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The Hill
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
South Korea's anti-American president is coming to Washington
South Korea's leftists and rightists held competing demonstrations in the capital city of Seoul today, which is the nation's National Liberation Day. This year, the country celebrated the 80th anniversary of the end of Japanese rule. The day also is the 77th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Korea, or South Korea. The crowds this year were especially large because they came soon after Lee Jae-myung's win in the June 3 snap presidential election. The contest, marred by widespread irregularities, was held to replace Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached and later removed from office following his short-lived declaration of martial law in early December. The competing gatherings in the capital city were an early gauge of Lee's popularity. He has been a particularly divisive figure so far. Soon after the demonstrations, Lee will reportedly head to Washington for a visit starting Aug. 24. His visit to the White House with President Donald Trump, expected for Aug. 25, could be one of the most important meetings ever between an American and a Korean leader. Lee is virulently anti-American. At stake, therefore, is the future of the treaty relationship between Washington and Seoul. Democracy in South Korea is also at risk. Lee, in the name of democratic governance, is fast taking steps to end it. While publicly aligning himself with the U.S., Lee has moved to undermine the fundamental basis of his country's partnership with America, the formal military alliance, formed in 1953 just months after the Korean War armistice. While campaigning for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party of Korea in July 2021, Lee called American troops in his country an ' occupying force.' Even more explosively, he has blamed the U.S. for maintaining Japan's colonization of Korea. Lee's leftist party, known as Minjoo, has a history of both opposing close ties with Washington and actively building relations with Beijing and Pyongyang. Lee, as president, has wasted no time chipping away at Korea's relationship with the U.S. For instance, in a move that will degrade military readiness, the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint exercise scheduled to begin on Monday, will be drastically scaled back — especially the crucial field training component of the 10-day event. South Korea's Ministry of Defense cited logistical adjustments to the training cycle for the changes in the exercises, but they were in reality the result of pressure from Lee. Unification Minister Chung Dong-young noted North Korea's criticisms of the joint drill when he publicly demanded the reduction of the exercises. On Aug. 7, a Unification Ministry official, speaking anonymously to the press, confirmed that the exercises were 'adjusted' due to concerns about North Korea's reaction. Of greater concern, on July 21, Lee's government conducted a raid on the Osan Air Base, which is jointly operated by U.S. Forces Korea and the Republic of Korea Air Force. Specifically, Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok entered the Master Control and Reporting Center, operated by both militaries, in violation of the Status of Forces Agreement because there was no prior notification of the American military. Cho seized classified radar data and information on the U.S. Air Force's U-2 surveillance plane. Tara O, a former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who served at Osan, told me that 'Cho and his large team absolutely should not have had access to such classified information.' The raid preceded the cancelation of at least two high-level exchanges between Washington and Seoul. The first was a planned July 21 meeting between Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio and Korea's National Security Advisor Wi Sung-rak, and the second was the '2+2' trade meeting. The Korean representatives to the talks were notified the meeting was called off just as they were about to board a plane to travel to the U.S. President Lee has also been attacking South Korea's democratic institutions. He led the effort in the National Assembly, the country's unicameral legislature, that paralyzed Yoon's government by filing 22 impeachment motions. Lee, after leading the effort to impeach Yoon for his Dec. 3 declaration of martial law, then used the impeachment power to destabilize the interim government of Acting President Han Duck-soo. After the country's Constitutional Court removed Yoon, Lee had Yoon imprisoned on spurious charges of 'insurrection.' 'Lee and his party have created a false narrative of insurrection,' Morse Tan, a former U.S. ambassador-at-large for Global Criminal Justice, said to me this month. Lee's government has held Yoon in inhumane conditions. 'The Democratic Party of Korea jailed Yoon in a tiny cell in sweltering weather, and they have been denying him medications,' O, now at the East Asia Research Center, told me. Some fear Yoon will die in custody, but that does not appear to concern the ruling party. 'Even if he lives, he must live in prison, and even if he dies he must die in prison,' said Kim Byung-kee, Minjoo's floor leader in the National Assembly. Yoon is not the only target of the ruling party. Lee's government has been constricting free speech on social media platforms, investigating citizens for nothing more than lawful assembly and free expression, raiding houses of worship and moving to outlaw the main opposition party. On Wednesday, South Korean prosecutors raided the office of the People Power Party. 'These are the things done by leftist dictatorships,' said Tan. 'The attack on freedom is ferocious.' The U.S. has endured previous leftist, anti-American presidents in South Korea — to be specific, Kim Dae Jung, Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in. There is apparently a feeling in Washington that the U.S. can similarly outlast Lee Jae-myung. Perhaps America can. But Lee, unlike his predecessors, is more determined and ruthless. America's alliance with South Korea might not survive Lee's rule, and its democracy is in even greater danger.
