Seoul as it was, Seoul as it "is being", ever-changing. Welcome to my Korean Errlines! Get your free copy of my 'Seoul VillageS' (12 fictions) - Join Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter.
The race for Seoul mayor got a bit tighter lately: longtime Seongdong-gu mayor JUNG Won-oh seemed to be cruising towards an easy victory, but longtime incumbent OH Se-hoon is now within striking distance.
If JUNG's DPK and OH's PPP have become caricature parties in a deeply divided nation, the two leading candidates are not that radically opposed, and not just because OH was born in Seongdong-gu*. Both have had their share of controversies during their long tenures**, both are more pragmatists than populists, both have implemented policies that could have come from across the aisle, both have increased their territory's global attractiveness (Seoul back in the game and for the first time among the World's top 10 startup hubs, Seongsu-dong a magnet for influencers), and both pledge to build more dwellings to meet the demand from low income citizens.
Nevermind those decreasing populations in Seoul and Korea, and forget about making existing homes more affordable... build and they will come. Yes, their programs differ significantly (big, tall, top-down projects for OH, 'chak chak', district-level affairs for JUNG), but you can expect more concrete after this epic, vegetal-free 'Garden of Gratitude' erected on Gwanghwamun Square to honor Korean war veterans.
Seoul's new Garden of Gratitude
One garden of gratitude for Seoul? One fortress of solitude for the winner? One hundred years of solitude for the loser?
JUNG Won-oh - OH Se-hoon
Whoever wins, we'll keep an eye on him, for better or for worse.
Seongsu me.
--- UPDATE 20260609 ---
OH Se-hoon eventually won by a slim margin, but another troubling scandal plagued the National Election Commission, who obviously caused a printed ballot shortage in key polling stations where OH was bound to score high. Like in 2022, a major crisis was avoided by the final outcome, apologies were issued, and the SNAFU fueled K-MAGA's 'stop the steal' conspiracy theories. But this time, Foreign media (including the FT) seem to be paying more attention to the ruling party's controversial reforms undermining separation of powers, particularly around justice.
Welcome to 2026, the year of the Red Horse! I know, technically, we have to wait for the lunar new year and some may prefer the Fire Horse moniker but anyway, here's an AI generated beast for all of you:
Change, bold choices, that's what's supposedly in store for the new year.
Korea experienced its share of changes in 2025, but they were expected:
YOON Suk-yeol's impeachment was confirmed
LEE Jae-myung managed to elude justice and get elected
Korea has de facto become a single-party nation, and not the party the disgraced president wanted
A single party nation?
YOON's party - which never really was his - is
in shambles. And that's not the first time: the PPP failed to truly
reform itself (beyond rebranding) after PARK Geun-hye's impeachment, and
it doesn't seem willing to evolve following YOON's either. In fact,
this election losing machine succeeded only in 2022, when the DPK led
the national shoot-yourself-in-the-foot contest with a LEE Jae-myung
ensnared in scandals and a then highly unpopular president MOON Jae-in
creating a most unlikely candidate (YOON) that had no choice but to join
the other side... Today, this party doesn't seem to have any future.
Meanwhile,
to secure his own future, LEE Jae-myung managed to seize both the stick
(full control of justice) and the carrot (direct control of finance). In the most Trumpian fashion, he's now enjoying the retribution time of his life, siccing justice even at OH Se-hoon, who had no involvement whatsoever in YOON's martial law disaster, but remains his number one target for the 2026 local elections. DP candidate CHONG Won-o is already catching up with the Seoul mayor.
On the diplomatic front, LEE has been very active and well beyond the long planned APEC 2025 summit in Gwangju. As expected, he reconnected with North Korea and China. He's visiting XI Jinping very soon, but KIM Jong-un is not as responsive as planned - probably vaxxed by earlier disillusions from the TRUMP I era, and most certainly not thrilled by the new POTROK's surprising request for a nuclear submarine from Uncle Sam (on the other hand, that OPCON transfer...). Also surprising: LEE cozying up with Japan. XI might ask him to chose sides wisely.
On the domestic front, a few good news: the demographic uptick started 16 months ago has not been disturbed by the domestic turmoil, the presidency returned to Cheong Wa Dae, and exports rebounded (Korean cosmetics rule, semiconductors had a good year...). But the Korean Won nosedived, protectionism returned, the household and national debts kept creeping up, costly gifts to stimulate consumption further damaged the balance, and Korea can't afford a Japan-style headlong flight.
But at least, Korea beat another Netflix record with Kedeheon / 케데헌*.
As much as I enjoyed K-Pop Demon Hunters' catchy OST and many references to the Korean culture, it felt visually closer to a manga or anime than to a manhwa. Even that big cat seemed to come straight from Studio Ghibli. But K-pop itself stole from all over the map, so let's not bicker and enjoy while it lasts.
Because the billions Netflix poured in Korea following Squid Game are coming to an end, and the platform is diversifying its sources across the region - expect a lot of BL from Thailand.
So yes, BTS will drop a new album in March, but other pillars of the creative industry are struggling (see "A Fade Out - Not 'The End'"), and the world will also want new stuff. If it wants to remain a cultural leader**, Korea will need to once more reinvent itself, to move out of its creative comfort zone.
