to right, showing the percent of national GDP spent by the top 10 countries in order. US 3.74 percent, China 1.75 percent, India 2.88, Russia 4.26. England 2.25, Saudi 8.45, Germany 1.4, France 2.07, Japan 1.00, and South Korea 2.85.

Charts by Hosaka Yuji Ph.D. Sejeong Univ. Seoul.

Who's getting ready for war?

South Korea: Yoon family cartoons

(Source- 알리미 황희두 youtube 11.21 cartoon original source Cha Yoo-rak) "This is a normal country." Before the court addressing them, "defendant Yoon Seok-yeol" (the conservative presidential candidate, center), "defendant Kim Gon-hee" (Yoon's wife, the prospective first lady, left) and "defendant Choi Eun-seun" (Yoon's mother in law, right). All three depicted with the list of their alleged crimes on their backs. Kim Gon-hee: Stock price fixing, unlawful sponsorship, fraudulent credentials, Ph.D. plagiarism suspicion, fake life. Yoon Seok-yeol: Coverup of bribery investigation, negligent investigation of financial scandals, interference in former prime minister Han Myeong-suk's investigation, unlawful investigation of sitting judges, instigating private charges while in public office (against political enemies), and finally, insubordination and "coup d'etat." Choi Eun-soon: unlawful income, forged proof of financial status, stock price manipulation, memorial park fraud suspicion, and other financial fraud.

(Source- 알리미 황희두 youtube 11.21 cartoon original source Cha Yoo-rak) This cartoon depicts the difference in the South Korean media treatment of former Justice Minister Cho Guk's daughter, Cho Min, (top) as compared to the deferential treatment of Yoon Seok-yeol's wife (bottom). On the top, the group of angry journalists say, "You dare to call us journalist trash?* Our physical strength is enhanced by practicing often." On the bottom the journalists encountering Kim Gon-hee's falsified background, and her alleged involvement in the Deustche Motors stock price fixing scheme, choose to remain mute, while saying they are zealously engaged in deep meditation.

*Reporter 기자 + trash 쓰레기 = 기레기 journalist trash. The contraction is a relatively new word in Korean that is widely used in independent media commentary, particularly on the left. When encounting accusations such as these against Yoon and his family in independent media, the right typically refers to it as fake news ( 가짜 뉴스 ). Yet there have been very few successful defamation suits against the independent media that have reported on these accusations and the evidence supporting them.

Cho Guk's wife, Chung Kyung-shim, was convicted of forging her daughters voluntary service award certificate, allegedly destroying evidence, and investing under a false name at her first trial. Professor Chung is in prison, pending appeal, after a sentence of four years despite her obvious bad health. Cho Guk is also fighting criminal charges but is not in pre-trial detention. Cho Guk's daughter, Cho Min, was stripped of her degree by a university under questionable circumstances based upon the allegedly "forged" certificate. Charges were instigated against the family without prior investigation by Yoon Seok-yeol, described by critics as a "coup d'etat" designed to derail the democratic administration's judicial and electoral reform initiatives. In October 2019, after the charges were instigated, over a million people assembled in the streets of Seoul to protest. It is alleged that the chief witness against Cho Guk's wife, the former university president where she worked, was threatened and otherwise unlawfully induced to elicit false testimony. Because there was no prior investigation, the prosecutors issued an unprecedented eighty search warrants in an effort to find grounds to substantiate the politically motivated prosecutions. The protacted litigation is still underway. The press cooperated fully with prosecution efforts ( 검언유착 ) to defame and vilify Cho Guk and his family. Cho Guk has won several defamation suits on behalf of his family.

On the other hand, political actors in the prosecutors' offices and judicial branch until recently have stonewalled and derailed all lawsuits and investigations against Yoon Seok-yeol's family for years without comment by the South Korean media. Recently, Choi Eun-soon was convicted of unlawfully operating a medical rehabilitation facility and illegally receiving approximately 2 billion won in tax supported medical funds. She was imprisoned by the trial court but the reviewing court released her pending the appeal of her case. Charges against Yoon will be probably be referred to the newly formed Committee to Investigate High Public Officials. Typically, none of these allegations against the right wing candidate for president or his family had been reported in South Korean mainstream media nor their English language outlets. There has been some reporting of the General Prosecutor's office being implicated in the preparation of private lawsuits against political rivals. The election law violations have not been linked to Yoon as yet but only his direct subordinate. The English language press worldwide genarally avoids the topic as well. However, similar to the South Korean major media outlets, articles in the US press and VOA Korea broadcasts are critical of the democratic administration, its policies, and the democratic party's current presdidential candidate, Lee Jae-myung.

South Korea- the best presidential candidate the conservatives can offer ?

South Korean presidential debate hits rock bottom as Yoon Seok-youl probed over anal acupuncturist and Rasputin-like preacher*

Yoon Seok-youl, the main opposition People Power Party’s front-runner to fight next year’s election, faces growing questions about his alleged reliance on superstitious practices

The latest questions surround his links to the unlicensed anal acupuncturist Lee Byeong-hwan and the mysterious Rasputin-like preacher Cheongong.

*SCMP Park Chan-kyong, 8 Oct, 2021 (paywall) ; https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3151627/south-korean-presidential-debate-hits-rock-bottom-yoon-seok-youl


South Korean presidential candidate seen with 'King’ marked on his palm draws side-eyes all around*

Politicians have accused Yoon Seok-youl, the leading presidential candidate of the conservative opposition party People Power Party (PPP), of relying on shamanistic rituals after he was spotted bearing the Chinese character for “King” (王) on his left palm during a debate.

The “King” mark: The 60-year-old former prosecutor general was spotted with the Chinese symbol when he waved his left hand during the live televised People Power Party (PPP) debate on Oct. 1, Korea Times reported. Pictures of him with the same mark on his palm from two other debates surfaced soon after.