The Hill
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
South Korea's new president assures the G-7 while worrying Koreans
Fresh from his commanding win in the June 3 snap presidential election, South Korea's Lee Jae-myung presented himself as a supporter of the Western democracies at the G-7 in Alberta, Canada, this month. While there as the president of an invited nation — South Korea, formally the Republic of Korea, is not one of the seven — Lee met with the leaders of Japan, Canada, Britain, Australia, South Africa, India, Brazil and Mexico. He also sat down with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as well as European Union officials. Lee did not, however, get to meet with President Trump, who cut short his attendance to deal with the widening Israel-Iran war. The cancellation of the meeting with Trump has already undermined Lee's standing at home. 'The South Korean public is upset with Lee's performance at the G-7,' Greg Scarlatoiu, president and CEO of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, told me. 'He was expected to engage in his first significant diplomatic endeavor to prioritize trade and tariffs. A one-on-one meeting with Trump was the test in the eyes of the public.' The cancellation — many in South Korea think their president was snubbed — is bound to bolster Lee's more anti-American advisors. As Scarlatoiu points out, Lee 'has allowed two camps to form within his national security and foreign policy teams.' There are the officials keen on strengthening relations with Washington, and those advocating 'independent politics,' a move away from America and toward China and North Korea. 'Perhaps this balancing act is an attempt to preserve the U.S.-South Korea alliance while resuscitating South Korea-China relations,' Scarlatoiu said. Lee has affirmed the military alliance with the U.S. — America is the only nation committed to defend the South — but he almost certainly wants American troops off South Korean soil. Before presenting himself as a moderate in the recent presidential campaign — Lee unsuccessfully ran for president in 2022. In that campaign, he wanted to end the alliance, formed in 1953 just months after the Korean War armistice, and move Seoul firmly into China's and North Korea's camp. After all, while campaigning for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party of Korea in July 2021, he called American troops in his country an 'occupying force.' Worse, Lee charged America with keeping Japanese rule in place in Korea, a highly explosive charge. 'Pro-Japanese collaborators worked with U.S. occupying forces to maintain the same ruling structure,' he said, referring to the hated Japanese colonial period. 'We were unable to purify the country of its pro-Japanese remnants, and they remain to this day.' Lee's leftist Democratic Party of Korea, known as Minjoo, has had a long history of undermining ties with Washington. Many in that party have worked to merge the two Koreas into a unified state. The previous Minjoo president, Moon Jae-in, often refused to acknowledge that the Republic of Korea even existed. Lee's current commitment to the alliance, therefore, looks like a short-term accommodation. The Trump administration, for its part, is also seeking an accommodation. The White House pronounced on the day of voting that South Korea 'had a free and fair election.' That statement looks meant to placate Lee, but it is an assessment that many in the South do not accept. Since June 3, there has been a series of marches protesting election fraud. 'In sum, it was the largest election heist in Korean history,' Morse Hyun-Myung Tan, who led the Election Monitoring Team, a group of Americans observing the June 3 balloting, told me. Tan asserted that there were precincts with more 'votes' than registered voters, pristine stacks of unfolded ballots for Lee Jae-myung when the law required the folding of ballots, non-Korean citizens from China and Vietnam publicly boasting in their social media posts about voting and people voting multiple times with fake identification cards. 'There was cheating using both physical ballots and electronic 'ghost' ballots manufactured by algorithm,' said Tan, a former American ambassador. 'In Deogyang District in Goyang City, a video captured an image of a vote-counting machine recording over 3,178 ballots in a row for Lee Jae-myung,' Tara O of the East Asia Research Center noted in comments to me. O said the National Election Commission, instead of investigating allegations of fraud, has been prosecuting those presenting evidence of ballot rigging. Unfortunately, both sides of the conservative-progressive split in South Korea have resorted to election fraud, but this decade, the rigging has become especially pronounced. 'In the previous three national elections — 2020, 2022 and 2024 — results have not matched late polling, an indication of persistent fraud,' Tan told me. Lee will undoubtedly be able to avoid a recount, but he will have great difficulty getting beyond the fraud controversy so that he can govern effectively. The risk is that the new president abandons any attempt to retain the support of conservative and centrist South Koreans and instead governs like an anti-American, pro-China, pro-North Korea leftist. Gordon G. Chang is the author of 'Plan Red: China's Project to Destroy America' and 'The Coming Collapse of China.'
Fox News
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Will South Korea expel the US?
