Archive

(im)peaches and koalas

Dear reader, You may have recognized a makeover. I migrated the platform from WordPress to Ghost—just wanted to try something different. It took me some time and several bouts of panic and despair, but I'm glad I did it. After days of trial and error, I managed

Will the salmon set Lee free?

At the forefront of Lee Jae-myung’s struggle for his political survival stand salmon. Yes, salmon. Minjoo politicians, including the Minjoo Party leader himself, claims that prosecutors suborned a key witness with booze and salmon to frame Lee. Lee Hwa-young이화영, the former Gyeonggi vice governor for peace—a Minjoo newspeak

observations after the election

The 2024 general election was an “epic fail” for President Yoon and the ruling party. No surprises, but still huge because the timing was still on the early half of Yoon government’s term, and it won the local election two years ago. Note: 2022p = Presidential election, 2022l = local election

2024 Election: 20-inch nails in Korean democracy's coffin

In this year’s election, a total of 59 parties are asking for a vote. Does the biggest-ever number suggest the height of South Korean democracy? I’m a bit skeptical. How many of them are really serious? I took a count of the number of leaflets included in the

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

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

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

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

Downward momentum of Lee's Minjoo party

Momentum is a bitch. Once you start losing, it snowballs: morale goes down, and as the most competent are often the first to flock away, a vicious circle of manpower deterioration kicks off. It gets harder and harder to flip the situation over. This is what’s happening in the

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

It took nine years for Yoon Seok-yeol to pass the bar exam. In the 1980s, during which Yoon pursued a career in law, it was far from easy to become a lawyer—the system was very different from those in Western countries. The national bar exam was actually more of

The gangster who sent $8m in cash to North Korea

To all the gangsters who want to become proper businessmen one day, Kim Seong-tae김성태 might be seen as a role model. Allegedly having started off his career as a petty gangster in Jeonju전주, Kim made himself a chairman of a conglomerate, which had been listed as one of the top

Angelina Jolie allegedly loved jeonse, but would she still do now?

Rumors said when Angelina Jolie signed a lease, jeonse전세, for a Gwanghwamun apartment for her son Maddox in 2019, she was surprised by the idea of jeonse and loved it. You need to deposit a substantial sum of money, but it can eventually be used to buy your own house.

Moon's guys regroup as Lee's standing staggers by scandals

Some Moon administration officials are reported to establish a policy forum to commemorate Moon’s legacy. In South Korean politics, so-called policy forums often function as campaign outposts, and I suppose this would also be the case here. The name of the forum, Sauijae四宜齋, is very symbolic. The forum’s

Yoon reshuffles his office; new wave of technocrats

I was reading the recent dispatch from Zoltan Pozsar a few days ago. It was my first reading of one of the hottest commentators on Wall Street, and I loved his approach to predicting a new economic order from ultra-wide angle snapshots of geopolitics. Besides, the more-than-usual mentions of South

Why did Moon recommend China apologist book to public?

After election: Minjoo’s traditional support base falling apart No one doubted that the June local election would be Minjoo’s defeat. I already discussed some reasons, so let’s look at other things I haven’t mentioned. One remarkable result is Minjoo’s decline in the Gyeonggi region. Minjoo’

Park Ji-hyun: the flame burning down

Bloomberg Equality’s profile on Park Ji-hyun is an excellent primer for those who didn’t know much about her. NEW: “You might be reminded of AOC.” This 26-year-old activist who busted an online sex crime ring in South Korea is now taking on the South Korean president — and its

Will Lee survive this election?

No one doubts that the PPP’s going to win this election. A simple reason: now they are the ruling party even though the Minjoo will keep dominating the Assembly for about two more years. * In South Korea, the executive has much more authority and power than the legislative. * The

deep dive: Minjoo approval rate hits a new low as election closes in

Minjoo approval rate (blue) hitting a new low according to this week’s Gallup Korea poll pic.twitter.com/LN4HMLBXk8 — Subin Kim (@SubinBKim) May 20, 2022 With the local election taking place in less than two weeks, the dip in the approval rate will be a significant blow to its

Yoon appoints Han despite Minjoo's opposition

▪ YOON APPOINTS TWO MORE MINISTERS Pres. Yoon appoints Han Dong-hoon as Justice Minister, Kim Hyun-sook as Gender Minister#SouthKorea #appoint #Minister Arirang News ▶ https://t.co/mVDEocNgm0 News Center ▶ https://t.co/mZQ2egcQgF pic.twitter.com/ZB0Q8aF5l5 — Arirang News (@arirangtvnews) May 17, 2022 Minjoo’s nightmare come true: the elite

Another wave of sexual misconduct rocks Minjoo

The Minjoo Party had had nightmares of sexual violence cases before. Ahn Hee-jung, whose popularity even shook Moon’s dominance over the party during the 2017 primary, ended up in jail after his secretary revealed Ahn’s sexual assault on her.  And we all remember what happened to Park Won-soon.