*Yahoo News Bryan Ke, October 5, 2021 https://www.yahoo.com/now/south-korean-presidential-candidate-seen-193320755.html

Two related political cartoons going around on South Korean social media:

(Image source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube Nov. 10) Graphic on the left shows Yoon in a prison jumper with his prison number on it, 504. 503 is the well known prison number for impeached and convicted former president Park Geun-hye. Yoon is comfortably ahead (convention bounce?) in currently reported polls in the race for president of South Korea. The final election will conclude March 9, 2022. Yoon, his family and former professional colleagues at the public prosecutors offices are under investigation for multiple allegations of corruption, frauds on the court, and other unlawful acts. His name given under 504 says Yoon Chun jang, (Yoon Black bean sauce) which is play on his former title as Yoon Prosecutor General (Yoon Jong Jang). Black bean sauce also refers to the food typically ordered (Ja jjang myun) when prosecutors treat suspects and informers to a meal. According to rumor, it is one of Yoon's favored noodle dishes.

On the right, is a portrayal of Yoon with a mustache (resembling Hitler) in the polygon trademark of the People's Power Party in a No Yoon representation. Yoon recently expressed praise for former military dictator Chun Doo-hwan. The poster is also an oblique reference to the NO JAPAN movement in South Korea. Yoon is "chin il" unequivocally partial to the governing right wing LDP party in Japan. NO ANAL is a reference to Yoon's alleged association with the anal acupunturist seen at his June 6 official campaign declaration to become the next president of South Korea. Underneath it says no support, no vote. Unfortunately Yoon has a comfortable lead in the polls at this point, and his political opponents are hoping that one or more of the pending criminal investigations will result in an indictment. If he is indicted, the People's Power Party rules would call for withdrawal of their nomination of Yoon as their candidate according to the source ( 언론 알아야 바꾼다 ).

Did the debate hit rock bottom or did the conservative PPP selection of Yoon as candidate reach rock bottom? His conservative rival Hong Chun-pyo was more popular in the official party popular polling results but the party members rejected his candidacy by a large margin resulting in Yoon’s selection.

Yoon Seok-yeol Wins Conservative (PPP) Nomination for Presidential Candidate

(Source- JTBC News 11.5) The final selection for the People's Powers Party candidate for president of South Korea was announced last night 1:45am EST. Yoon Seok-yeol, the former Prosecutor General, was selected as the conservative opposition party's candidate, over Hong Jun-pyo. The formula for selection was based on a 50/50 formula of party representative votes averaged with the results of a popular poll among voters. The above graphic shows that Yoon won the party member vote by an overwhelming 58 percent (approx) to 35 percent margin over Hong, despite the popular vote in the poll going to Hong over Yoon by a 10 percent margin (48 to 38 percent approx).

(Source- JTBC News 11.5) This graphic shows the relative percent of People's Power Party member votes garnered by each party candidate participating in the final stage of the nomination race. Yoon Seok-yeol placed first with almost 48 percent; Hong Jun-pyo, second, with 41.5 percent; Yoo Seung-min with 7.47; and Hwan Hui-ryong with 3.17 percent.

While some polls show that Yoon can beat the Democratic Party candidate for president Lee Jae-myung, the presence of a strong third party conservative candidate in the final race for president could make Lee Jae-myung the winner in March 2022. Yoon and the PPP will apparently engage in "unification" discussions with potential candidate Ahn Chul-soo, who has his own political party to prevent conservative votes from being diluted in the final race for president.

On an editorial note, it is sad for South Korea, that the constellation of vested interests in South Korean politics, particularly those in the PPP have rallied around Yoon despite the fact that Hong is more popular. Hong's policy positions are no more attractive than Yoon's. The difference lies in the several investigations currently pending against Yoon's family members, colleagues in prosecution offices, and Yoon himself based upon credible allegations of corruption, misuse of public office, fraud on the courts and so on. Yoon's wife is under investigation for stock manipulation, his mother in law was already convicted in a lower court of what Americans would call "medicare fraud," and Yoon himself left the office of Prosecutor General while under a cloud of accusations of ethical violations, including politicizing the office, interfering in investigations, and unlawful investigations of sitting judges. Yoon was suspended from office by a disciplinary committee which he challenged in court. The disciplinary committee's decision to suspend him from office for two months was ultimately upheld by a court which noted that Yoon had no grounds for appeal, and that he could have been dismissed from office for his misconduct. Yoon's former office (The Supreme Prosecutor's Office) is currenly under investigation for preparing politically motivated private charges against his critics and democratic politicians. Those judges and prosecutors who have investigations or prosecutions of persons in Yoon's "network" or their critics and opponents put before them, cannot help but be intimidated by the prospect of Yoon potentially becoming the president of South Korea. Yoon as a candidate represents the worst of the so called "corrupt special interests" in South Korea, He is dull witted, superstitious, and arbitrary in disposition and will, if elected, become an authoritarian despot in all but name.

Yoon Seok-yeol's "apple" apology and the Chun Doo-hwan dictatorship

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol gave a presentation in Busan, October 19, during his presidential primary campaign, in which he expressed approval of the former dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan. He basically said that except for the ROK Army's slaughter of popular resistance to Chun Doo-hwan's coup d'etat, in Kwangju, (May 18, 1980), Chun's martial law regime administered South Korea well. His tactless remark went viral on the internet and social media throughout South Korea and met with widespread disapproval. People's Party leadership called on him to apologize to the many Korean people offended by his thoughtless remarks. Yoon then posted a somewhat lengthy and circuitous apology on social media, which basically said he was sorry for his shortcoming, that he didn't adequately perceive the sensitivity of affected South Koreans, who had suffered at the hands of the Chun Doo-hwan. Yoon asserted he would learn to be a better politician as a result of the learning experience.

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 10.22-10.23) (Left) Yoon's "Dol" celebration picture; (center) "memorable Indian apple;" (right) Yoon's Jindo dog being offered an apple, Dori like his father likes Indian apples. All comments on the posts had been removed.