As expected - and as the smile on its president MOON Hyung-bae confirmed before he even started talking -, Korea's Constitutional Court removed impeached president YOON Suk-yeol.
The unanimous character of this decision was far less guaranteed, and the unprecedented time taken for this decision probably indicates how difficult it was for this divided and controversial institution to craft a consensual declaration. In order to achieve that, it had to draw the full picture, remind some context, and put some blame on the rival party.
So as was obvious from day one*, YOON had to go not because he started an insurrection (he didn't), but because he took a disproportionate measure (declaring martial law) as a desperate man facing unprecedented obstruction from an opposition that indeed undermined the nation.
There was no better way for the Court to save face; a unanimous decision was crucial to prevent further chaos following months of botched processes and at times farcical episodes that cast serious doubts on the whole judiciary system**.
The PPP logically accepted the decision, calling for a quiet transition and a resolution of the problems that caused YOON's doomed declaration, The DKP claimed victory, sweeping under the rug the finger pointed by the Court at its radical behavior.
So here we are, at most 60 days away from another presidential election.
And just like we pointed out from the day one of that martial law drama*, the question is not whether YOON will go, but whether LEE Jae-myung will once again elude justice to become president.
Let's hope Korea will not replace a stubborn idiot with a selfish bully.
Today, YOON Suk-yeol was released from jail following a ruling exposing his arrest as illegal and the process behind it as questionable. Prosecutor General SHIM Woo-jung refused to appeal this ruling that confirmed the serious doubts surrounding the way justice and democracy were handled following Yoon's stunning martial law declaration (see below 'Korea needs new leadership... on both sides', my article in The Korea Times last month).
If countless legal and constitutional experts have already denounced the abuses committed over the past few months, this is the first official time justice officially rules foul play. And in a striking parallel between two Prosecutor Generals, SHIM Woo-jung took a stand against LEE Jae-myung's abuses of justice similar to YOON's against MOON Jae-in five years ago.
Public opinion has also shifted, younger generations being particularly angered about the unfairness of a system corrupted to an appalling point. Over the past week, we've learned that MOON's controversial reforms didn't stop at creating a constitutional and judicial monster in the CIO (see article below), but also perverted the election commission into another political tool totally exempt from accountability, its top job being even handed down from father to son. Now calls are mounting to investigate the investigation, starting with the CIO.
LEE Jae-myung himself may face new challenges within his party. In spite of his own legal problems, he's been parading like an acting president, promising everything and its contrary, claiming his DPK is not progressive, courting both TRUMP and XI. The controversial figure has managed to remove all competitors within the DPK, but it's getting every day more obvious that he is the problem. Like TRUMP corrupted Lincoln's GOP from the inside, LEE Jae-myung keeps defacing the party of KIM Dae-jung and ROH Moo-hyun
I've made the parallel between TRUMP and LEE for years, but it's never been more relevant than today: fundamentally, both are accused of the same attacks on democracy, particularly regarding the separation and balance of powers. The difference is that with DJT the executive is taking over justice and the legislative power, while with LJM the legislative power is taking over the executive and justice. In both cases, a controversial leader struggling with justice puts himself first and last, and doesn't care about the party or the country.
As for YOON Suk-yeol, if he can feel somehow vindicated for his diagnostic (democracy was under threat at many levels), he may still pay for his radical method of raising the alert (declaring martial law).
This watershed moment comes days before the decision of a Constitutional Court itself under scrutiny for obvious bias and for actions that contradicted both law and its own rules. In such a context, ruling YOON guilty of insurrection would cause a major democratic crisis because it would in itself be equivalent to an insurrection or coup d'etat by LEE and friends. On the other hand, no one expect this LEE-friendly body to fully exonerate the impeached president.
The only decent way out would be to decide not to decide, and to rule that given the doubts surrounding this whole mess, investigation should start from scratch.
Better get this right this time.
And make sure that both sides are fully and fairly investigated
Korea deserves better leadership . . . on both sides
By Stephane Mot
2025-02-03
The
chaotic mess that followed Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law folly is an
embarrassment for Korean politicians who, unlike in 2016, failed to
rise to the democratic challenge.
Democracy
relies on a very delicate balance of power where the independence of
justice remains one of the trickiest goals to achieve, and Korea is by
no means an exception. Here, justice plays an even more important role
since the balance tilts toward the legislative power in a unicameral
system with a single-term limit for presidents.
Following an event as exceptional as a martial law declaration, democracy and justice must work flawlessly: History is watching.
In
2016, Korea experienced a rare moment of grace when, except for a
minority of hardcore supporters, the whole nation united to demand and
obtain the impeachment of then-President Park Geun-hye. Democracy
triumphed and its very fundamentals were at the core of everyday
discussions: what is justice, what is the separation of powers, what are
checks and balances … This unity was also made possible because, from
the beginning, the Ewha Womans University students who started the
mobilization around the Park scandal demanded that the movement remained
apolitical.
The democratic surge against
Yoon’s martial law did start on a bipartisan basis (the move was
immediately denounced by leaders from both sides, and swiftly canceled
in a unanimous vote), but partisan politics quickly took over.
