Reaction to Political Crossroads article by Gregory Erlich

Gregory Erlich has written a brilliant article published in the Counterpunch February 8 issue, Is Korea Heading Toward a Political Crossroads?* Anyone who is interested in Korean affairs and the geopolitical situation in northeast Asia should read it. There is so much distortion in the established media concerning international relations, Erlich's clarity and insights are refreshing. The article provoked some general thoughts on the situation in South Korea with the presidential election results just a month away.

* https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/02/08/is-korea-heading-toward-a-political-crossroads/

President Moon Jae-in came from a poor family that emigrated from North Korea. He’s pretty much a card carrying orthodox Catholic. He was a human rights lawyer, worked with No Moo-hyun and then participated in his presidential administration.

It’s fair to observe that the latter part of Moon's administration has been stalled somewhat since the US-DPRK fiasco at Hanoi, and that the US pressured South Korea to give up on Moon’s tangible North Korean economic, and cultural initiatives. The US threatened South Korea with sanctions. The so called US envoy to North Korea turned out to be the South Korea control officer.

Domestically other reforms that Moon might have achieved were foreclosed by the pandemic, and the social and economic challenges associated with that. He came through it pretty well, at around a 40 percent public approval rating, more popular than any other president of South Korea in the post dictatorship period near the end of his administration. His social agenda stalled somewhat after some attempted reforms of excessive prosecutorial powers even after his party took a filibuster proof majority in the National Assembly in April 2020.

Moon eschewed the more tangible national security issues as much as he could during the current electoral campaign season for obvious reasons. He’s allowed the US to put boilerplate about the Taiwan strait and the Indo-Pacific in joint statements. In spite of this, I believe he’s actually conceded as little as possible. There is a significant portion of his party that is decidedly neo-liberal and is responsible for the inertia in social policy. Lee Nak-yon the prime minister during this period was pretty conservative. Fortunately Lee Nak-yon lost in the recent democratic presidential primaries to “populist” Lee Jae-myung who is both more competent and more progressive.

The problems in South Korean governance were only beginning to be recognized after the impeachment of Park Geun-hye. It will take a consistent determined effort to root out the deep-seated corrupt special interests, to which a good number of lawyers, doctors, journalists and politicians belong. It isn’t just the usual corporate suspects. If the democrats fail to win the presidential election in March, the country will go down the authoritarian road again and conduct itself as a US puppet internationally.

US attempted dominance of Moon’s administration is akin to the Japanese protectorate period 1905-1910 right before the outright Japanese annexation of Korea. South Korea must carve out more room for maneuver diplomatically, improve relations with its other half, maintain a positive relationship with China, and reduce the US footprint on its military and foreign policy. ( Are South Korea's relations with North Korea really foreign policy? )

South Korea on a GDP basis contributes more to its own defense than all other US allies. Nevertheless, a reduced US military presence in Northeast Asia and South Korea in particular needs to be associated with some sort of new diplomatic relationship between North Korea and the US. That would be the right way to do it. The current sanctions regime and hostile regime change relationship promoted by the US is untenable really. Americans need to start thinking of Korea as a national entity, rather than some military staging area or springboard in a war with North Korea or China. The latter US military perspective is just delusional at this point but has been so deeply engrained over seventy years.

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More: The major western media such as the Washington Post attempt to portray both South Korean major presidential candidates as politicians engaged in dirty campaign tactics. This is to deliberately mislead the English speaking world. It is the conservative candidate Yoon Seok-yeol, who is decidedly corrupt as well as incompetent. As Erlich points out, he is clearly the candidate favored by the US. Yoon is an authoritarian figure accustomed to giving orders. He appears under the undue political influence of shamanists and his vindictive and deceitful spouse. Kim Gon-hee has changed her identity and her physical appearance before marrying Yoon. She has also falsified her academic and career credentials. A Korean court has dismissed an injunction application seeking to block disclosures about her private life because she is a public figure as the presidential candidate's wife, and her background is a matter of legitimate public interest.

Ill informed Yoon did poorly in the first televised debate the other night and is obviously trying to avoid further debates and public embarrassment (edit 2.12.21) however, three public debates are required by law. It was obvious that he was the least competent leader in the room. Perhaps this is what the west desires. Accusations that the democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung is corrupt as well are simply false. During the time when Yoon was Prosecutor General, and earlier, Yoon's "brigade" in prosecutors' offices, after extensive investions and criminal litigation against Lee, failed to produce a conviction. When Yoon tried to link Lee to the Daejangdong real estate scandal, Lee correctly pointed out not one speck of evidence has been uncovered to link him to any corruption despite years of investigation and litigation. Yet, the same could not be said for Yoon Seok-yeol or his family. The corrupt media and justice administration in South Korea have stalled, derailed, dismissed or postponed investigations of Yoon and his family members successfully over the years. Current cases are being held in abeyance for fear that Yoon may return to power and take revenge on government officials, independent journalists, and others who have uncovered evidence of Yoon's family corruption.