However, after Yoon's written apology was posted, 10 hours later at night, a photo attributed to Yoon's instagram address was uploaded, suggesting that Yoon took the matter lightly and was taunting his critics. The picture of Yoon's traditional Dol ( 돌 ) celebration picture at age one, show's him sitting at the ceremonial table of fruit, holding an apple. This was posted on October 20. Sa gwa ( 사과 ) means apology in Korean; it is also a homonym for "apple." The caption under the Dol photo of Yoon as a one year old baby said, that even today Yoon favored apples over other fruit. On October 22, two more photos with a sardonic "sa gwa" theme were uploaded on social media, one of an indoor plant from which an apple hangs by a thread. The caption underneath says "memorable Indian apple." Another picture uploaded shows Yoon's Jindo dog (a Korean dog breed) being offered an apple (apology). The caption underneath said, Dori (Yoon's dog) resembles his father in that he likes (an) Indian apple (apology). Indo sagwa ( 인도사과 ) can also mean, moral or humane apology or guided or obligated apology in this context. One political pundit compared this kind of inappropriate biting sarcasm as characteristic of the "Ilbe" internet hate sites frequented by right wing young males so popular in South Korea now.

Shortly after the pictures were uploaded and went viral on social media, Yoon had a pre-scheduled televised debate, one on one, with a minor PPP candidate, Yoo Seung-min, during the conservative party's primary campaign process. In the debate, Yoo Seung-min questioned Yoon extensively concerning the circumstances surrounding the uploaded pictures of apples in various contexts. At first Yoon appeared to be taken somewhat off guard and responded awkwardly attempting to dissociate himself from the uploaded pictures. Seeing that Yoo wasn't letting go of the subject matter, Yoon came around to admitting the authenticity of the photos attributing them to an unnamed employee in his campaign. He said the pictures were uploaded in an office "near his apartment," and that his wife Kim Gun-hee participated in the process. He admitted that he had approved of the photos being uploaded on his instagram account. Yoon claimed that the intent of the photos being posted is being distorted by critics. Clearly on the defensive, Yoon improvidently chose to double down on the gaffe which had brought on the political demand for his apology and then its apparent sardonic and disrepectful repudiation by uploading the related photos. Yoon insisted, digging himself into a deeper hole, that his original gaffe concerning dictator Chun Doo-hwan's martial law regime was correct, and that Chun ruled South Korea wisely and that this was widely understood, even in Honam, the region where the Kwangju uprising and massacre took place.

In his most recent public statements, Yoon has apparently acknowledged his culpability, admitting posting the photos was his fault. His campaign office floated the idea that Yoon would go to Kwangju next month to apologize formally and make a visit to the memorial site where those killed during the 5.18 uprising against martial law were buried. The schedule for Yoon's visit wouldn't be confirmed until November 5. One observer questioned what difference this would make in Yoon's campaign when the primary would be effectively over November 5 with final selection of the People's Party presidential candidate taking place that day.

Someone keeping track noted 14 major gaffes by Yoon since he announced his candidacy June 29. Among the more memorable ones, were his comments that Fukishima never blew up; that it's okay to work 120 hours a week; and that adulterated goods shouldn't be regulated or poorer people wouldn't have lower price choices in the market place. In another gaffe, Yoon, used a Japanese yakasu term for "turf" or dominion used by thugs extorting business owners to refer to the Honam region as "his." Critics contended Yoon's expression was akin to using the "F" word in a formal setting. Further, critics felt Yoon's use of the gangland expression, reflected on his demonstrated character as "boss," when serving as Prosecutor General, willing to use state power arbitrarily against his rivals and critics. Yoon on another occasion denigrated concerns about pay for manual laborers, saying that manual labor was something from Africa. Yoon also made televized appearances recently over a three day period with the Chinese character for king ( 王 ) marked on the palm of his hand, which raised questions again about his possible shamanistic beliefs, and whether he washes his hands.

One interesting developement in the online investigations and discussions of Yoon's latest public blunders, is that the photo of Yoon's dog being offered an apple, on close examination, reveals that the photo was taken most likely, in the Kobana Kontents office of Yoon's wife. The fixtures and dog's cushion are virtually identical. Also intriguing is that although Yoon publicly had denied direct participation in staging the photo, the reflection in a closeup of the pet's eye show's a man slouching in a sitting position with his legs splayed apart in the rude posture which is virtually a Yoon trademark. It should be noted that sending an apple or a picture of an apple as representation of an apology for some minor slight among friends is a practice now among young South Koreans. That Yoon would acquiesce to such a stupid gimmick with respect to comments he made concerning the mass murders and other criminal acts by Chun Doo-hwan, shows how poor his judgement is and who would really be running the administration, namely, Kim Gun-hee, his wife. Or would it be her Shaman? All this painfully similar in nature to the relationship between Choi Soon-shil and former President Park Geun-hye, both now in prison.

A Korea Gallup poll of 1000 persons over age 18 during period October 19 thru 21 showed the democratic presidential candidate, Lee Jae-myung, leading Yoon Seok-yeol in a hypothetical presidential matchup, 34 to 31 percent. Range of error plus or minus 3.1 percent. So Yoon appears to have lost some support.

Addendum (6.23.2023) OhMyTV had a report on social media codes favored by far right supporters of Yoon. It's hard to know who started this practice, was it Kim Gon-hee? Yoon and his corporate supporters accuse just about anyone who criticizes or opposes their policies of being jongbuk 종북 or baljengies 빨쟁이 (pro North Korea or reds/commies respectively). One of their slogans in a play on words is myeol kong, the shortened social media code represented in pictures by Yoon and one time supporter Na Kyung-won, (since put out to pasture by Yoon),among others, buying Myeolchi 멸치 (anchovy) and Kong 콩 (beans) in videos at the market chain owned by Shinsegae. The supporters appear to be fascists or extreme right. Myeol Kong 멸콩 means exterminate communists. Recognizing such video and verbal cues serves as a kind of cult secret handshake. When chat groups or bulletin boards strike such posts, they are changed to myeol kyun, exterminate the virus. Allegedly, Chung Yong-jin, 정용진 of the Singsegae fortune, is the leader of a group, 정우회 (friends of Chung or 정치 우파 이사회 right wing politics council, just guessing on the play on words). Chung's golf business is patronized by some of the most powerful chaebol in South Korea according to the OhMyTV account. Allegedly, Sinsegae operates vineyards and a winery near the Chun Doo-hwan family vineyard in Napa valley.