Yoon’s
disastrous move logically resulted in his impeachment, but instead of
following the natural process led by the Constitutional Court, the
opposition launched parallel investigations to speed up the calendar.
Because Yoon was not the only target of justice, and from Dec. 3 the key
question has never been whether he will be removed from power (he
should and he will), nor even when (in any case by mid-May, or six
months after his impeachment), but whether Lee Jae-myung will pull a
Trump and elude justice until the presidential elections, which must be
held within 60 days following the president’s removal.
Substituting
the calendar of justice with the calendar of politics is dangerous for
democracy, and when you try to score political goals at all costs, you
end up scoring own goals in front of history. As the Republican Party
just demonstrated in the U.S., you can at the same time win an election
and lose your soul. And just like Lincoln would hardly recognize Trump’s
GOP, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun would not necessarily condone this
Democratic Party of Korea’s (DPK) handling of justice.
Make
no mistake, as president, Yoon himself displayed a very selective
vision of justice. And of course, his People Power Party is far closer
to Trump’s, particularly with its own "basket of deplorables" (from
anti-feminists to ultra-conservative bigots, K-MAGA conspiracy theorists
and hardcore history revisionists … ). But it takes two to tango, and
there are good and bad guys on both sides of the aisle.
The
DPK’s first miscalculation was the express and frankly unnecessary
impeachment of then-acting President Han Duck-soo. This manufactured
crisis confirmed that party leaders were in a rush and didn’t care about
the economic or international consequences of their actions.
But
weaponizing the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking
Officials (CIO) was clearly a moral hazard. Yes, it undoubtedly helped
the party achieve its goal of speeding up the judiciary calendar and
serving Lee, but at what cost?
With its
spectacular strikes, borderline legal tactics and at times comical
blunders (not to mention unanswered questions regarding its scope and
legitimacy), the CIO drew criticism from both sides and replaced the due
process of justice with a tragic circus that not only contaminated a
Constitutional Court forced to take sides or to turn a blind eye, but
also cast serious doubts about the impartiality of the whole system.
Worse:
The CIO’s shortcomings also revived the key controversies that
surrounded its creation five years earlier. At the core of justice
reforms that disrupted the balance of power and brought confusion
between justice and police, undermining the core missions of the latter,
the new institution appeared like a special purpose vehicle, a partisan
tool tailor-made to "search and kill" any investigation against former
President Moon Jae-in’s administration and friends.
So
using and abusing this very CIO against Yoon, a liberal darling who
before falling down his own rabbit hole became the right wing’s champion
precisely because he resisted these controversial reforms as well as
abuses reminiscent of the despicable prosecutor Woo Byung-woo ... that's
not the smartest message to send if you want to restore trust in the
system.
Furthermore, this messy, undignified
rush is deliberately depriving Korea of a most vital democratic debate
on the core issues raised by Yoon’s folly, in particular the accusations
of abuse of power made not only against him, but also against the
legislative majority. This general lack of transparency, this confusion,
fed feelings of frustration and unfairness, logically contributing to
the rise of the disgraced president and his party in opinion polls when
Yoon should have remained at rock bottom, like Park before him. As much
as wild right-wing conspiracy theories, this certainly fueled Korea’s
own Jan. 6 moment (the inexcusable yet fully predictable and preventable
Jan. 19 assault on the court that issued Yoon’s arrest warrant).
Between
Yoon’s suicidal martial law declaration and the opposition’s
counterproductive barrage, Korean politicians from both sides only
managed to demonstrate their lack of judgment and their unfitness to
lead the nation toward actual justice, fairness and unity.
The
failed reforms of 2020 must be fixed, checks and balances restored, and
new, moderate leadership must emerge on both sides. If now is certainly
not the best time to allow a second term for presidents, implementing a
two-round system for the next presidential elections would be the best
way to let all voices be heard in the first round, to help more
transparent alliances form before the second and to erect an additional
hurdle against populism.
Stephane Mot is author of “Seoul Villages - Guisin-dong and other Seoul Villages."
For the second time in a row, the left won in a landslide elections they were losing a few weeks earlier: in 2020, COVID19 replaced the election by a self congratulatory referendum on how the nation contained the pandemic, and in 2024, the executive power piled up unforced errors at an almost comical pace. In-between, conservatives did win the 2022 presidential election, but only by the narrowest of margins, a litany of gaffes and disastrous campaign choices almost fully depleting the considerable headstart the unpopular outgoing administration had kindly granted them.
YOON Suk-yeol simply forgot his core mission: restoring Korea's moral compass following the PARK Geun-hye and MOON Jae-in failures. Instead of defusing crises by discarding bad apples early on, he stubbornly protected people who kept undermining his whole administration, and reforms led by moderate pragmatists went unnoticed as reactionaries sparked new outrage all over the place. The former prosecutor never understood what politics and campaigning entail, never realized how disconnected he looks, never measured how good PR at home matters more than easy stunts overseas.
