[Korea] The mystery of Han Dong-hoon, chairman of the emergency response committee, who was supposed to have resigned, becoming party leader
2024-08-28
Category:South Korea
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Han Dong-hoon becomes party leader
This person is Han Dong-hoon, who is currently the leader of the ruling party of South Korea, the People Power Party. After the People Power Party lost the general election in April this year, he resigned from his position as emergency response committee chairman, but later ran for the party's leadership election on July 23rd and became its leader. Before the election, some Seoul city council members belonging to the party proposed to "repeal the ordinance that restricts the use of symbols of Japanese imperialism such as the Rising Sun Flag in public places," and in response to the party's declaration that it "strongly opposes the repeal of the ordinance," Han said that he would take strict disciplinary action, and the city council members withdrew the ordinance in just one day.
He resigned from his key position
Han Dong-hoon said, "The use of symbols of Japanese imperialism in public places is absolutely unacceptable. The city council members who proposed the repeal of the ordinance will be investigated by the party and will take strict measures." And before the general election, a conflict arose between him and the First Lady over their differences in views, and the Blue House asked him to resign from his position as an emergency response committee member. Does this person's becoming the party leader mean that the balance of power within the ruling party, the People's Power Party, is changing dramatically?
He seeks to shift the ruling party to the left
First of all, this person seems to be claiming that they cannot win the election unless they incorporate the left-wing forces in South Korea, and by left-wing forces, they mean so-called anti-Japanese forces. In other words, comfort women groups and groups that support the forced labor issue. The People's Power Party has followed a pro-American and pro-Japanese path, but in the end, it seems that they are shifting the blame for their major election defeat to that.
How the left wing has become anti-Japanese
The background to this is that these anti-Japanese groups worked together with the right wing, and the Korean right wing was a party with strong anti-Japanese tendencies, but the comfort women agreement was concluded during the Park Geun-hye administration, and the text of this agreement called for the establishment of a new foundation to resolve the comfort women issue, meaning that the previous comfort women group, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, now the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, would lose their position completely, and the Moon Jae-in administration incorporated this.
This is how the left wing became an anti-Japanese party. Moreover, it became an even more extreme left wing party than ever before, and instigated the No Japan movement.
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[related article]
Prime Minister Kishida and South Korea's next president, Yoon Seok - Yeol, have a telephone conversation. Will there be any changes in foreign policy?
Regarding Yun Seok-Yeol's telephone talk with Prime Minister Kishida of Japan following the US, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs' foreign policy states that ``we will strengthen mutual assistance with China, Japan, and Russia, centering on the South Korea-US alliance. ”, which indicates that the telephone conversation did not follow the order of current foreign policy.
Looking at South Korea's diplomatic white paper for 2021, it uses expressions for Japan that are a step above the terms ``closest neighbor'' and ``neighboring country,'' and after looking into it, it appears that this expression has been adopted in 2020.
Similarly, in 2020, Japan reinstated the expression "important neighbor", which had been removed in 2018 and 2019. Although this appears to be in response to South Korea's move, it is a step down from the "most important neighboring country" that was used up until 2017.
Since this was a telephone conversation to report on the election, I don't think it will have a direct impact on Japan's diplomatic blueprint for 2022, but since the South Korean president will be inaugurated in May, it is important for the country to be able to carry out full-fledged diplomatic activities. will be after that.
It may be necessary to check the 2022 edition of the Diplomatic Bluebook to see if there will be any changes in Japan's foreign policy in the future
Looking at Mr. Yoon Suk Yeol's argument, the content of the liberal camp, which is the opposite of the pro - China and pro - North Moon Jae In administration
- Regarding diplomacy: Diplomacy is not visible in the Moon Jae-in government. His philosophy and values are also unclear. A clear value system should make our future predictable, but this is lacking.
These include the rule of law, liberal democracy, the value of human rights, and a codified international legal order. We must maintain and develop relationships between countries that share this same understanding.
[Yin Seok-yue's claim]
Regarding historical issues: We must always clearly define past history based on truth, and point out what needs to be pointed out. In matters of reality and the future, the interests of the people and the nation must be considered. After all, it's for future generations.
About Kim Jong-un: Kim Jong-un is judged to be a dictator in the light of modern civilized nations and liberal democratic systems. At the same time, he is a very decisive figure for the denuclearization of North Korea, for the Korean peninsula and for sustainable world peace, so he is a partner who must keep an outlet for dialogue open.
Security and defense: The right direction is for the United States to strengthen the expansionary restraint it provides to friendly countries through intercontinental ballistic missiles.
About the United States: The Biden administration of the United States is determined to overwhelm China with cutting-edge technology and to bring its standards to China. Global business will be difficult to establish if companies turn their backs on the United States, so the government must lead companies with ``strategic clarity.''
THAAD: Regarding the deployment of the THAAD system, it is ``clearly our sovereign territory,'' but it is a ``horizontal relationship with China.''
Regarding China: In order to insist on withdrawal of THAAD deployment, China must first withdraw long-range radars deployed near its own borders. Fulfill the agreement to normalize relations between South Korea and China unless additional THAAD deployments are made.
Contents are normal. The impression is that it follows the trend of the latter half of the Park Geun-hye administration. Since it is difficult to win with the current point difference, the focus will be on how concrete this content can be and whether it can create a message that can gather floating votes.
The ''North-South division issue'' and the future aimed at by Kim Gu - Lee Jae-myung's assertion is an unrealizable hypothesis.
