Grand National Party Chairwoman Park Geun-hye was attacked by two drunken goons democracy activists tonight (Yonhap):
Park, chairwoman of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), was canvassing for Oh Se-hoon, GNP candidate for Seoul mayor, in Sinchon in Seoul when one of the men, identified only by his surname Ji, allegedly slashed the right side of her face with a utility knife…
Police said Ji approached Park as if to shake her hand, but instead took out his box cutter to attack her. His accomplice then punched her in the face.
Park received a four-inch cut along the side of her face, which required 17 stitches.
Naturally GNP officials are blaming the Roh administration for not providing security, although I can’t help but wander what Park’s private security people were doing when this happened (I believe I saw some with her on TV the other day, I’m open to correction on that). Roh condemned the attack.
Let me say up front that this is a terrible incident and I hope that the guys who did it are not able to get out of this with a slap on their wrists once they sober up and give their expected fake sincere apology.
On the other hand, the timing is pretty sweet for the GNP, with local elections less than two weeks away. At a minimum, this will dominate the political news for a couple of cycles and give the GNP leader sympathy at a time when the Uri party needs to try to change the dynamics of the race. Park played her part well, reportedly urging party leaders to ‘continue with their electioneering.’
To make matters worse for Uri, the two drunks (a third one got away) acted like they were instilled with the ’spirit of Gwangju:’
But Ji and the other suspect in custody, identified only by his surname Park, were refusing to cooperate with the investigation, and were shouting the slogan, “Let’s save democracy. Long live the Republic of Korea,” according to police.
So, at least until these guys sober up, this was an overtly political act.
How is Chung Dong-young going to beat that?
25 Comments
I think you’re being too generous in attributing this attack to drink. Who’s to say these guys didn’t go on a drinking binge precisely in order to gin themselves up for such an attack?
“Let’s save democracy. Long live the Republic of Korea”
This is what these disgusting Roh MooHyun fans said after one of them ripped a blade down a candidates face, and the other then stepped forward and punched her in the face.
Politically, I am a centrist. However, I am a firm believer in democracy, and that means I am willing to live with defeat. That’s democracy. Your party gets defeated, and you grumble and go to work the next day and hope for the best.
Korea’s “democratization” is stuck at half-finished because of left-wing anti-democratic fanaticism.
In Korea’s left wing, there is no tolerance for other points of view. There is no willingness to concede “popular opinion is against us this time, and so we will accept it and work at a grass-roots level to change that popular opinion”. Blind self-righteousness that would put a Bible-belt preacher to shame permeates Korea’s left, and with this arrogance comes a willingness to employ violence at the drop of a hat. When you KNOW that you are ‘correct’, well it just stands to follow that you have every right to attack police with steel or bamboo poles, violently detain US soldiers traveling on the subway, menace visible minorites in public with their Korean girlfriends, attack the HongKong police, and so on and so on and sooooooo on.
Korea’s left-wing, and their masters in Pyongyang, and I am serious about that charge and believe it whole-heartedly, are the most disgusting, repressive, violent, anti-progressive, anti-women, anti-tolerance, pro-racist
Racism runs rampant in UriDang and the Democratic Labor party - away from the cameras, every level of these parties casually uses derogatory phrases towards non-Koreans, particularily humans who are black or white.
Uridang and the Democratic Labor party tolerate violence, refuse to condemn violence, and encourage violence through their devisive and propagandistic “us vs. them” theme.
Chung DongYoung: after 4 years on his knees licking Pyongyangs feet, how can he condemn the attempted murder of the head of the opposition party? Murdering opponents is the Kim IlSung way, may be be burning in hell at this moment.
Reminiscent of the shooting in the 2004 Taiwanese presidential elections, no? If I remember correctly there was a lot of talk of conspiracy theory back then. Also, she apparently had to get 60 stitches because it was a thin and long wound, according to the official briefing.
Worse for Uri, Park is going to have a nice big permanant scar on her delicate face on television, to remind the voters what kinds of left wing nut cases are running around loose. In the West, those attackers would face attempted murder and decades in the slammer. In Korea, they’ll be out in no time.
Hugh summed it up pretty nicely, but I do find it interesting that Chung Dong-young condemns the attack on Park but when these same left wing thugs are attacking and stabbing the young mandatory service riot police and soldiers with metal pipes and sharpened bamboo poles he says nothing and goes and hides on Dokdo.
Hugh wrote:
One should not blame just the left-wing, anti-democratic forces but consider that this is just another sign of the lack of faith that many have in their democracy in Korea. Most Koreans do not have much faith in their elected officials and because of this, neither do they have faith in their own system of government. While the left-wing agitators bear much responsibility for their harmful actions, Hanara and others deserve blame as well for their harmful *inaction* and historic failure in providing good government. Consider well that if Hanara wins most of the elections this time it is only because they are the lesser of two evils — not because they offer any genuine improvement in government.
Perhaps each and every one of the running Hanra party members should cut their own faces so that when they awake each day and look in the mirror. they would be reminded of what the failure to provide just and good government for their citizens means.
quite frankly, the ONLY ones to blame are the left-wing commie agitators who did this. to even suggest that others deserve blame for “harmful inaction” or some such other nonsense simply points to your own severely deficient mental capacities, r.elgin.
It’s bad enough that the “spirit of Gwangju” gets appropriated the way it has been. We don’t need to compound it, do we, Andy?
What a cut up!
