Regarding Korea’s involvement in the IPEF, President Yoon Suk-yeol told CNN in an interview on Monday, “Even if we strengthen our alliances with the United States in security and technology, it does not mean that we think our economic cooperation with China is unimportant.”
Yoon also said that, since both South Korea and China depend on their mutual cooperation, he does “not believe it is reasonable for China to be overly sensitive about this matter,” revealing the very easy-going way of thinking of the president.
The IPEF is based on the US intention to exclude China from the global supply chain. A plan is needed that puts the characteristics of the Korean industry and the ecosystem into perspective. For Korea, which heavily depends on trade to keep its economy strong, fully excluding either the US or China is far too risky.
*Is Yoon prepared for the consequences of cold-shouldering China? Posted on : May.25,2022
https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/1044370.html
Yoon is clueless. In fact, he’s on autopilot. He hasn’t changed his personal schedule or conduct to adjust for his new status as the president of South Korea. He appears to think he’s still on the campaign trail. The major Korean media are simply ignoring the problems with his personal life, such as disclosures that he appears to go right to his favorite drinking place right after work, where he ran up a 4000 dollar bill in one evening for himself and his security detail. This was on May 13, the day after North Korea launched three ballistic missiles. An investigative journalist recorded an unidentified witness who said President Yoon was a regular customer there. After he drinks at his favorite watering hole in Gangnam, he stops at another drinking spot close to his luxury apartment, in the Acrovista, in Seocho.
There are rumors that the bar hopping routine is stressful for the presidential security detail who begin working on the security deployments for Yoon’s wining and dining schedule at 2pm. (Yoon reportedly leaves the office at 6pm) The mission doesn’t wrap up until after 11pm. Yoon was quoted by one anonymous source as saying loudly at the end of the one documented drinking episode, “Let’s have just one more drink.” Needless to say, this went viral yesterday (on critical progressive social media).
The conservative media is focusing on photo shots of Yoon and his wife, Kim Gon-hee at his office in the old Ministry of Defense building in Yongsan. She and Yoon posed playing with their dog on the lawn outside the so called “People’s House,” and inside Yoon’s office. Kim was wearing her casual 1000 dollars plus dior sneakers. Presidential spokespeople tried to claim that the photos weren’t taken by presidential office personnel. His wife seems to be posting private photos of them together on her “Gon-hee Love” fan club social media sites.
After an explosion occurred at a Yeosu industrial site (a repeat occurrence apparently), in a separate incident, a mountain fire broke out on the morning of May 31 local time in Milyang. Hundreds of people needed to be evacuated from the surrounding community. Hundreds of fire fighters were committed to fight the fire. Rather than return to office for a National Security Council meeting Yoon was observed shopping in an outdoor market in Busan, posing for pictures having lunch with vendors. Critics complained that Yoon was, in fact, trying to influence the regional elections ending June 1, by campaigning while in office, a prohibited activity. It's rather obvious that Yoon continues his pose as a man of the people, while attempting to advance reactionary "privatizing and austerity policies," contrary to the public interest. Some of the photos emphasized the lunch menu for Yoon's group, going so far as to display the dishes served with labels identifying them. This harkens back to a PR policy adopted by the unpopular former US Ambassador Harry Harris, and the former "US Envoy to North Korea," Stephen Biegun, whose policy views were not accepted by the former South Korean administration, who then appeared in South Korean mainstream media cooking their favorite Korean dishes. This public relations strategy panders to the South Korean meokbang 먹방 food binging/food porn fad, ubiquitous in social media culture and broadcasting.
Meanwhile there are rising complaints from official security guards previously under duty at the Blue House, who now have to serve at Yongsan because of Yoon’s move of the Presidential office to that location. Apparently, there are no finished quarters for them to reside in, and they are quartered in an empty unused third floor of a military building on Yongsan. According to social media reports which appear to be from the guards themselves, the quarters smell (of urine), their isn’t enough furniture to sleep on, and there are no lockers or closets for personal use. Reports say that as a result they are showing up for duty tired, and in messy or incomplete uniforms. This is just one of the problems that was predicted by national security experts when Yoon insisted on moving into the MND building rather than the Blue House.
The South Korean regional elections will conclude on June 1. It is unlikely that Yoon’s performance (and that of his office and the “People’s Party”) will have substantial impact, as news unflattering to them is simply rarely reported. Right wing demonstrators have been demonstrating outside former president Moon Jae-in’s home in a small village in Yangsan, using loudspeakers to accuse Moon and his wife of being criminals, using abusive language and so on. This story gets lots of conservative media coverage. I saw a banner on one truck in a new video that accused Moon of being a “murderer.”
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