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
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.