“Judy”, I contend that years of mis-governance on the part of Hanara (and its precursors) has only helped create this situation wherein leftist agitators can cause such trouble. Hanara’s record of corruption and mismanagement speaks for itself and that’s just the part that is available to the public.
Events like this don’t just come out of nowhere, especially in Korea. Misgovernance through the years has lead to the rise in power of “leftist” elements in Korea and their naive idealism (at best). Whether or not these thugs are average Koreans that have no faith in their own system of government or are “commie agitators” makes no difference. Either one can be described as the harvest from years of mismanagement by those polititians who have come before.
“Judy”, it is unfortunate that your powers of persuasion and sensibilities are so feeble that you must stoop to making petty personal attacks. Try explaining your own thoughts and their rationale (if you are able).
the “failure to provide just and good goverment” certainly does not mean that they deserve to have their faces slashed. you are attempting to lay some of the blame on hanaro’s history instead of on the extremists who tried to murder ms. park, and that’s just wrong.
certainly you are not using “can” to mean “are allowed to” or “are able to.” these are extremists who could have done this anywhere, any day of the week to anyone they felt they were in opposition to.
“Judy”, I’m suggesting that the members of Hanara need a constant reminder of their failures so as to do better each day, a reminder that might be personal, thus remembered instead of the insincere words that have served them so well.
The suggested act of cutting one’s own face is an allegorical action only. Apparently you did not understand the allegoric content of my remark.
people get the government they deserve.
I still think the Pakster is a hottie, even with the scar.
“It’s bad enough that the “spirit of Gwangju” gets appropriated the way it has been. We don’t need to compound it, do we, Andy?”
Perhaps that was a bit over the top. Maybe I should have said, “pretended to act.”
However, in my defense, I feel obliged to point out that the Gwangju Citizen’s Army was not exactly taking plays out of the Gahdhi/MLK playbook.******
*****(NOTE: I am in no way justifying the military coup or the use of military force against unarmed civilians.)
some people in South Korea will die hating Young Nam political forces. My friend’s father says he has witnessed that the South Korean Army would check up on the ballot boxes right after they voted. And then hold a huge session in the middle of the night, over
“who actually voted for Kim Dae Jung.”
They would go over man by man, and find whoever it is and beat the hell out of him.
I have no idea what era my friend’s father grew up in. Actually it must be Park Jung Hee’s reign.
Park was good with economics, but fixing elections isn’t the way to gain any love from a rival province. They’ll hate you until they all die of old age.
I hope Ms. Park recovers fully without any nerve damages.
“Takes one for the team,” Andy?
It sounded at first like you were suggesting (as Lady Grey — Shelton’s alter ego? — alluded to) that this may have been a set up to either gain sympathy for the Hannara Party and/or make the ruling Woozy Party look bad.
Anyway, judging by the guy’s criminal past, he may just be a violent nutjob and not part of some vast left-wing conspiracy. But who knows? Such people make good dupes, especially when they’re liquored up. Maybe the assailant (who will likely go to jail for a long time now) took one for the team.
Ah, crap, now Hugh’s got me looking conspiratorilally toward the little rascals in “Our Gang.”
certainly politicians across the board need “constant reminders of their failures” in order to improve their constituencies’ well-being. however, i would suggest you cleave that idea from the attempted murder as it comes across as a “well, you were asking for it”-class justification.
no pun intended, and you’re ill-begotten allegory was gotten.
I cannot help but think this attack is not what it seems. Uri politicians are dumb but not this dumb.
This “face slashing” is so dumb. I even think this could be manufactured by Hannara. I just hope Koreans don’t find out even if it is so, because we need to bury Uri party on this election.
Forget about YoungNam, HoNam, pro-North or pro-Conservative. This is no time for such nonsense. Korea must be pro-America and pro-market, just to survive coming worldwide depression.
If Korea still hang on to ridiculous idea of unification, military-independence or pro-North sentiment, it will wind up serving Chinese ambition. Just look at North Korea. That is what China wants for South Korea. Koreans dying of hunger.
The only difference between the North and the South is American intervention!
Russia is re-arming. Japan is re-arming. China spends mucho money on buying weapons. North Korea already belongs to China.
What can South Korea do? It is inevitable that Korea must serve one of these masters. Or, face total destruction in the hands of one of these strong neighbors.
Thank God for America! Thank God for the US troops.
To avoid upcoming China-Japan war, Korea must stick to America, which will skip this horrible future war. The US does not like Japan and definitely will not participate in the China-Japan hegemony powwow. The US is too smart for that.
Korea’s future lies in full cooperation with America!
Baduk, if the US doesn’t defend Japan, it risks losing influence in Korea, Taiwan, and the entire Asia-Pacific region. The US will call on the EU, Israel, and Australia to help. China wouldn’t make such a move unless it had major backup, like India, Russia, and the Islamic countries. Then, the conflict won’t be called the Third Sino-Japanese War, it will be called World War III.
Japan and Russia are ‘re-arming’? Huh. How do two of the strongest military powers of the 21st Century ‘re-arm’? Heck, Japan pretty much ‘re-armed’ right after the American occupation.
The US will not get involved in the cat fight between China and Japan. Besides, the US can sell hardwares to Japan and the EU can unload more weapons to China. Let these two idiots fight it out. They wanted to fight ever since 1945.
The US can call for peace after China drops a few A-bombs to Tokyo and Japan does Beijing. Fools die. The US can supply materials and manpower after the war.
There is no reason for the US to get involved.
Wow, I guess the world is in for quite a fireworks show, then. We’ll watch it all live on CNN! Or maybe it’ll be on pay-per-view. Crap.