If we all knew he wasn't much of a visionary leader, we didn't suspect him to be that blind. YOON can't remain this clumsy, old school administrator wasting time and energy micromanaging everything instead of delegating and focusing on the big picture. Typically, why put yourself in the position of the target for a reform as tricky as healthcare, when presidents usually use ministers as fuses they can discard when things go sour?
Now this lame duck has no choice but to take a step back, get rid of the swarm of old* retrogrades torpedoing his every moves, and focus on his core mission with a more inclusive approach. Get the nation ready for its next big crisis (Trump 2?)... If he can.
Now YOON is not the only major loser of these elections.
Yes there was simply no contest between a well oiled blue machine and a rickety red mess, yes the record turnout (67%, a 32-year high) made even clearer the victory of the former, but for all that progressives didn't win either.
The left (in blue, and also on the left of the map) won 63.6% of all districts (81% in the capital region)
Because LEE Jae-myung managed to get rid of all opposition within his ranks, leaving no platform for the
progressives and moderates who wanted to restore the values of KIM Dae-jung and ROH
Moo-hyun to stand upon.
LEE is clearly not a KIM or a ROH, an inspiring leader with a strong sense of justice. More like TRUMP, he mostly cares about himself and avoiding justice, and his program essentially consists in retribution against his opponents.
Actually, YOON's failure is best illustrated by LEE Jae-myung, CHOO Mi-ae, and CHO Kuk emerging as the ultimate winners. The first words of CHO Kuk, as exit polls predicted a supermajority for the left, said it all: it was
all about changing the constitution, impeaching president YOON Suk-yeol
and PPP interim leader HAN Dong-hoon. But exit polls were spectacularly off the mark, and the left didn't increase its tally all the way to the 200 seats that would have enabled CHO's dreams.
Where's the hope? Where's the vision for the future? Who can emerge left or right to prevent a LEE Jae-myung presidency or another disappoinment?
And how will LEE himself evolve to seize the opportunity? Because LJM is not DJT; he's much smarter, he knows that he can't hide anymore, that he must propose something with his large majority. Maybe expose new faces, new masks to hide behind.
Korea can't hide anymore either. Demographics, the long neglected elephant in the room, have at last become a national emergency. Like the environment, North Korea, the economy, justice, internal divisions.
I keep hoping common sense and common ground will prevail, but time is running out.
Unsurprisingly disappointed by politicians of both sides who decided to sweep justice under the rug: the Democratic Party by failing to deliver LEE Jae-myung to justice, YOON Suk-yeol by chosing closer ties with Tokyo over justice for the victims of Imperial Japan's forced labor.
At least, a higher proportion of Korea's Democratic lawmakers chose the high road than their American Republican counterparts: whereas the GOP overwhelmingly supported Trump when he faced a well deserved impeachment. only a tiny majority helped the Korean Trump preserve his immunity. Across the country, a vast majority was in favor of LEE's arrest, but the party made the wrong decision, and had the gall to pretend that democracy was under attack because for the first time, an opposition leader was investigated and issued an arrest warrant, whilst LEE precisely seeked party leadership for the sole purpose of eluding justice one more time! LEE even selfishly stole the safest seat of an incumbent in Incheon to guarantee his personal survival, letting the rest of the ship sink during the elections...
As we've already seen, this is clearly not the party of KIM Dae-jung and ROH Moo-hyun anymore, but a group controlled by a clique that betrayed their ideals of justice and democracy, and only care about their own interests. I wish the party had seized the opportunity to cleanse their ranks from these thugs. Now lets hope the truly progressive side, that proved it still existed during this vote, will gain enough momentum to reform the party, restore decency, and build a more sustainable, inclusive platform.
Of course, Korea's right remains another kind of mess, but internal debates are a bit more public, even if YOON Suk-yeol managed to get his guy on top for next year's election (not sure KIM Gi-hyeon is a future-proof leader, but the selection of THAE Yong-ho in the Supreme Council sends an interesting message to Pyongyang elites: you can make it in the South if you reject the North Korean regime). If YOON decided to make the most of his lameduckhood to push for reforms that are not necessarily popular, he just played a very risky and unpopular card on the forced labor issue: the victims will receive a financial compensation, but paid by Korean companies that benefited from the controversial 1965 treaty, and without any apology from Japan.
From the start, YOON's eagerness to appease Tokyo seemed heading in this kind of direction. I'm all for diplomacy and warming ties with our neighbors, but I'm not okay with eluding key issues. Again, the victims of Imperial Japan's institutional Forced labor and sexual slavery never received any official apologies from any Japanese government (non binding declarations by individuals? yes, but that's not the same, and I'm not even talking about Shinzo Abe's anti-apologies - see "Decoding the Abe Statement: "why apologize for crimes Japan never committed?").
YOON Suk-yeol was not elected for his obsolete Miltonfriedmanian program but to restore some sense of justice, particularly following the PARK Geun-hye scandals and the MOON Jae-in betrayals. Eluding resolution can't be the solution.
Every five year, I have the same dream: that Korea switches to a two-round system for its presidential elections, which would not only reflect more accurately the diversity of opinions, but also result in mergers much more transparent, fair, and based on policies. But no. As usual, we witnessed last minute, winner-takes-all mergers between individuals. And as usual, the dozen-plus roster boiled down to two heavyweights snatching 95% of the cake.