정용진 “멸공, 나한테는 현실”…신세계 관련 주가는 ‘급락’ | 뉴스A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQR3zV7ADSs

정용진이 쏘아올린 ‘달파멸콩’…윤석열 이어 나경원도 “멸공” | 뉴스A 라이브
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fBrWgUKxRw

The US: Wages of Destruction

Adam Tooze wrote a book The Wages of Destruction: the Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy. He outlines a now or never perspective among German industrial leaders who saw a closing window of opportunity to defeat Germany's European rivals to become a continental power like the US. The means to foreclose the possibility of slipping into second rate status as a world power was to be achieved by military conquest. Currently, the Russia-China partnership and the belt and road initiative present the MacKinder nightmare of "barbarian uncivilized peoples" controlling the so called "world island." In the Anglo-American geo-political perspective rooted in 19th and 20th Century notions of racial, ethnic and ideological superiority this cannot happen.

(Source- USNI Oct. 4) US aircraft carriers Vinson and Reagan with HMS Queen Elizabeth, and the Japanese small carrier Ise. Taiwan News reported these ships operating north of Taiwan, October 3 and 4, with 13 other allied warships.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4306367


The 2016 Rand study on the challenge posed to the US by the growth in Chinese power posits a window of US military superiority ending in 2025.* A few respected US analysts of China's military power consider this discussion dangerously mistaken. The Chinese already have conventional military superiority in their littoral seas and on the mainland. Nevertheless, the Rand discussion represents a similar now or never perspective in the US which is widely accepted: namely, act now, while the US has the advantage. In the first half of the 20th Century, Japan suffered from a similar syndrome as Nazi Germany and miscalculated the outcomes possible in the Pacific War.

*War with China, Thinking Through the Unthinkable, Rand Corporation, Gombert et al, 2016; https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1100/RR1140/RAND_RR1140.pdf


The right in Japan currently and the US are in a negative feedback loop overestimating how they can make China submit to the US/UK/Japan imperial redefinition of geopolitical reality in Asia. Similar US miscalculations preceded the disastrous Korean and Vietnam wars, in which millions were killed. The ongoing current delusion shared by the prior early 20th Century allies, who carved up Asia and the western Pacific before their falling out during WW II, represents a revival of obsolescent geopolitical views. The US unfortunately appears ideologically and culturally incapable of engaging in any kind of geopolitical ceasefire with China as some critics of US foreign policy have sensibly recommended.

The US will be encouraged to engage in further abandonment of the "three communiques" concerning the one China policy by the UK and Japan. Provocations in this regard will continue with respect to Taiwan. Exaggerated and false claims concerning Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet and the South China Sea repeated in Enlish language media daily are accepted uncritically by insular domestic audiences who literally know nothing about East Asia. Already the anti-Beijing Olympics strategy is being rolled out for propaganda purposes. Anyone who studies the so called human rights campaigns sponsored by the US against various Asian states, knows that they signal the end rather than the beginning of negotiations, because they are an in essence interference in the internal affairs of those states and represent regime change efforts. It goes without saying that no objective analyst could take western claims of genocide in Xinjiang seriously. The domestic racism and xenophobia against China and its nationals in the US has been whipped up to a frenzy for political purposes and now really can't be contained. Anyone proposing diplomatic solutions will be ridiculed, accused of disloyalty or worse as 1950s era McCarthyism reemerges.

Lee Jae-Myung - Maverick Politician?

S Korea’s ruling party nominates maverick politician in race
HYUNG-JIN KIM, Yahoo News
Sun, October 10, 2021, 7:22 AM

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s ruling liberal party on Sunday nominated its candidate for next year’s presidential elections, selecting a maverick politician known for his outspoken views who is currently the race’s front-runner.

Lee Jae-myung’s nomination as the Democratic Party presidential candidate comes despite his rivals’ efforts to depict him as a dangerous populist and link him to a snowballing real estate scandal.

Lee has vowed to fight economic inequality, introduce a universal basic income and resume reconciliation projects with North Korea.

https://news.yahoo.com/koreas-ruling-party-nominates-maverick-112233870.html

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t post this crappy wall street establishment news source for dummies. However, this particular report shows how the US establishment press twists and distorts the news about other countries, in this case South Korea. The byline under the first photo of Lee Jae-myung says “…Lee Jae-myung, one of the ruling Democratic Party’s contenders for next year’s presidential election, speaks during the final campaign to choose the presidential election." Lee Jae-myung in no longer “one of the ruling democratic party contenders,” he is the nominee of the Democratic Party. That is the news. Putting this past description above the news report, is a psychological tool, to prepare the public for the plan to prevent him from becoming the nominee. In the headline, he is described as a maverick politician. This is nonsense, Lee’s nomination by the democratic party represents the mainstream in modern South Korean democratic politics. He is in the tradition of Kim Dae-jung, No Mu-hyun, and the current democratic president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in.

The fact is that the US loathes President Moon Jae-in. Lee is cut from the same democratic tradition that puts the public interest and South Korean national interest above the so called corrupt special interests that have traditionally ruled Korea through right wing dictators and their authoritarian successors starting with No Tae-oo and ending with Park Geun-hye. The corrupt authoritarians on the right, and the corrupt prosecutors, judges, legislators, and media that have done their bidding for decades are the darlings of US media, the Pentagon and Wall Street. When democracy emerges into the daylight in South Korea, it must be smeared and ridiculed.

