Here, I give you more frivolous but entertaining bits of the Seoul mayoral campaign and other political news. Sorry this is heavily left-leaning, but I really would have put up something from the Progressives if they did anything funny.
- Probably the lowest of the lowlight goes to National Assemblyman Shin Ji-Ho. Shin appeared on a live televised debate representing Na Gyeong-Won, where he slurred his speech and gave non sequitur answers. Turns out he had eight poktanju during dinner, telling the worried dinner companions that “I talk better after I drink.”
- Turns out Park Won-Soon was adopted to his great uncle’s family at age 13, because the great uncle was conscripted by the Japanese during the colonial era and went missing. Park’s great aunt decided to adopt Park in order to continue the family line. The fact that Park essentially was the only son of his great uncle led him to serve only 8 months of military, as the military either does not draft or gives a shortened service for an only child. But hilariously, GNP claimed that the adoption was staged for Park to have a shorter military duty.
- But wait, there is less from Shin Ji-Ho. Shin claimed that the adoption was faked because there was no Japanese conscription in 1941, when Park’s great uncle reportedly went missing. The claim was immediately ridiculed when it was revealed that a piece of legislation that Shin himself proposed acknowledges that the conscription began in 1938.
- Another failed attempt of an attack came from National Assemblyman Jin Seong-Ho, who claimed on an interview that Park Won-Soon could not be the “people’s candidate” because he previously lived in posh Apgujeong-dong. The interviewer then asked Jin where Na Gyeong-Won lives, and Jin could not give an answer. According to the personal property disclosure required by the elections law, Na is worth around $4 million while Park is $370,000 in debt. (Assuming $1 = KRW 1,000.)
- After one of his press secretaries got arrested and another resigned because of bribery allegations, Lee Myoung-Bak said: “We as an administration are morally perfect.” The jokes are too easy for this one. To be fair, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-Sik explained that Lee meant it as how his campaign had never received any illegal contribution.
- Miss me already? In a recent survey, more than 60 percent of Koreans said Roh Moo-Hyun did a good job during his presidency, and more than 60 percent said Lee Myeong-Bak is not doing a good job now.
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How exactly is whether or not some fool’s great-uncle was conscripted by the Japanese in the 1930s-40s relevant to Seoul’s present-day mayoral campaign?
For f*ck’s sake, get over it already. Longest-running broken record in history.
Not saying there’s nothing to that, but the poll might have a bit more credibility if it wasn’t conducted at the behest of OhMyNews.
*Snort* This coming from the political party that itself is rife with individuals or individuals who have children that have either skirted their military duty or did some easier version of it.
While on the topic of personal assets, how about them digs that LMB’s building for himself after leaving office?
True. But does having the poll “conducted at (OhMyNews’) behest” necessarily mean that OhMyNews itself had a hand in say formulating the questions themselves that could have affected the results one way or another? Of course, if anybody’s got evidence that that indeed was the case, do show.
I saw LMB speak in Washington today, mainly on the pending FTA, and he cut a presidential, statesmanlike figure to a degree that would be hard to imagine in the late RMH. Lee has few fans, particularly in these quarters and not entirely without reason, but the ROK’s stature and profile and international regard has unquestionably surged on his watch. (In US eyes, he enjoyed some “assists” from China being China and Japan spinning its wheels for 2 decades, but Seoul has “stepped up” in wise ways.)
I appreciate the Korean’s informed commentary on Korean politics; I learn a lot from his posts. But one of his language habits tends to undermine my appreciation: the capitalization of the word “Progressives” to aggregate the factions of the Korean liberal-left, whether formally affiliated or not. This is not proper usage in English, which normally reserves capitalization in this context to actual party or organizational names (e.g. the “Progressive Party” of the early 20th Century U.S. and Progressive Policy Institute, founding in the late 20th Century in the U.S.) (there is as well the Progressive Movement” historically, but that usage is also not applicable here). Usually the Korean is a level-headed guy, so I hope to see this correction occur without much protest.
@Attorney: …that and the moniker “Progressives” may be a misnomer for the groups/parties under this banner. Many of the policies they espouse are not particularly “progressive” and their blindness/silence to NK’s oppression is a huge turnoff — one such example is their continued opposition to the passage of the NK Human Rights act in parliament.
“Conservative” is probably a misnomer as well in the South Korean and American context.
CT- so very true.
The GNP in Korea is rotten to the core, and is full of unsavory characters as well.
Re the Seoul mayoral race, though — it’s a real toss-up and Park’s election is not so assured. Of the two candidates, Na is probably the lesser of two evils, even though she has quite a few unhelpful allies as TK explained above…
“Probably the lowest of the lowlight goes to National Assemblyman Shin Ji-Ho. Shin appeared on a live televised debate representing Na Gyeong-Won, where he slurred his speech and gave non sequitur answers. Turns out he had eight poktanju during dinner, telling the worried dinner companions that “I talk better after I drink.””
And yet he comes of as being less than witty with that comment. He’s certainly not as witty as Sir John A. MacDonald, who, upon being confronted for showing up a Parliament drunk, retorted that the people of Canada would rather have John A. drunk than a his opponent sober.
“Miss me already? In a recent survey, more than 60 percent of Koreans said Roh Moo-Hyun did a good job during his presidency”
How do these numbers compare to his approval ratings before he took a swan dive?
“Another failed attempt of an attack came from National Assemblyman Jin Seong-Ho, who claimed on an interview that Park Won-Soon could not be the “people’s candidate” because he previously lived in posh Apgujeong-dong. The interviewer then asked Jin where Na Gyeong-Won lives, and Jin could not give an answer. According to the personal property disclosure required by the elections law, Na is worth around $4 million while Park is $370,000 in debt. (Assuming $1 = KRW 1,000.)”
Priceless.
“We as an administration are morally perfect.”
Could his morality gauge be screwed?
Another stale post from TK. I pray for the day that TK sees the light and drops his long-winded, know-it-all style of blogging.
Agreed. It’s one of the few things Lee has done well.
That is a solid point. But the Progressives
do coordinate their actions to some degree, producing unified candidates in elections for example. At any rate, I will give the small case a try in the next few of my posts and see how it looks.
That’s because the Dems have a competing bill related to NK human rights.
그럼 읽지마.
Thanks, TK.
그럼 읽지마.
You forget one thing. When you put up a blog post, you are in a way of telling the readers to read it, and like it or not, since it’s there the readers will read it. And if the readers feel the post sucks then they have every right to say it sucks.
From the looks of it, you have an inability to consider or accept a viewpoint that is opposite of yours. Maybe you should harness that ability instead of acting like a know-it-all, I-own-the-world snob.
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