I wish SIM Sang-jun had raised the issue during her otherwise perfect concession speech. She did claim 800k votes and AHN Cheol-soo at least one third of that even without running (judging by the 300k invalid votes due to last minute withdrawals), but both would have scored much much higher otherwise, forcing main candidates to move closer to the center before the second round.
If none of the polls that followed the YOON-AHN alliance* were made public because they were too close to the elections, they all put the opposition candidate ahead by two to seven points. Yet YOON eventually finished only less than 250k votes ahead of LEE - less than what he gained in Seoul alone:
The capital city confirmed its 2021 rejection of a ruling party that
lost not only key strongholds there, but also 4 of the 5 assembly seats
in play nationwide on the same election night (by a much wider margin than for the
presidential election).
Absolutely not Trumpian on that one, LEE Jae-myung conceded very gracefully. He would have had a difficult time trying to contest the score after the troubling incidents in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, or Jeju-do that cast serious doubts about electoral integrity. The nation could even have faced a major crisis if LEE had won very narrowly. MOON Jae-in and the controversial head of the National Election Commission NOH Jeong-hee did apologize for the 'incidents', but they involved officials who had to be more than aware of the existential threat their behavior represented for democracy, and they looked disturbingly consistent with the extreme episodes witnessed during the administration's attacks on justice.
Hopefully, this closer than expected final gap was mainly due to the ruling party's last ditch mobilization of its formidable turnout machine combined with a weakened motivation on the other side: AHN guaranteed YOON's win, why vote for such an uninspiring candidate?
By all means, YOON Suk-yeol, a reluctant politician, was not a good candidate. And he was far from always a candidate for good.
I disagree with many elements of the candidate's program, but I want him to deliver the goods on one key front: democracy, justice, the constitution.
Korea needs the YOON who, as a student under the dictatorship, led a trial of CHUN Doo-hwan.
Korea needs the YOON who, in 2013, was suspended for refusing to stop investigating the meddling of LEE Myung-bak's secret services into the 2012 presidential elections.
Korea needs the YOON who joined the team that prosecuted PARK Geun-hye.
Korea needs the YOON MOON Jae-in handpicked as his Eliot Ness to lead the nation prosecutors and justice reform, and who said no when MOON told him to stop investigating Cho Kuk or Cheong Wa Dae corruption.
Korea needs the YOON whom both the extreme left and the extreme right hate.
And that YOON would better show up. Five years ago**, Korea needed the MOON who stood for democracy, and ended up with another one who undermined it. This divided nation can't afford another betrayal.
YOON's one mission as a candidate was to kick the ruling party out of
Cheong Wa Dae, and that will be done when the transition is over. As a
president-elect, his mission will be to gather a team that can inspire
voters for the upcoming legislative elections, but also reach across the
aisle, to moderates among a hostile assembly.
Very transparent about his lack of experience as a politician, the man has a reputation to delegate a lot, to let pros do their job, and to take full responsibility. YSY does it. So casting will be key.
Candidate YOON needed the
People Power Party to run and AHN Cheol-soo to win, President YOON simply can't succeed with the PPP platform. And clearly, there's no way he can unite the nation if he keeps including LEE Jun-seok's anti-feminist agenda. Ideally, that young lad should be the first one to be shown the door, and AHN Cheol-soo should lead the transition team.
I'm not forgetting another essential role of the President: representing and defending the nation in these very troubled times. And Russia's invasion of Ukraine already impacted the campaign and the region:
not very good news for a nuclear-free peninsula: another motive for North Korea to keep its weaponry, another motive for South Korea to revive its civil program (MOON Jae-in even had the gall to say the nuclear energy he's been dismantling for years was strategic for the nation's future....)
not very good news for Yankees-Go-Home cheerleaders: while LEE Jae-myung struggled with his base, YOON Suk-yeol could herald the alliance full throttle. Joe Biden didn't even wait for concession or acceptance speeches to congratulate his preferred (and fellow gaffe-a-day) candidate.
not very good news for XI Jinping's plans to invade Taiwan. And now he knows bullies can be bullied. XI has yet to congratulate a man who made no mystery about where he stands between the US and China.
good news for the Korea-Japan dialog: YOON sent clear, positive signals. Let's hope his sense of justice will make him nonetheless stand for the last survivors of Imperial Japan's sexual slavery system, who can't wait for another term.
Tensions are likely to exacerbate in the region because of Putin's war, but much of the
ambiguity will be gone, which may paradoxically be helpful for some
meaningful diplomacy (including why not with North Korea). Interesting to see how existing and new alliances evolve or take shape.
On all fronts, please, more pragmatism and common sense, less ideology (yes, that includes you, Milton Friedman).
Please, more transparency, more accountability.
As usual, I'll be keeping a critical eye on the rulers. With cautious hope.
Last night, following the last presidential debate, AHN Cheol-soo decided to stop his campaign and give his full support to YOON Suk-yeol. Expected almost from the start*, this move was postponed until the last possible moment to mark AHN's ballot papers, even if voting has already started overseas.