South Korean Democratic Party members Moon Jae-in and Lee Jae-myung cite Kim Gu as the politician they most respect. Kim Gu was a person who served as the president of the provisional government of the Republic of Korea. He rejected the postwar state of US-Soviet trust between North and South Korea and proposed a plan to unify the peninsula among the Korean people, but this idea was rejected by Kim Il-sung of North Korea. It was an unrealizable idea that would be denied by the United States as well. After a political dispute, Syngman Rhee, who was recommended by the United States, became president, and Kim Gu was subsequently assassinated.
Lee Jae-myung recently told a US senator that the North and South were divided because of the US. I guess he is trying to say that if he had done what Kim Gu said at that time, there would have been no Korean War or division between North and South. However, there is absolutely no basis for this "if". At that time, there were no people in Japan or abroad who supported this idea.
Kim Gu's ideas did not produce any results in the environment of the time. Based on this premise, there are no objective facts in history; all that exists is the existence of South Korea and North Korea since the founding of the nation more than 70 years ago. North Korea established the current state of North Korea without paying any attention to Kim Gu's claims.
In other words, it is logically impossible to trace back to Kim Gu's assertion what the basis for the unification of North and South is advocated by the No. 1 and No. 2 members of the Democratic Party of Japan. They are the most pro-North Korean and pro-China faction in the South Korean National Assembly. Even now, that claim is not appreciated at all by North Korea, the United States, or even China.
The Korean won is falling.It exceeded 1,240 won. The reason that Japan must not make promises with the new Korean president prematurely .
The won fell to 1,243 won against the dollar.If the Fed raises interest rates in real terms, it will fall further.The main reason is that Russia's economic prospects are pessimistic. And Yoon Seok-yeol won the presidential election on March 9 and became president on May 10.Yoon called for strengthening the U.S.-South Korea alliance and mentioned the deployment of THAAD.China accounted for 24.8 percent of Korea's exports, twice as much as the U.S., the second largest exporter.When the Park Geun Hye administration decided to deploy THAAD, China imposed severe economic sanctions.China's economic sanctions are only pessimistic for investors, so Korean investment is likely to rise further and the won is likely to fall further.
Next time, South Korea will break its promise with China
What are your expectations for President Yun Seok-yue? Twisted National Assembly is a thorny road - Should Japan approve or wait and see? - South Korea's general election will be held in 2024.
Positive theory of Japan-Korea relations and wait-and-see theory
Remains twisted until 2024
Will true speech be freed under the new administration
Korean society will be denounced if it affirms Japanese rule
A country where there is no freedom of speech about history
Looking at Japanese public opinion regarding the prospects for Japan-Korea relations since the inauguration of the Yun Seok-Yeol administration, there are some positive views toward improving relations and a wait-and-see view seen mainly on the right. As always, the affirmative opinion has no concrete content, and since the other party is asking for an improvement in the relationship, things will probably get better. It's just a matter of trying to get along because we're neighboring countries.
The wait-and-see theory is based on the points of the Korean unified local elections in June and the national election in 2024, and that the Democratic Party (a pro-China, anti-Japanese party) holds the majority of the Korean National Assembly.Twisted stateTherefore, unless the ruling party wins the power of the people in the 2024 general election, no bill will be passed, so nothing can be done. Until then, Japan should do nothing and wait and see.
The least I can say is that I don't expect Japan-Korea relations to deteriorate any further during the next five years of the next administration. Personally, I think that if things don't get any worse, there's no need for them to get any better. In other words, there is a necessary distance between Japan and South Korea. This may be the best distance relationship.
In the long run, it would be most effective if the speech of pro-Japanese groups was liberated, rather than if the anti-Japanese movement subsided on the surface. In addition to those who prefer Japanese culture in South Korea, pro-Japanese speech is another form of speech that has been suppressed regarding the annexation of Japan and South Korea and Japan's support for South Korea after the war. Japan has no choice but to wait for South Korea to change, but there is no sign of that happening at all. The appearance of calm on the surface is only a temporary phenomenon. The root of Japan-Korea relations lies within South Korea, where freedom of speech is not recognized regarding the past history of Japan and South Korea. It is impossible to publicly state the fact that the Korean Peninsula modernized under Japanese rule.
Under Japanese rule, slaves, who accounted for half of the population, were liberated, the class system was abolished, a school education system was established, food self-sufficiency increased, starvation deaths decreased sharply, sanitary conditions improved, and cholera and typhoid fever were reduced. The number of deaths due to such things has decreased dramatically. These are facts that do not exist in Korea.
In South Korea's historical perspective, those who affirmed Japanese rule were expelled from academia in order to make the history of being enslaved and violated by Japan into a fact. He was also expelled from politics and government, and media outlets were also blocked. This is an unobjective view of history that only accepts one opinion, and is not academic in the first place. At the root of Japan-Korea relations is this unilaterally created view of history and the education of history based on that view. Unless this changes, we can see that even if the government continues to work together as it has done in the past, it will crumble like a sandcastle. This is exactly what history has proven.
In other words, improving Japan-Korea relations means that South Korea itself will gain academic and speech freedom, that scholars who support Japanese rule will return to academia, that they will return to politics, and that South Korea will become a democratic country where people can have free discussions. . Without this, anti-Japanese education will never disappear. This is an issue that requires the process of South Korea maturing as a democratic country, so it will take a very long time. Therefore, Japan should continue to keep its distance and not approach them easily.
If we look at the past, we are skeptical that politics will improve Japan-Korea relations. This problem is that academic and freedom of speech have not been secured in South Korea in the history of Japan and South Korea.