haiguozhi丨south korea’s political arena is constantly turbulent. can former president moon jae-in break the “blue house curse”?
2024-09-02
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according to yonhap news agency on september 1 local time, south korean prosecutors searched the property of former president moon jae-in's daughter moon da-hye, and listed moon jae-in as a criminal suspect for suspected bribery in the search warrant.
moon jae-in (xinhua news agency file photo)
this is not the first time that wen duohui has caused trouble for her father
according to reports, the south korean prosecutors searched moon da-hye while investigating the suspicion of "favorable employment by an airline company" by moon jae-in's former son-in-law, seo. after former democratic party lawmaker lee sang-jik became the head of the small and medium venture corporation in 2018, seo, who had no experience in the aviation industry, joined thai eastar jet, founded by lee sang-jik, as a senior executive, raising questions about whether he was favored.
south korean prosecutors suspect that lee, the founder of eastar jet and a former congressman, may have illegally hired seo, and are therefore summoning people who worked at the blue house and government departments at the time for investigation. reports indicate that south korean prosecutors regard the more than 200 million won (about 1.06 million yuan) in salary seo received while serving as an executive at thai eastar jet as a bribe received by moon jae-in. south korean prosecutors said they are investigating the case based on evidence and legal principles and will not consider any political factors. it is difficult to disclose the details of the case at this time.
in response, the democratic party, the largest opposition party in south korea, criticized the prosecutors' search of moon da-hui's residence as "an obvious act of political retaliation and suppression of the opposition party." the report mentioned that xu had divorced moon da-hui a few years ago. since the beginning of this year, xu has been questioned as a witness three times, but he has exercised his right to remain silent every time.
in fact, this is not the first time that moon da-hye has caused trouble for her father. as early as 2018, the media broke the news that after moon jae-in was elected president of south korea, moon da-hye joined the then opposition justice party instead of her father's ruling democratic party. although the blue house responded at the time that moon da-hye had supported the justice party a long time ago and that moon jae-in, as a father, respected his daughter's political choice, some netizens still believed that moon da-hye's move was suspected of "going against" her father.
in addition, it has now been revealed that her ex-husband, who has no experience working in the aviation industry, was involved in an airline-related case, and some people even commented that she was "a rip-off."
on may 8, 2017, moon da-hye brought her son to support moon jae-in, who was then a presidential candidate. (source: overseas network)
the "grudges" between moon jae-in and yoon seok-yeol
more than 20 years of career as a prosecutor earned yoon seok-yeol the title of "iron-faced censor."
park geun-hye and lee myung-bak were both sent to prison by yoon seok-yeol. in recognition of his iron-fisted style of fighting corruption despite his fear of power, the moon jae-in government appointed him as the prosecutor general in 2019.
it was thought that yoon seok-yeol's "brilliant" life would start smoothly from then on, but unexpectedly, a turning point came soon after. the reason was that in 2019, the ruling party of moon jae-in advocated judicial reform in order to check and balance the prosecution. it promoted the establishment of an anti-corruption agency independent of the prosecution, which was strongly opposed by the opposition party and the prosecution.
moon jae-in successively appointed cho kuk and choo mi-ae, a senior politician who had served three presidents, as minister of justice in an effort to weaken the power of the prosecutor general, which triggered a counterattack from yoon seok-yeol. the rift between yoon seok-yeol and the ruling party deepened. in the end, yoon seok-yeol announced his participation in politics and joined the largest opposition party, the people's power party. soon after, he became the presidential candidate supported by the party.
the former hero has become the biggest rival.
during the campaign, yoon seok-yeol responded to a reporter's question by saying that if elected, he would launch an investigation into the moon jae-in government to "clear up the accumulated problems" and that he would not interfere in the process. in response, moon jae-in expressed "strong anger" and demanded an apology. the relationship between the two sides was on the verge of breaking down.
now, yoon seok-yeol has also entered a "dangerous moment". according to the latest poll results released by gallup korea on august 30, yoon seok-yeol's approval rating for his administration is 23%, the second lowest since the 21% approval rating at the end of april this year. compared with 27% a week ago, the approval rating has dropped by 4 percentage points.
yin xiyue (xinhua news agency file photo)
can moon jae-in break out of the "blue house curse"?
starting with the first president, syngman rhee, who was overthrown by the people and fled to the united states and died in exile, almost every one of the 16 subsequent presidents of south korea has lost their integrity in their later years, either dying in exile, being assassinated, imprisoned, disgraced, or ending up in a mess. no one has been able to achieve success and leave unscathed. can moon jae-in break the "blue house curse"?
of course, in order to prevent the "blue house curse" from coming true again, moon jae-in is not completely unprepared. on the eve of his resignation, south korea passed a bill that significantly restricted the prosecutors' investigative powers. in addition, according to south korean polls, moon jae-in's approval rating was as high as 45% when he left office, which is indeed "surprisingly high" compared to other south korean presidents whose approval ratings did not exceed 30% when they left office.
a new round of turbulent times has begun brewing in south korean politics. let's wait and see where moon jae-in will go.
bao chunling, editor of dazhong news and poster news, compiled from xinhua news agency, china news service, overseas network, reference news, jimu news, etc.