AhnLab founder lifts YOON's candidacy on such key issues as innovation, economy, education, or health. Mostly, he brings guarantees about his capacity to unite around the center, and to mobilize younger generations.
A reluctant candidate and a mediocre campaigner, YOON hesitated a long time before joining the PPP, an irrelevant opposition party where he had to compose with obsolete paleo-conservatives on one extreme and aggressive young anti-feminists on the other: PARK Geun-hye supporters never forgave him his role in her imprisonment, and LEE Jun-seok excels at dragging his candidacy down. Today, YOON was obviously relieved to see AHN unlock the shackles and help him focus on what matters most to him: healing Korean democracy, starting with justice.
The first mission of the united ticket is to prevent LEE Jae-myung from reaching power. Protected by the government, the controversial populist was able to cruise during the campaign without fear of being investigated in the Daejang-dong scandal. And if the family of the women murdered by his nephew (whom he defended
during the trial) sued him for dismissing the double murder as 'dating
violence', this most Trumpian character played the clock by delaying his answers to the judge beyond the legal limits, pushing the next steps until after the elections.
Imagine what this man could do if he reached presidency and enjoyed the total impunity created by the ruling party's most outrageous reform: the de facto end of oversight of the executive power and the creation of the highly controversial Corruption Investigation Office, which was instantly weaponized to harass YOON and to protect Cheong Wa Dae from embarrassing scandals.
On that one, MOON clearly insulted ROH Moo-hyun's memory: the late president, a man who genuinely cared for democracy and justice, would have been appalled by a move that also betrayed the spirit of 2016, when the population overwhelmingly called for a defense of both, and the respect of separation of powers.
Beyond LEE and Trump, I often make a parallel between Korea's ruling party and the US Republican party. Both have lost their way on what used to make them most respectable. Both need to lose in 2022 if they don't want to lose their souls. And both need to humbly return to the drawing board (preferably not to push for more gerrymandering or deceitful schemes).
It may sound indecent to talk about existential threat when thousands die in Ukraine under Russian aggression, but this time, Korea must get it right, and heal from its core. And its center.
'My life is not your porn'. You've seen these posters on the streets, when thousands of victims and outraged citizens protested against Korea's pervasive digital sex crimes.
That's also the title of Heather Barr's report for Human Rights Watch*, which confirms Korea's appalling softness when it comes to fighting online sex crime (let alone sex crime in general), an inaction that encouraged a phenomenon now pervasive to the point this high tech nation is plagued with a 'molka' pandemic (perverts hiding mini cameras in public restrooms).
Obviously, so far, protecting the victims or even recognizing their trauma has never been a priority for Korean governments. But now that they've been themselves exposed internationally, let's hope that it will force them to, at long last, act and fight seriously for the victims and against perpetrators.
And again, it's not just digital sex crimes. Korea can't wait any longer to have zero tolerance for sex crimes in general. And to fight against gender discrimination, a cultural enabler to all abuses.
Also. Please, the time has come to put an end to the artificial gender war that's been destroying Korea's youth over the past few years. Make no mistake, we're talking about the present and the future of a nation with social, economic, and political impacts. Such fallacies can be as toxic and dangerous for democracy as the 'clash of civilizations' a few years ago or conspiracy theories nowadays. Demanding justice for victims and against criminals has nothing to do with being male or female, and Korea has never been stronger than all citizens unite around actual justice.
In this context, the PPP's new leader, LEE
Jun-seok, cannot embody the future of Korea as long as he embodies the fight
against gender equality. If this ambitious young politician wants to pass for a modern reformer, he has to prove it, and to convince young Korean males to reject anti-feminism. I doubt that's on top of his agenda, but it will be once Korea decides to become a cultural leader in this field as well.
Meanwhile, kudos to Heather, and to all the victims who overcame their traumas and broke their silence to testify for her report.
J. Mark Ramseyer probably thought he'd get more praise from his sponsors after publishing yet another revisionist piece. All he managed to do is to bring all spotlight precisely where Japanese extreme-right and Nippon Kaigi don't want them: on their own lies and imposture.
Make no mistake about what this is all about:
an insult to the victims of Imperial Japan's sexual slavery system (a.k.a. 'Comfort Women').
an insult to academic standards, and a disgrace for a Harvard Law School professor
a threat for Japan democracy, helping revisionism permeate society
THE IRLE - RAMSEYER SCANDAL TIMELINE
In case you missed the latest Ramseyer controversies:
Dec. 1, 2020: International Review of Law and Economics (in IRLE Volume 65) publishes online 'Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War', a controversial paper where J. Mark Ramseyer claims that there was no case of sexual slavery for the Imperial military, only consensual, contractual prostitution. NB: a Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, Ramseyer is listed under the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, but mercifully doesn't appear in RIJS' Constitutional Revision Research Project (he probably would neither pass the academic cut, nor last a minute in front of Alexis Dudden, an advisor to the project).
Jan. 12, 2021: "Recovering the Truth about the Comfort Women", a Ramseyer op-ed rolling out the same fallacies, is published by Japan Forward, a English arm of the ultraconservative Sankei Shimbun and a mouthpiece for ultranationalist and revisionist propaganda*.