Accordingly, Yahoo News, attempts to smear presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung with the labels, populist, appeaser to the communist north, and corrupt government official. The McCarthy style smear is a reference to South Korean initiatives to initiate political, economic, cultural, public health and other humanitarian contacts with North Korea, which serve the cause of stability, security, and public welfare on the peninsula. As usual, the US special interests regard this as a threat to their military empire in Asia. What is worse, the current president, and the democratic candidate for president, aren’t really interested in an anti-China policy, the Quad, or any military moves against China, to be undertaken with the US, Japan, or Taiwan.

As far as Lee Jae-myung being corrupt, Lee Jae-myung’s opposition in South Korea shouldn’t have raised the Hwacheon Daeyu (Daejangdong) real estate project which Lee used as a public private partnership which resulted in tens of millions of dollars being accrued in publicly owned accounts for the benefit of Seongnam City tax payers. As it turns out, by creating a false charge against Lee of financial misfeasance in the project, Lee’s opposition has opened a Pandora’s box which revealed the corruption on the private side of the project with payoffs to family members of several current or former conservative politicians. The accusation also raised the issue of why Yoon Seok-yeol, failed to successfully prosecute the corrupt criminals who stole millions at the time from the Busan Savings Bank. Yoon is the conservative presidential candidate for the People’s Power Party. The people who voted for Lee, who won the nomination without a runoff, because of his large lead over his competition, know how dirty politics of the right are, the corruption of the administration of justice in South Korea as a political tool of the right, and the fact that years of investigation by right wing prosecutors, like candidate Yoon Seok-yeol have failed to result in conviction or provable charge against Lee.

As far as Lee Jae-myung being a populist, and a man of the people, guilty as charged.

夢

One China Policy legal review claims the Allies have title to Taiwan

Currently there are disputes about the "One China" policy and what it means. One, admittedly older, penumbral style legal analysis of the One China policy and what it purportedly means runs through a historical examination of the events leading to the current ambiguity or dissimulation, if you prefer, giving rise to the dispute over what the One China policy means. Frank Chiang's law review article merits review.* Some no doubt will find the legal discussion supportive of their view that the One China policy means something other than one China. In other words those who agree that Taiwan is not in fact Chinese territory may like the article. The opinion expressed here, is that the logic applied in the legal thesis is specious and fanciful, satisfying foreign policy objectives of the US, UK, Japan, and Taiwan separatists.

*One-China Policy and Taiwan, Y. Frank Chiang (2004)
https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1950&context=ilj

(Source- USNI Oct. 4) US aircraft carriers Vinson and Reagan with HMS Queen Elizabeth, and the Japanese small carrier Ise. Taiwan News reported these ships operating north of Taiwan, October 3 and 4, with 13 other allied warships. .:
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4306367


After reading the detailed history, in Chiang's lengthy law review article, it appears that the west engaged in the kind of prevarication and equivocation with China that characterized prior agreements with Cuban and Philippine independence fighters and indigenous American peoples and Hawaiian natives before that. One Asian statesmen not too long ago, referred to a US diplomat as a long haired general on horseback, a sharp characterization of how current US Asian policy does resemble earlier treatment of indigenous Americans in the not too distant past. Present US equivocation (or doubletalk) on the One China policy by the Biden administration, clearly takes the form of 19th Century gunboat diplomacy. The administration attempts to treat China as some third rate power that it can it fool and intimidate, while making transparently false representations that it isn't seeking confrontation.

Japan's war against China began in 1894 in the Sino-Japanese War. It was this Japanese war that resulted in the Treaty of Shimonoseki and Japan's annexation of Taiwan. This US/UK/Japanese/Taiwan legal theory postulates that this treaty conveyed legitimate "title of Taiwan" to Japan. Further, when the KMT occupied Taiwan after Japan's defeat in WW II they did not get "title" to Taiwan but were only authorized by MacArthur to administer Taiwan as the "agent of the Allied Powers." (Not suprisingly the western diplomats, according to the account, deprived the KMT of their own agency with a treaty device). While Japan was divested of its "title" to Taiwan, after its defeat in WW II, title did not then vest in the KMT because the provisions of the Treaty of San Francisco did not give "title" to Taiwan to them. Nor did any subsequent treaty. According to the author, the Allied Powers were the vested successors in interest to the Taiwan "title" and this really hasn't changed since. At one point in this discusion, Chiang admits his view that as a practical matter, "title" to Taiwan, actually rests in the United States. This imperial theory posits that the promises made to China concerning the return of Taiwan to China at Cairo and Potsdam were not implemented because leaders of the US and UK didn't want to give it to them and expressions of the Allies intent at those wartime conferences were allegedly without legal significance or import. Note that no equitable theory is raised. This contrived legal argument is then used to undermine the One China policy statements in the three communiques issued by more recent US presidents. The claim purports to distinguish the "acknowledgement" by the US of the PRC's position on Taiwan, contending that an "acknowledgement" is not an "acceptance of" or "acquiescence to" the PRC position that Taiwan is part of one China.

The attempted repudiation of promises made at Cairo and Potsdam to China, which the US and UK left out of the San Francisco Treaty while upholding nonsense legalisms about Shimonoseki, demonstrate the 19th Century imperial mindset that potentially could result in a major war. Americans in general can't live with indefiniteness. Consequently, the current public sentiment, exploited by the administration and the Pentagon for that matter can simply be expressed as, "US right and China wrong." This western attitude of superiority is historically racially based and ethnocentric in nature. Nevertheless, the days of the great white fleet are long over, Americans just don't realize it yet. The typical American response in support of Taiwan independence now, and rejection of the One China policy is that too much time has passed, that was then, this is now. No one can really make a persuasive adverse possession argument, because the mainland government never gave up its national claim to Taiwan.