Prosecutors released South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol from custody Saturday after deciding not to appeal a decision by the Seoul Central District Court to free him. The embattled leader of the conservative-leaning People Power Party faces both criminal charges of insurrection and removal from office after his Dec. 14 impeachment. The political turmoil in the Republic of Korea could result in a takeover by those sympathetic to China, North Korea and communism. It is even possible that leftists could merge the South Korean state into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Kim regime of North Korea. At risk, therefore, is America's alliance with the South. Yoon was impeached by the National Assembly for his Dec. 3 declaration of martial law, the first such declaration in the South since 1980. Martial law, although in force for only six hours, was widely condemned in South Korean society, and even conservatives in the leftist-dominated National Assembly voted to impeach. Yoon declared martial law because leftists, led by the Democratic Party of Korea, had blocked almost all his attempts to govern since he was elected president in 2022. He justified the action by saying he was breaking a deadlock to stop "anti-state activities plotting rebellion." "The martial law is aimed at eradicating pro-North Korean forces and to protect the constitutional order of freedom," Yoon stated in a televised address. "Although it might be considered bad political judgment, I think his decision to implement martial law was for the good of the nation because of the malign influence activities of China and North Korea," David Maxwell of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Asia Pacific Strategy told me last week. "When the National Assembly voted to not approve martial law, he respected the vote and withdrew the martial law order. This demonstrated that he puts the rule of law for the nation ahead of any other intent." Yoon's low popularity – polls showed that less than 20% of South Koreans had approved of his performance as president before December – plummeted after he declared martial law. Minjoo, as the Democratic Party of Korea is known, then overreached, impeaching the acting president on Dec. 27 and moving hard against conservative figures. Leftists made a grab for total power, "employing gangster tactics to seize control of all branches of government," Lawrence Peck, advisor to the North Korea Freedom Coalition, told me in December. As Greg Scarlatoiu, president of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, stated in e-mail comments, the impeachment of the president and acting president was an attempt to undermine "checks and balances and the very fabric of democracy." The public rejected Minjoo's attempt for total power. Yoon's approval rating soared to 46.6% by the middle of January. Whether Yoon is popular or not, the country's Constitutional Court will soon decide whether to remove him. If he is removed, citizens will head to the polls within 60 days to select the 14th president of the Republic of Korea. Minjoo wants an election. There is evidence that the party has, with China's help, changed balloting in at least the last three national elections, starting in 2020. Its "uniformly narrow" wins in district after district in the National Assembly contests in 2020 were "statistically improbable." As one observer said, "Either God did it, or it was rigged." In all probability, it wasn't God. The South's early-balloting system was vulnerable to manipulation, especially with servers supplied by China's Huawei Technologies and, possibly, algorithms developed by Minjoo in coordination with China's Communist Party. Last year, the National Election Commission hired Chinese nationals to count votes. No wonder the results in 2020 and those in 2022 and 2024 were substantially different than late polling suggested, another indication of fraud. South Korea's National Election Commission, dominated by Minjoo, has repeatedly denied its electronic voting system could be hacked to change votes, but as Tara O of the East Asia Research Center reports, North Korea breached the commission's servers multiple times and the South's National Intelligence Service was also able to do so in tests. "The chance of vote rigging in Korea is extremely high," says Tara O, referring to an election following a removal of Yoon. Due to balloting fraud, the next president of South Korea is likely to be Minjoo's Lee Jae-myung, who was convicted last November of violating the country's election law. "Lee Jae-myung has sounded like a Communist-style socialist or Kim Jong Un himself," said Sung-Yoon Lee, author of "The Sister: North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, the Most Dangerous Woman in the World." "For example, Lee has called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 'our North Korea' and referred to Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung as 'our predecessors,' whose 'efforts' must 'not be slandered and undermined.'" Lee says that the world should expect "extreme appeasement of Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping and a determined crackdown of North Korea human rights organizations and activists." Minjoo's Lee Jae-myung is virulently anti-American. He has recently expressed support for continuation of South Korea's alliance with America, but South Koreans doubt his sincerity given his radical views. He has, for instance, called the U.S. an "occupying force" and blames Washington for Japan's annexation of Korea 115 years ago. If given the chance, he would almost certainly expel American troops and line up with China and North Korea. Lee Jae-myung, as his comments suggest, believes there is only one Korea and would therefore seek unification of the two Korean states. So on the Korean peninsula freedom is at risk, democracy is at risk, everything is at risk. South Koreans can now lose their country. "Only South Koreans themselves can save South Korea from the looming calamity," says Sung-Yoon Lee. "May God give them the wisdom and strength to save themselves."
