• Mystery of Lee’s Minjoo takeover

    Mystery of Lee’s Minjoo takeover

    Until he was nominated as his party’s presidential candidate in 2022, Lee Jae-myung had been an outsider in the Minjoo Party. He was elected twice as a mayor and then a governor, having had no time to rub shoulders with Minjoo insiders in Yeouido. When he was elected to lead the party after losing the…

  • Yoon vs doctors: scapegoating works every time

    Yoon vs doctors: scapegoating works every time

    What should President Yoon do to improve his dismal approval rating? A noble man君子 would seek for a reform. Fortunately, there is—and will ever be—no shortage of issues that are of national urgency: um, how about improving corporate governance and shareholder value? That’s what delivered Japanese stock market from its decades-long gloom, they say. No…

  • Yoon handed his Brutus a dagger and he’s ready to wield it

    Yoon handed his Brutus a dagger and he’s ready to wield it

    President Yoon doesn’t cling to approval ratings. He has repeatedly said so, and even his administration seems indifferent (or incapable) in trying to improve it. His ratings have been stagnating around 30% for the most part of his term in the office. One way to look at his peculiar stance on approval ratings is that…

  • They all dream of those days

    Journos are glass half-empty type of guys, but I recently realized, talking to my non-journo friends, that I am not alone in thinking that things are not what they used to be. The KTX bullet train, once praised for its German-like precision, is now routinely running behind the clock. The highway gets so bumpy as…

  • Downward momentum of Lee’s Minjoo party

    Downward momentum of Lee’s Minjoo party

    Lee has a much smaller pool of people for his designated hitter for the next election.

  • Yoon Seok-yeol: who he actually is and what awaits him in the April election

    Yoon Seok-yeol: who he actually is and what awaits him in the April election

    Past twelve months have revealed much more about who he actually is as a politician. And it’s not good.

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