Lee, Yoon to have first one-on-one TV debate next week (South Korea presidential campaign)

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Last edited Tue Jan 18, 2022, 02:23 AM - Edit history (2)

Lee, Yoon to have first one-on-one TV debate next week
Politics 11:25 January 18, 2022 Yonhap News Agency

DP candidate Lee Jae-myung will face off against People Power Party candidate Yoon Suk-yeol at 10 p.m. on Jan. 27 for a 120-minute debate jointly hosted by the three terrestrial TV stations KBS, MBC and SBS.

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220118004100315?section=national/politics

Not likely to go well for presidential candidate Yoon, who is not an effective speaker. The timing is poor too. Do his handlers expect the public to forget by then, the disastrous content of over 50 telephone conversations Yoon's wife had with a reporter from the Voice of Seoul video channel? They were televised by MBC Straight on January 16, and will be revisited on the same program January 23. Meanwhile, the reports on the conversations are going viral on the internet in South Korea.

The conservative candidate's wife, Kim Gon-hee, made statements sharing her perspective on various prosecution decisions while Yoon was prosecutor general and made it quite apparent that politics motivated the office's decisions to prosecute former Justice Minister Cho Guk and his wife, and to put Cho's wife, who is not well, in jail, pending trial and appeal. Ms. Kim's statements linked investigation and prosecution issues against other prominent democrats to political motives. She also appears to be playing a leading role with Yoon's campaign team. Yoon claimed she despises politics and wouldn't play a "first lady" role at the Blue House if he were elected.

Worse were Ms. Kim's sexist attacks on the Me Too movement. Her observations on a rape case involving a democratic politician and former governor Ahn Hui-jeong were on the crude side to say the least and could be characterized as mocking the victim. Questions likely to come up could concern the superstitious beliefs of Yoon and his wife. Another would be who is running his campaign, his wife? Is his wife not another Choi Son-shil, the Rasputin of the disgraced Park Geun-hye regime? Is it true, as his wife said, that one has to be an opportunist and play both sides, because one never knows what the future holds? Does Yoon have any political principles or is he a complete Machiavellian believing only in money and power as his wife revealed herself to be?

KIm's recorded statements included not so veiled threats to seek revenge on independent journalism sources on the left such as the Voice of Seoul, O My News TV, and 열린공감TV who have exposed much of the background and history of corruption allegations and legal ramifications of the business dealings of Yoon's wife and mother in law. She said she would do this "after I take power."

Yoon's wife's recorded conversations revealed her to be arrogant, manipulative, vindictive, and vulgar. She attempted to buy the loyalty of the reporter with whom she was communicating. She admitted that she spoke often with prosecutor Han Dong-hun. Han, is viewed by critics as Yoon's right hand man and was alleged to be the coordinator of press-prosecution collusion in politically motivated prosecutions. I'm sure this will provide further insight into Yoon's responses at the debate. The second MBC straight report on the Kim Gon-hee recorded conversations will take place on January 23. After that the Voice of Seoul which recorded the conversations will release those conversations MBC doesn't as allowed by their contract.

For more information on the background of the seven hours of recorded conversations and the injunction limiting their disclosure, I wrote an article a couple of days ago about a day before the June 17 MBC Straight broadcast. The link is below:

SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 2022
“7 Hours” MBC Broadcast may affect presidential election in South Korea

https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2022/01/7-hours-mbc-broadcast-may-affect.html

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1. New report says Kim declined to answer a subpoena in the Deutsche Motors stock manipulation case

At first it was reported that she was "negotiating her appearance" at investigator offices. Now she's flatly ignoring the subpoena. Normally, an arrest warrant would be applied for in this instance. However, Kim Gon-hee appears to be above the law, as prosecutors appear to be letting the matter slide. The other five suspects are already in jail. Deutsche Motors was a single car dealership that somehow became a public offering on the Korean stock market. It is alleged that Kim obtained thousands of shares in an off market transaction. It has the appearance of having been a pump and dump scheme.

The handling of the case again raises the matter of the politicization of the prosecution offices in South Korea. The current prosecutor general raised the issue of "outside influence" on the independent function of prosecution offices. The office of prosecutors throughout South Korea are obviously polarized politically since Yoon was forced out as Prosecutor General by a disciplinary hearing and a new law that required a one year "cooling off" period for non-elected public officials before they could run for office. Until a definitive outcome for Yoon's campaign for the presidency, many lawyers and judges appear reluctant to make decisions adversely affecting his interests. This is motivated primarily by fear according to observers critical of the South Korean press and judicial system.

A report today indicated that Yoon now wants the debate delayed until January 31. This would allow time for campaign damage control public relations to take effect. One of the strategies is to minimize and dispute the characterizations of Kim in the recorded converstations, to initiate a criminal investigation of the Voice of Seoul reporter, and to release derogatory information about the rival candidate Lee Jae-myung, from family members who have grudges against him, and regurgitation of the Daejangdong real estate scandal from his days as mayor. It is alleged that Lee is a hot head and verbally abusive. Reportedly there is a recording of an outburst in an ongoing family dispute.