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South Korean Elections [1]
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Date: 2025-06-03
I was in the Peace Corps in South Korea in the mid 1960’s under the Park Chung-Hee quasi-military dictatorship, which replaced the ultra-corrupt Syngman Rhee government. South Korea has advanced considerably since then, with notable backsliding, including an assassination.
x South Korea votes for new president after martial law turmoil Supporters of Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of South Korea's Democratic Party, cheer during an election campaign rally in Seoul, South Korea, June 2, 2025. — Reuters South Koreans began voting Tuesday for a new president,…
[image or embed] — 12sknnews.bsky.social (@12sknnews.bsky.social) June 2, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Yoon Suk Yeol
I have written here about Friedman’s global reign of terror, starting with the Pinochet coup in Chile. See Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine, for details.
Very Trumpian, I would say.
The opposition's landslide victory in the 2024 parliamentary elections put Yoon in an even weaker position. The PPP obtained 108 seats, 36% of the National Assembly, while the main opposition party, the DPK, won 175 seats in total. The remaining 17 seats are held by the other members of the 22nd Assembly.[115] Some have spoken of Yoon as a "lame duck" following the major defeat.[10][11][12] He is the first president to see an assembly unfavorable to him during a whole presidency and especially an opposition that is growing in relation to the first part of the mandate. The Chairman of the PPP Emergency Committee, Han Dong-hoon,[116] resigned following the defeat; several other major government figures also presented their resignation, including Yoon's Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.[117] In 2024, the Swedish V-Dem Institute reported that under Yoon's administration, South Korea was dropping in its liberal democracy index (LDI). They described Yoon as "South Korea's Donald Trump".[194]
Ah. It isn’t just me, then.
There is more to this meshugas, but that outline will do for a DK story.
NPR: Months after a martial law crisis, South Koreans will elect a new president
South Koreans are heading to the polls on Tuesday to pick a new president, in an election widely seen as a referendum on President Yoon Suk Yeol and the governing conservative party. Polls will open across the country at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning (5 p.m. ET on Monday). Candidate Lee Jae-myung of the main opposition Democratic Party is expected to win. He has mostly kept a double-digit lead in polls over his conservative rival, Kim Moon-soo, throughout the race.
That polling link goes to a Gallup page in Korean. The key line translates as
Presidential candidate support chart: Lee Jae-myung 45%, Kim Moon-soo 36%, Lee Jun-seok 10%, Yu Bo 8%
There will be much more to this story, as is the case in every country where an authoritarian ruler is replaced in democratic elections.
Watch this space. I’ll have something more to say about it is soon as the election results are confirmed.
Then we can consider recent elections in Poland and mass protests in Serbia.
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