Kim Guen Tae really is a likeable fellow too, which is too bad.

On the other hand, Kim’s pandering to Honamer’s finely-tuned sense of victimization makes political sense. He will need those Jeolla/Gwangju votes when he seeks Uri’s presidential nomination next year.

Was it? It sounds more like a true believer, which is what Kim is, who’s intent on a self-inflicted auto da’fe for himself and his party under the banner of ideological purity. It might get him a hearing among the diehards in Jeolla but, standing alone, it looks like a surefire way to make himself and his party irrelevant to the non-sentimental, non-ideological concerns of the rest of the population. It also puts him and Uri even more squarely in competition with the rump of the Millenium Democrats (or whatever they are called now) for the same base. Could news for the conservatives, though; but less good for Korea if the folks in Jeolla buy into it and it gives more oxygen to sectionalism.