Pres Yoon's inauguration speech, highlighted

International solidarity for freedom The most remarkable was his remark on the international solidarity for freedom.  If one’s freedom is violated or one is denied the basic necessities that are fundamental to being a free citizen, then the rest of society must come together and make amends. Individual countries

How would history remember Moon administration?

With the new President to be sworn in next week, it would be a good time to reflect on the Moon administration’s legacy. President Moon himself seems to have been thinking about this a lot these days: [E]very Korean president has had their share of accomplishments and failures.

Moon signed prosecutor bill, but it won’t save him from President’s curse

President Moon signed the controversial prosecutor reform bill today. Well, I’ve talked a lot about the reform so let’s get straight to some interesting points I didn’t cover: * The Blue House changed its cabinet meeting schedule twice for this * This is the last (regular) cabinet meeting: as

Why did Moon do this awkward interview?

Two weeks ago, I predicted that President Moon’s last interview with Sohn Suk-hee would be a tepid, pre-scripted-ish, just like his dialogue with the nation.  I was wrong. The interview got pretty tense several times, and the last time I felt this nervous while watching an interview was when

Yoon and PPP keep making bad calls over prosecutor reform

As Minjoo pushes ahead with the compromised bill of the prosecutor reform, President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol alluded to calling for a referendum on the bill. A series of bad calls for the following reasons: * Yoon shouldn’t have let the PPP strike a compromise in the first place (if he thinks

deep dive: Minjoo’s prosecutor reform

The Minjoo Party is pushing through its prosecutor reform bill, which is going to be the rousing finale of the Moon administration. So it has to be the prosecutor reform into which I’ll take a deep dive this week. I tried the BBC explainer style with more colloquial questions.

Moon's strategic ambiguity on prosecutor reform

President Moon had a meeting with the Prosecutor General, who submitted his resignation in protest of Minjoo’s prosecutor reform, known as the complete deprivation of the Prosecutors’ investigation authority. Moon’s message, delivered by his spokesperson, was so cryptic that each media has its own interpretation of it. * Dong-A:

Is Yoon trapping Minjoo by appointing Han as Justice Minister?

We all knew that Yoon would give Han an important job someday but this senior, this soon, no one had imagined this.  Many, including me, guessed Han would be appointed to the prosecutor leadership. However, Yoon instead appointed him as the Minister of Justice on Wednesday.  Who is Han? * Widely

Moon is the most popular prez ever, but what legacy will he leave?

President Moon is the most popular President in the history of the Sixth Republic of Korea. This statement, however, makes heads tilt rather than nod. Questions like the below would likely follow: * Is Moon the most successful President? * Did his party win the next presidential election? * What are Moon’s

What Yoon transition team and WrestleMania have in common

Hi all, This is the fourth issue of Korea Kontext. I wanted to write an analysis on Moon’s exceptional approval rate last week but I had one hell of a hectic week as spring comes: As spring comes, this serf has done many things including: 1) building another community

Moon meets Yoon while Park returns

Hi, welcome to the third issue of Korea Kontext newsletter. This issue was supposed (at least in my mind) to be sent yesterday but I happened to watch Twin Peaks Season 3 (Korean OTT service Watcha has in its catalogue, I recently learned) in the weekend and it devoured my

Behind the Moon-Yoon conflict: could Moon evade the curse of President?

This is the second issue of my newsletter. The format is quite different this time—this time the whole newsletter is about a single topic. My current goal is to provide a news roundup two times a week and a deep-dive write-up (like the below) a week. An ambitious plan

Battle for Yongsan between Moon and Yoon

Hi, this is the first preliminary issue of my Korea Kontext newsletter. Though it begins as a weekly newsletter, I intend to increase the frequency as soon as I get the knack for it. My imaginary audience is those who read Korea news but want more context to connect the