South Korea: The time for wishful thinking has come

Washington, DC: South Korea has a new President.

President Lee Jae-myung is a lifelong leftist with an affinity for the People’s Republic of China and North Korea, and has no great love for the United States.

He has referred to American troops in South Korea as “occupiers” and said China should do what it wants to Taiwan. Lee apparently likes North Korea enough to put money down. He currently faces charges for involvement in sending $8 million to North Korea while he was governor of Gyeonggi Province. His deputy has already been convicted.

However, during the recent election campaign Lee talked up the US-ROK alliance and three-way US-ROK-Japan security cooperation.

Thus, many American observers claim Lee is a pragmatist and a centrist, and will govern as such.

Maybe.

But as likely it reflects a tendency towards wishful thinking on the part of America’s foreign policy class when a certain type of radical leader comes along.

The same was said about Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Turkey’s Recep Erdogan, Solomon Islands’ Manasseh Sogavare, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, and Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

Even Xi Jinping was mentioned as a reformer who just needed to solidify his position before liberalizing the PRC.

But maybe these sort of men mean what they say beyond the soothing language intended for Western elites when on the verge of taking power.

As for Lee, forget what he said on the campaign trial, and look at his new Prime Minister, Kim Min-seok.

He was a Seoul University radical student leader in the 1980s and joined the illegal occupation of the Seoul American Cultural Center in 1985. He was jailed for three years due to his anti-state and pro-North Korea activities. The Americans once refused to give him a visa, and he is said to have claimed the Americans were behind Covid.

One recalls candidate Barack Obama who promised to “unify” a divided United States. Once elected, he appointed Chicago political operative Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff.

And America got Chicago politics at the national level.

Rule #1 of Chicago politics: crush your opponents. Rule #2: do whatever it takes to keep power—forever.

So don’t expect centrist, conciliatory policies from Lee.

Rather, we’ll soon see Lee’s pogrom against his opponents—to include anyone with the nerve to have called for honest elections. Lee’s Democratic Party of Korea (DP) has an overwhelming majority in the national assembly—likely obtained by questionable means. He can do whatever he wants—and packing the Supreme Court appears on the menu.

Lee’s calls for “restoring democracy” and unifying the nation in his inaugural speech give chutzpah a bad name.

He and the DP spent the entire two years of Yoon’s administration making it impossible for Yoon to govern and enact his policies.

Read more HERE.