Frank Chiang's law review article isn't very persuasive. Not surprisingly, parts of it previously appeared in some Japanese journal. If you follow the logic of the Shimonoseki argument, the Chinese should take Taiwan by force because according to the author of this law review article that's a legitimate way to get "title," by force. Take possession at gunpoint, then force the former political leadership, under duress, to sign a "treaty." In conclusion, the author goes on to talk about the principle of self determination and how the US and others should call for a UN sponsored referendum on independence. Similar shenanigans preceded the US-Vietnam War and the Korean War which were manipulated by the US as exigencies arose. The US divided those countries and laid the groundwork for devastating wars in which millions died. Such a plan would be vetoed by the Security Council today, and wouldn't even pass in the General Assembly.

On the "Changing Nuclear Balance."

A response to Peter Heussey's, September 29. article in The National Interest, "The Nuclear Balance is Changing- and Not for the Better" *

* https://nationalinterest.org/feature/nuclear-balance-changing%E2%80%94and-not-better-194526

The US proclivity to entertain the use of nuclear weapons when its conventional military campaign is in jeopardy in an actual confllct is ignored in the Heussey article. Ostensibly, the US motives are pure, and it is the other who would resort first to nuclear weapons. It was the US that considered the use of nuclear weapons in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. During WW II of course, the US did use nuclear weapons. During the second Iraq War, the US adopted a nuclear strike response doctrine that would apply if it were to suffer unexpected battlefield reversals or if its forces experienced any sort of special weapons attack.

Part of the current problem is the decreasing relative dominance of US forces in the Chinese theater usually characterized as the rise of China. While think tanks readily entertain the vision of US conventional superiority in armed force projection, it is at least, in part, an illusion based on assumptions such as the ability to shut off Chinese lines of communication, choking its industrial infrastructure with naval and air blockades and so forth. This conventional military view, as conceived in the US think tank studies, is convincingly disputed by a few US experts on Chinese military capabilities. The US tends to take a static or very mechanical view, which fails to entertain the disadvantages the US has, such as its distance from the battlespace, numerical force limits, the possibility of even partially effective Chinese blockades of strategic straits to its own near seas, the possibility of successful Chinese interdictions in aerospace and open Pacific waters, and the prospect of potential destruction of US forward bases in Japan and elsewhere. It also rules out Chinese strategic depth, and the eventuality of a long war which will attrite US forces and national resources. While Chinese losses would be great also, if not catastrophic, as the defender of its home territory, their level of commitment would be much higher than that of the US. Far from harming CCP legitimacy and cohesion, a long conflict will enhance the bond of party and people. Many historical studies confirm this phenomenon in major wars where civilian populations are subject to attack by a foreign enemy.

Pursuing the natural US inclination to regain a decisive initiative in war with China, the US leadership will entertain using nuclear weapons to extract themselves from a prolonged conventional conflict from which they otherwise would be unable to withdraw, except at great political cost. It is unlikely that Russia would be a deterrent to US use of nuclear weapons on Chinese targets. In US game theory, the Chinese would presumably back down because of the overwhelming US advantage in nuclear weapon delivery systems. Therefore, unless the current Chinese buildup and improvements in their nuclear weapon delivery capability are stopped in the near future, the US will be faced with the inability to exert nuclear blackmail, and be effectively deterred from initiating tactical nuclear first strikes. Then the US would have to live with a growing inability to successfully end a conventional conflict which, as time goes by, will also become more unfavorable to the forces fighting far from home. It is doubtful that the US will find a technological fix in the form of new weapons systems or countermeasures to resolve this situation, so the diplomatic route of seeking nuclear arms control with China is sought.

What's in it for the Chinese? Nothing, so far. What can the US offer? The last two administrations worked the US into a corner, surrounding the Chinese with the modern version of gunboat imperialism, ostensibly giving the US insurmountable conventional warfare advantages, that it enjoyed in the 19th and 20th centuries. It's another tragic case of US illusions about China leading us on a path to another disastrous war, one on a scale probably not seen since WW II. A much weaker China fought a conventional conflict with a nuclear armed US during the Korean War. If its own territory or armed forces are attacked by the US (and any misguided allies), it will do so again.

In terms of the Peter Huessey article, US determination to maintain a "nuclear firebreak" rings hollow, as it the US that has developed smaller and smaller yield "precision" nuclear weapons. The US has an extensive arsenal of sophisticated "tactical" and arguably first use nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. It is the US that has created a pneumbral zone where the boundary between conventional and nuclear strikes is blurred. Moreover, US reluctance to tolerate substantial losses of high value conventional forces makes it more reliant on the nuclear option. The notion that the US can indefinitely maintain a conventional force advantage against a major power like China in its own backyard is just fundamentally mistaken. At some point US diplomacy is going to have to conform to the strategic reality that China is reaching peer power status, and that proposed military solutions are just futile. The US will only succeed in weakening itself further by its pathologically disproportionate allocation of resources to the business of war which may give rise to a horrible conflict. The goals and attitudes of the gunboat imperialist and the nuclear arms contol advocate are innately contradictory and cannot be "compartmentalized."

Does Kishida selection by LDP indicate future policy changes?

The policy of the dominant right wing factions in the LDP is already clear. They want a new constitution to get rid of restrictions on their armed forces, they are anti-China, and they want to build up their conventional forces. Their target is to spend 2 percent of Japan's GDP on national defense. Kishida said he favors moving the size the Japanese military budget toward 2 percent of GDP. The difference between him and the far right LDP leaders is that he is against nuclear weapons.

If anyone has inveigled or supported US anti-China policies, it is Japan's conservative elites. There is no uncertainty in the LDP largest cliques about what course they would take. As Suga's administration went on the rocks, under the pressures of the epidemic and the related unpopularity of the Olympics, Kishi and Takaichi made overtures of national security commitments to Taiwan and Vietnam. Previously Suga elicited an unwise commitment from Presdent Biden to defend, of all places. the uninhabited rocks of Senkaku (Diaoyutai Islands) which are subject to a territorial dispute with China. Taro Aso and Sanae Takaichi have said Japan needs nuclear weapons. Takaichi and Kishi (Abe's brother) are both far right. Kishida ranked third in popular polls before he was selected by the LDP factions. Kono, and Takaichi both polled ahead of him. Party support for Kono, Takaichi, and Kishida, all hovered around the 30 percent mark, before whatever political agreements were bartered to reach the Kishida outcome.