International outrage ensues, particularly from actual scholars and experts. Among others:
"For those who read Professor Ramseyer’s
article at face value, unseen are assertions that advocate a current
Japanese political ideology. This worldview is racially essentialist, revanchist, and history-denying. (...) One of the primary reasons for studying
any state-sponsored atrocity in the past is to learn how it happened in
order to try to prevent ongoing occurrences of similar violence and not
to abuse history by weaponizing it for present purposes. Academic freedom is a core tenet of constitutional democracies, yet academic lies are not." ("The Abuse of History: A Brief Response to J. Mark Ramseyer’s 'Contracting for Sex'" - Alexis Dudden in The Asia Pacific Journal 202102)
"Any scholar who understands the falsity of its claims would condemn
the article and call for its retraction" ("Letter by Concerned
Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the
Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics")
"I don’t have any Korean contracts" (a candid confession by Ramseyer himself, who built his case on them, to Jeannie Suk Gersen, who saves Harvard's honor in this excellent and damning piece: "Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women" - The New Yorker 20210226)
see also Michael Chwe's list of resources on the Ramseyer IRLE controversy: chwe.net/irle/
sign the "Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics" : chwe.net/irle/letter/
Jan. 20, 2021: Alon Harel, co-editor, confirmed that Ramseyer will 'revise significantly' another controversial paper ("Privatizing Police: Japanese Police, The Korean Massacre, And Private Security Firms" - The Cambridge Handbook of Privatization, June 2019) in which, 'citing rumors, (Ramseyer) depicted Koreans at the time of the post-earthquake chaos
around Tokyo in 1923 as "gangs" that "torched buildings, planted bombs,
poisoned water supplies" and murdered and raped people' ("Harvard professor Ramseyer to revise paper on 1923 massacre of Koreans in Japan: Cambridge handbook editor" - YNA 20210220)
EXPOSING REVISIONISTS TO HELP THE VICTIMS OF IMPERIAL JAPAN, BUT ALSO TO SAVE JAPAN'S POSTWAR DEMOCRACY
Exposing Ramseyer's lies helped the powerful voice of our dear LEE Yong-soo Halmoni resonate even more powerfully. Let's hope that next time the World hears her voice, will be when she represents the victims of Imperial Japan's sex slavery system at the ICJ (sad to see her make the headlines only when thugs attack the victims - see "Eternal Shame").
Needless to say, IRLE should withdraw the paper, and Harvard Law School demand a retraction and official apologies from Ramseyer.
Now internationally disgraced as a liar and a mouthpiece for debunked, extremist
theories, Ramseyer poses as the victim of a 'witch hunt'. Sounds familiar? If the
international community reacted so quickly and unanimously, that's also
because the World is witnessing revisionism at work on a much more
recent event: the US insurrection and the Capital Riot that happened
just days before Ramseyer published his op-ed in Japan Forward.
Because Ramseyer's papers fit and feed perfectly the Nippon Kaigi propaganda and agenda, they contribute to undermine the postwar democracy that lobby has officially pledged to destroy.
Again, this is not about Japan vs Korea, but about Imperial Japan vs Justice (and justice for Comfort Women), and about Imperial Japan vs postwar, democratic Japan.
Of course, the weaponization of history mentioned by Dudden didn't start in 2021,
and Japan is certainly not the only perpetrator in the region, but there cannot be reconciliation without truth, and democracies can't survive if they let these attacks go unpunished.
Because there should be zero tolerance against revisionism, the academic community is on the front line. And I was truly moved to see it react so quickly and accurately against Ramseyer's piece, with precisely a focus on truth and reconciliation, denying any opportunity for nationalists and hatemongers to exploit or to play ping pong with their counterparts.
Nippon Kaigi and Japanese revisionists are an easy target because they are brazenly stupid. They don't have to be smart because they're not facing any resistance at home, where they control the government and the media; most Japanese never heard of the lobby or their program. The most efficient way to deal with them is to simply expose them and their agenda (which they're stupid enough to proudly disclose) as they are.
The war on revisionism is tougher with more subtle perpetrators, and this episode reminded me of the academic struggle against the Discovery Institute and its Intelligent Design imposture in the US. There as well, far-right fundamentalists with a political agenda promoted falsehoods
through propaganda campaigns that mimicked science but totally negated it. The aim was also to undermine democracy and its constitutional
fundamentals, to pervert education, and to rewrite text books, but I.D. was more subtle in its approach. Their leaked, internal 'Wedge Document' explained how the public was to be fooled by a confusing blend of a caricature of science and a caricature of faith. To help spread the movement in Europe, mediocre or failed scholars were sponsored to publish pseudo-academic papers that fed the confusion.
I'm not saying that Japanese extremists pay Ramseyer to publish his debunked junk, but I'm not sure that otherwise this excuse for a scholar could have gotten prestigious sponsors, let alone been awarded the Order of the... Rising Sun.
We're certainly not out of the woods yet: the beast is still striking all over the world, our economies have yet to fully experience 'long covid', and vaccination will take much longer than it should (particularly in Korea, where hubris led to an embarrassing failure to secure doses before the second half of 2021).
