Saturday, February 12, 2022

South Korea: Presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol's Shaman Risk

(Source- 언론 알아야 바꾼다 youtube 2.12.22) This graphic shows "Heaven's teacher," on the left, one of Yoon Seok-yeol's shamanist advisors. On the right is cult leader Lee Man-hui, who was arrested by the Moon administration for lack of cooperation with public health laws which resulted in much of the early spread of covid 19 in South Korea. Recent disclosures by a defector from the cult's management indicate that cult members play an active role in recruiting supporters for Yoon's presidential campaign. "With Shamanists and Sincheonji behind him will you give (Yoon) your support?"

This is from TK's The Blue Roof website concerning Yoon Seok-yeol's shaman risk* :

The highly anticipated recorded phone calls of Kim Geon-hee 김건희, wife of the People Power Party presidential candidate Yun Seok-yeol 윤석열 국민의힘 대선 후보, were full of lowlights. Over the course of nearly eight hours’ worth of phone calls with a journalist whom she had imagined to be sympathetic, Kim spoke freely on the #metoo movement (“Conservatives don’t have #metoo issues because they pay money”) and her plans for adversarial journalists if she enters the Blue House 청와대 (“The police will arrest them whether we tell them to or not”). But in this target-rich environment, one comment by Kim drew the most attention. Denying the rumors that she was previously a high-end hostess with the stage name of Julie (see previous coverage, “The Spousal Risk”), Kim said: “I hate nightclubs - they’re too loud. I’m a spiritual person. I’d rather be reading and chatting with shamans 도사들 about life.” In other parts, Kim also said she would move the State Guest House 영빈관 of the Blue House, because a shaman had advised her to do so.


*Shamans: Yun Seok-yeol Cannot Quit Them
Persistent and long-standing connections with superstition is becoming the Yun campaign's greatest liability.
TK 10 February 2022
https://www.blueroofpolitics.com/p/shamans-yun-seok-yeol-cannot-quit-them/

I recommend the article for a good summary of the shaman risk, such at it is, to Yoon's campaign and the future of South Korea's democracy.  The web site is free but you have to register. T.K., maybe the leading US interpreter of South Korea's domestic politics, suggests that Yoon's superstitious reliance on guru or shaman advisors is the greatest risk to his campaign. Is this greatest risk or the risk allowed to enter the public domain by the gatekeepers of the media in Korea and the US? The truth is the greatest risk is the list of alleged criminal acts by Yoon's family. In the same vein, has been Yoon's politicization of his former prosecution positions to coverup financial scandals and attack political rivals. T.K. doesn't go there, as some South Korean pundits do, because it impugns the democratic reputation of South Korea. Democracy and the rule of law in South Korea are under a sustained assault by the legacy media, corporate interests, and corrupt politicians, as the presidential race enters its final weeks.

The administration of justice and the democratic process in South Korea seem beyond salvation after Yoon's reign as the Prosecutor General. A disciplinary board found Yoon had politicized the office, interfered in investigations, and unlawfully investigated sitting judges. Yoon tried to block the disciplinary findings with an injunction, and left office before a higher court sustained the disciplinary sanctions and remarked that Yoon could have suffered dismissal from office for his professional violations of ethics, rather than just a two month suspension. I've written at length elsewhere of the allegations, investigations, and court cases involving Yoon, his family, and his political victims. T.K. generally avoids "deep  dives" on these subjects and takes the prosecutor's decisions and court judgements at face value.  He described Yoon as "center right" which is simply misleading, he is a far right candidate, and, if elected, will return South Korea to authoritarian rule, if not an outright dictatorship. However, in mainstream media in South Korea and the west, it will still be described as a democratic society sharing our "values."

언알바 has pointed out that for every article even mildly critical of Yoon Seok-yeol in South Korean mainstream media that six articles are published with essentially baseless accusations against the democratic presidential candidate, Lee Jae-myung.  In this sense, the South Korean political process is already severely corrupted.  The 언알바 pundit suggests that debates and further adverse disclosures are unlikely to have any impact whatever on the election chances of Yoon Seok-yeol .  Every gaffe, mistake, and adverse report concerning Yoon is either ignored, spun, or otherwise soft pedaled by the Korean legacy media to excuse Yoon.  Yoon Seok Yeol is clearly unsuited for presidential office and it isn't just his superstitious belief in the flying wizards who advise him or his penchant for "so mek" boilermakers.

The conservative Korean Times has described Sincheonji, ostensibly a "church," as a fringe sect. The quotes below are from The World internet site:

“Shinchonji is the only path to God,” Lee tells me. “There is only one shepherd who is with Jesus and God and sends the words of Jesus and heaven.”

“You have to meet the shepherd,” Lee (Ki-won) says.

The shepherd that he is talking about is Lee Man-hee, the founder of Shinchonji...

“...Shinchonji people believe that he will live forever,” says J-il Tark of Busan Presbyterian University, referring to Lee Man-hee.

Tark is an expert on heretical Christian groups, and he says Shinchonji is one of the most prominent of them in South Korea today. Korean Christians are “strongly against Shinchonji,” Tark says.

That's because the believers of Shinchonji, “are attacking the core belief of Christianity,” Tark says, by equating their founder with the second coming of Jesus. That, he adds, puts Shinchonji far outside of the Christian mainstream.


*This apocalyptic Korean Christian group goes by different names. Critics say it's just a cult.
The World, July 11, 2017 · 8:00 AM EDT, By Matthew Bell
https://theworld.org/stories/2017-07-11/apocalyptic-korean-christian-group-goes-different-names-critics-say-its-just-cult

Yoon is supported by other far right fundamentalist Christian churches, such as the Jaeil Sarong Church of demogogue Jeon Gwang-hun.

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