The LDP right also seeks emergency powers authorization for a “national emergency” that can be equated with the Nazi Enabling Act. It is not so much that Japan is being directed or “strung along” in the wrong direction by the US or being neglected by the US as some international experts allege. It is in fact, a self reinforcing anti-China alliance in which the US (and the UK and Australia) encourage the worst far right inclinations of the LDP leadership and Japan does its utmost to encourage the most militaristic approach possible by the US. Japan orchestrated the 2016 UNCLOS/ITLOS decision underpinning the west's South China Sea policy. The purpose was to extend the front of confrontation with China away from the East China Sea to spread out the Chinese national security problem.

If one wants to confirm the future direction of Japanese foreign policy, see who ends up in the cabinet. Anticipating a change of Japanese foriegn policy in a moderate direction is wishful thinking. That foreign policy is moving and will continue to move to the right. It is also likely that the LDP will run through a series of prime ministers during the next few years.

So now we know: Japan's next PM Kishida fills ruling party key posts with Abe allies KYODO NEWS - 7 hours ago - 22:42 | All, Japan https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/09/a3896fa3b57f-new-ldp-chief-kishida-eyes-naming-key-faction-members-to-exec-posts.html

South Korea: Democratic Presidential Primary Update

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube 9.26) From left to right, across top, Lee Jae-myung, Lee Nak-yon, Chu Mi-ae, Park Yong-jin, Kim Du-gwan. From top to bottom left side, completed primaries in sequence, Daejeon/Chungnam 9.4: Sejong/Chungbuk 9.5; Daegu/Gyeongbuk 9.11; Gangwon 9.12; Gwangju/Jeonam 9.25 ; Jeonbuk 9.26.

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube 9.26) The remaining primaries are Oct.1, Cheju; Oct.2, Pusan, Ulsan, Geongnam; Oct.3, Inchon, with announcement of second round party electoral voting results; Oct.10, Seoul, with announcement of third round party electoral voting results.

Lee Jae-myung represents the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in South Korea. The false allegations of corruption raised by the conservative opposition party to try to deflect the mushrooming scandals around their candidate Yoon Seok-yeol and his family were repeated by Lee JM's democratic party rival Lee Nak-yon. Lee NY lost support across South Korea for his poor performance as Democratic Party Leader stalling reforms promoted by the Moon Administration and the so called "candle light revolution" that brought democrats the presidency in 2017. The only reason Lee NY was able to edge Lee JM in the one regional primary in Honam (Gwangju/Jeonam 9.25) was because that area primary is is Lee Nak-won's home region. The less than one percent edge in that primary is deceptive because the other minor candidates Chu Mi-ae, and Kim Du-gwan support Lee Jae-myung. Even in his home region, Lee Nak-yon couldn't win a majority. In the words of one pundit, the theme of Lee Jae-myung's moving appeal to his rival's home crowd was "do you want the spirit of the Kwanju people or just someone who was born here?"

Lee Jae-myung has won by overwhelming margins on five of six primary reporting dates so far. Lee Nak-yon is regarded as a political hack who favors the so called corrupt special interests in South Korean politics. Lee tends to agree with the conservative politicians representing those interests. He even called for imprisoned former conservative presidents Park Guen-hye and Lee Myung-bak, imprisoned for corruption and abuse of office, to be pardoned which caused a dramatic drop in his public support early on. Chu Mi-ae, another reform candidate and former Justice Minister on the democratic side (she polls about 5%) appears to be staying in the primary race to deal with Lee Nak-yon's negative campaigning. She more or less labels him as a traitor to the party and the party's popular base in her public statements and on social media, so Lee Jae-myung won't have to lower himself to Lee Nak-yon's gutter level politics of ad hominem attacks helping the conservative cause.

Remember Desert Storm Trading Cards?

(Source- Daniel Dumbrill channel youtube 9.25) Reaction Video: Watching the 60 Minutes Australia Episode "War with China." I'll trade you one Dick Cheney and one Colin Powell for one Schwarzkopf. Daniel, Brian Berletic, and Carl Zha, getting in some laughs during their discussion of western propaganda preparing their populations for war with China.

https://www.cardboardconnection.com/1991-topps-desert-storm-trading-cards

I had no idea.

Instigating Charges Affair in South Korea ( 고발 사주 사건 )

Follow up to our September 4 report: "Will the legal dam break on Yoon Seok-yeol's presidential campaign?"

(Source- MBC Newsdesk 9.15.21, youtube '고발 사주' 의혹, 대검도 수사 착수‥공수처와 투트랙 ) Choi Gang-wook and Hwang Hwi-suk, National Assembly Members from the Open Democratic Party deliver their charges against Yoon Seok-yeol, his wife Kim Gon-hee, Prosecutor Han Dong-hun, PPP National Assembly member Kim Woong, Prosecutor Son Chun-seong, and Chung Jeom-sik, UFP Legal Support Group Chief, and an unamed party. Charges include interference in elections, violation of the public election law, leaking confidential government information, abuse of powers of public office, and violations of the private information protection law.

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 9.17.21 youtube 추장군, 충격 폭로!! "조국, 추미애 해임 건의한 사람은 이낙연..." etc.) This particular document pictured here was probably created in support of the democratic charge sheets filed by the victims. The video didn't identify the source clearly but posted this in the background while speaking on a collateral topic (former Justice Minister Chu Mi-ae's disgust with her rival Lee Nak-won, who is running in the democratic primary race for that party's presidential candidacy.) The document outlines a series of alleged communications laying out the alleged actors in a scheme by which public prosecutors in the Supreme Prosecutor's office arranged to distribute charges they had prepared for conservative party members to bring third party private lawsuits against political critics of the Public Prosecutors offices, proponents of legal reforms on the left,and certain critical reporters. The criminal complaints were prepared against democrats and transmitted to the conservative party during the election campaign cycle in April 2020 for them to file as private complainants.

