"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.