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