The alleged parties involved in these communications are from the top, prosecutors Han Dong-hun and Son Chun-seong; then between Son and the representative of the Supreme Prosecutor's office at the time, Kwan Soon-jeong on April 2. At that time it is alleged that Han also spoke to Prosecutor General Yoon on the phone 17 times; Below that it says on April 1, 2020, Han, Kwan, and Son transmitted and received 45 messages in an exclusive chat room. The same day Han spoke to Yoon by phone 12 times. Previously on March 31, 2020, after the MBC investigative report on unlawful prosecution-press collusion to facilitate politically motivated prosecutions ( 검언유착 ), Han, Son, and Kwan exchanged 53 messages on KaKao talk chat message service. Han then spoke to Yoon 11 times by phone.

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 9.17.21 youtube ) This is an early schematic of the alleged process in the preparation and transmission of charges by the Public Prosecutors' Offices to third parties for unlawful private and political purposes. Prosecutor Son (2nd from left) in the Supreme Prosecutor's Investigative Information Policy Office, prepares the charges and transmits them to UFP (now PPP) party candidate for National Assembly, Kim Woong (pictured center right). The graphic then shows party member Kim transferring the charge sheets and related documents to an unidentified informant (far right). This may have been United Future Party staff employee Cho Seong-eun, the informant, or another informant. Cho was privy to the document transfers in digital formats, one of which is identified as "Telegram." Prosecutor Son's name appears on at least one charge sheet. He denies all the allegations. Did then Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, (far left in the graphic) instruct his subordinate prosecutor Son to do this? Yoon claims the entire story is a fabrication made up by his political enemies.

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 9.17.21 youtube ) This wire diagram depicts the offices public and private allegedly involved in the scheme by prosecutors to have political charges brought by United Future Party figures against democratic party politicians and reporters, basically in retaliation for their efforts to expose corruption in prosecution cases, and advocate of legal reforms adjusting investigative powers of the prosecution. On the left side the top box is Yoon Seok-yeol, Prosecutor General/Supreme Prosecutor. Lower left highlighted is the Director of Public Investigations Office, which by highlighting suggests communication with the Investigation Information Policy Office, prosecutor Son Chun-seong (center). Son is alleged to have transmitted the charges and other confidential documentation to Kim Woong, former prosecutor and then National Assembly candidate (top right). In this depiction Kim (possibly ?) transmits the charge sheets and supporting documentation from the prosecutors' offices to Chung Jeom-sik, United Future Party Legal Support Group Chief (bottom right).

(Source- MBC Newsdesk 9.15.21, youtube '고발 사주' 의혹, 대검도 수사 착수‥공수처와 투트랙 ) The informant broke the story to independent digital news source Newsverse. This is former UFP staff employee Cho Seong-eun. She is a source of information and documents supporting the charges brought by the victims of this scheme. She is protected from prosecution by South Korea's public whistle blowers law. She has turned over her digital phone to authorities for forensic evaluation. The case is being investigated by the current Prosecutor General's Office and the new independent Office to Investigate Crimes by High Public Officials, in a "two track" investigation.

Evidence Problems?

There are other pending investigations in South Korea which may adversely affect Yoon Seok-yeol as one of the current leading South Korean conservative candidates for president. Yoon is running in the so called People’s Power Party primary campaign. The election is in early March 2022. Yoon Seok-yeol, the former Prosecutor General of South Korea is suspected of abusing his powers in office to instigate politically motivated investigations and prosecutions of legal reform advocates and political rivals on the left. His right hand man, allegedly was Prosecutor Han Dong-hun. Another suspect is prosecutor Son Chun-seong, who worked in the Supreme Prosecutor's Investigative Information Policy Office, subordinate to Yoon's office.

In late July 2020, Han’s Iphone, an 11XR, was seized under a warrant by a prosecutor from the South Central District Office. Han was suspected of conspiring with a Channel A News reporter to frame an outspoken critic of Yoon and Yoon’s family, Yoo Shi-min, who alleged they had been obstructing justice into investigations of Yoon’s mother in law and wife, for corruption. (Yoon’s mother in law is now in jail for what we would call medicare fraud. She is appealing).

When the warrant for the phone was served an altercation ensued. The phone was sent to forensics and the evaluation tools previously contracted from an Israeli company, Cellebrite, were unable to unlock the security on the phone. Of course, Han would not provide the password. It is believed that there many communications on the phone with Yoon’s wife, the Channel A reporter, and perhaps even Yoon himself. I just read a report within the last week or so, that the phone or a copy, ( I couldn’t determine which), would be forwarded to the Israeli company after a payment of about 15 thousand dollars to break the password and unlock the contents. The report said the password could have been decrypted if it were only ten characters, but the earlier Cellebrite program is having difficulty because allegedly Han used as many as 20 characters. Reportedly, Cellebrite now has the capability to decrypt this now.

South Korea has some defense contracts with Israel, one of which concerns its air defense systems, and more may be in the offing. It remains to be seen whether the Israeli company will unlock the phone and provides a true and accurate report of what is in the phone, because of the adverse political ramifications for the conservative presidential candidate Yoon Seok- yeol. Investigators also desire to obtain the cypher key on the phone of prosecutor Son Chun-seong, which may also prove to be problematic.

April 18 notes: Made some minor typographical corrections and parathentical notes to better explain the graphics. When I saw the detailed "metadata" on the alleged electronic communications in the second graphic, the precision and detail seems to lend veracity to the allegations although the source is not given. The interpretation above of the political scandal in the former Public Prosecutors' offices, goes into some detail, perhaps not desired by most readers. I suspect a few readers may appreciate it. The theory of the case is presented in a more easily appreciated fashion in the blog's September 4 entry. Mistranslated 고발 사주 사건 earlier based on homonyms. Oops!
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