Beyond this mother of all crises, here's what I liked and didn't like in 2020, what to expect from 2021.
A positive cultural leader, a pro yet fun soft power... the new Korean cool!
Korean culture claimed mainstream recognition in 2020. Of course "Gisaengchung - BONG Joon-ho's existenchial Parasite" scored a perfect grand slam, of course BTS dynamited the charts, but Korean series surfed the wave far beyond the usual Korean dramas, and Foreign media started paying more attention to different beats, from indie music to trot to pansori. I just loved to see Leenalchi succeed at home as well as overseas; that's the Korea I love, and these guys brought priceless freshness and fun when they were most needed.
Respect is what this world needs to better heal, and Korean citizens showed the world how caring for each other and respecting the common good was the way to overcome together. Even Korean American Rep. Andy Kim contributed to this positive image when he humbly cleaned up the US Capitol rotunda after the riots. That's the spirit.
Korea acted as a cultural leader also by innovating in the management and the treatment of the pandemic. The country realized unprecedented breakthroughs in research and development, not just, as usual, at the product level, but at the platform level as well, including in medical fields.
This is not just about a K-pop fad anymore. Korea proved it could be at the same time super-pro, and super-cool... just like SON Heung-min!
The Dark Side of the Moon
2020 should have marked MOON Jae-in's triumph, with the ruling party's landslide victory at the elections, surfing on a brilliant success against the first wave of coronavirus... but his handling of three key issues durably tarnished his legacy. Actually the very same issues I spotted two years ago (see "Moon Landing - The Cheong Wa Dae Curse"):
- Economy: dogmatism over pragmatism, that's certainly not the way to think in this millennium, particularly when small businesses struggle to survive. This pandemic only constituted a second wave after reforms that already claimed a lot of victims among the weakest ones. And what to say of the real estate mess? The ayatollah in charge of the reforms even wrote a book explaining that the aim of the game was precisely to hurt the little guys, because studies show that when the middle class benefits from the market, they tend to vote more conservative... Simply put, this government deliberately betrayed the very ones he pledged to defend.
- North Korea: now the government doesn't even try to pretend anymore. Protecting the KIM Jong-un regime matters more than defending human rights, defectors who criticize him have become the enemy, and KIM Yo-jong all but dictates the laws (see "KIM Yo-jong Crash Landing On You"). Human Rights Watch and other international bodies have denounced this moral failure, but that's not even the worst that has happened last year.
- Justice: if MOON Jae-in's approval rates are nosediving, that's because his administration has betrayed the spirit of 2016, the democratic values they were supposed to herald, and yes, even the memory of ROH Moo-hyun. Now international media
are starting to look at MOON through less rose-colored glasses, and even some hardcore stans find that they went too far. Because when it comes to undermining justice and separation of powers, this administration has out-trumped Donald TRUMP, CHO Kuk and CHOO Mi-ae have out-williambarred William BARR, and the ruling party has out-GOPed the Republicans. The only person who stands on their path is the incorruptible Eliot NESS MOON Jae-in himself named to lead the prosecution reform. YOON Suk-yeol (YOON Seok-youl) refused to turn a blind eye on the corruption within Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling party, and decided to defend democracy and the Constitution instead of his party. By harassing him and his teams in the most outrageous ways even by trumpian standards, these thugs managed to turn a selfless liberal into a hero even for conservatives. YOON is now leading in the polls for the 2022 presidential election, but like Robert MUELLER, he's more interested in defending the integrity of justice and the soul of the nation than in a political career.
What does 2021 have in store?
The race for 2022 starts this year, with key mayoral elections in Seoul and Busan. The ruling party should easily keep the control of the capital city, but its leaders lost a lot of credit at the national level (see above) as well as at the local level (between the lack of transparency in the controversial Sejong-daero project and the scandals surrounding PARK Won-soon suicide - see "Mayor Park to ground control").
After the moral collapse of the right and left wings, Korea seems ripe for a centrist, uniting figure, but no one emerges there. Because the ruling party betrayed its own values, there's an opportunity at the center right, and OH Se-hoon hasn't given up his grand national ambitions. He proposed AHN Cheol-soo to join the People Power Party and run for Seoul mayor in 2021, which would clear the way for OH in 2022, and for AHN in 2027. To the left, the future could belong to people like GEUM Tae-seop, a moderate who left the ruling party because he felt it lost its moral compass. Yet at this stage, no one is as popular as YOON.
And I might have a surprise or two in the fiction department. Thank you again, dear readers, for downloading my collection of short stories, 'Seoul VillageS', from all over the world. Your kind feedback brightened this dark year.
I wish us all a better year 2021, full of health and love. And if this year of the cow brings us another roaring tiger, let's not lose hope and let's not forget the power of laughter.
French author and conceptor (Fiction and satire - Strategy and innovation). Personal portal: stephanemot.com. Fictions: dragedies. Main blogs: Seoul Village,, mot-bile... Also: LinkedIN profile, FaceBook Page. Visitors profiles: Citizen Came. Mentions, interviews, articles, op eds: Newsweek, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Le Figaro, Rue89, Asia Times, Korea Herald, Korea JoongAng Ilbo...
