LEE Seok-ki's Arirang Spring

Last week, North Korean propaganda confirmed that the nation was ready to invade the South in case of a pro-DPRK popular uprising.

This week, South Korean National Intelligence Services revealed a conspiration aiming at a pro-DPRK insurrection. The usual suspect? LEE Seok-ki, the member of the Unified Progressive Party (UPP) with the most documented history of norkphilia. He was rumored to have fled, but showed up at the National Assembly this morning (see "Lee Seok-ki Appears!" - The Marmot's Hole 20130829).

Of course, the best defense is a good offense, and both KIM Jong-un's regime and the NIS were feeling the heat: the former as the world braces for intervention against fellow WMD-lover Bashar al Assad, the second as the critics mount on the 2012 election scandal. The NIS is accused of manipulating public opinion ahead of the vote, and already detonated the "ROH Moo-hyun-NLL" scandal a couple of months ago as a Weapon of Mass Diversion.

BREAKING - according to NIS, #NorthKorea gas masks for #Syria were Gwangju surpluses smuggled through NLL (Agence Fausse Presse) ~,~ - @theseoulvillage 20130829theseoulvillage/status/372884583446228992

Note that UPP firebrands are convenient diversion tools for the conservatives: even if LEE Jung-hee eventually withdrew from the presidential ballot, she had time to torpedo the first two debates ("Time is up"), and her figure was used in the final hours of the vote as the ideal "devil" to mobilize the base behind their own lackluster candidate.

Trying to picture #LeeSeokki's #ArirangSpring: a dozen pro-NK gunmen parading among tourists on Gwanghwamun Square? Ask a Korean Dud - @theseoulvillage 20130829twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/372907761425588224

Are there crypto-kimilsungists in South Korea dreaming of a reunification under the Juche banner? Of course, just like you'll always find a few crypto-fascists dreaming of the return of dictatorship. Right now, the more visible minority of right and left wing radicals that keep polluting national politics, rewriting history, and preventing sound debates from emerging are more dangerous for the nation.


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Time is up

Korea votes tomorrow, but the campaign only started Sunday with the end of the primaries, and the first debate.

Officially, it was the third debate, and MOON Jae-in won the Democratic United Party primaries three months ago, but he had first to wait for the outsider AHN Cheol-soo to bow out*, and then for Democratic Labor Party candidate LEE Jung-hee to let him square off one-to-one with PARK Geun-hye.

And even then, the left-wing activist waited until the last hours before the final TV debate, leaving an empty chair at the table for all to see. Thankfully, neither PARK nor MOON tried to talk to the chair the way the ghost of Clint Eastwood did during the last Republican Convention. But anyway and unfortunately for MOON, after the two dulls featuring LEE, only few people watched this show where (judging at least by the body language) only he was in a mood for debate. 

So this debate never happened, time is up, and next time will be too late to vote for economic, political, or social reforms. The system is simply not sustainable, and the demographic equation keeps making things worse every year. Helped by a - to say the least - not always constructive opposition, LEE Myung-bak leaves a nation far more divided than when he took office. And if his government prevented Korean economy from collapsing at the peak of the crisis, when speculators went at its throat from overseas, it let Korean society as a whole be undermined by its old demons from within, weakening an already fragile balance of powers.

Of course, this election is not just a question of turnouts among specific segments (young adults, female seniors, Korean expats...).

I already said it (six month ago to the day in "25 years later"), this moment is all about constitutional values. So if they're still hesitating, Korean voters can consider this election as if it were a referendum for their constitution, and chose their next leader according to what they believe they truly stand for, regardless of who they will face in North Korea, China, or Japan.

It's not about what Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, or Shinzo Abe will do, but about how Korea defines itself.


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* "Scratch that: Dynasty, Dallas, or the Twilight Zone?"