Bursting your bubble: South Korea’s Trumpist phase
On Saturday, more than 150 people were killed in a stampede during Halloween festivities in Seoul’s Itaewon district. The incident is the nation’s deadliest peacetime disaster in eight years. This column is dedicated to the victims and their families.
Three cheers for Liz Truss, the Iceberg Lady who lost to a lettuce; for the fresh hell that is Iran’s most immoral “moral” government; and for whatever the United States is even doing right now.
Democracy is at an age where it is of the people and by the people, but certainly not for the people. The “choices” we are given with our leaders are either this lunatic or that lunatic. Despite no one liking them once they’re elected, there is nothing we can do to get rid of them except wait for the next lunatic-versus-lunatic election. Look no further than former President Donald Trump — whose approval rating never passed 50% — and all the times Democrats tried to impeach him for his various (alleged) crime.
With much of the media now intent on mocking the disaster that is Britain’s Conservative Party — for whom voting intention is at a meager 22% — I would like to divert your attention for a quick moment to the equal, if not worse, calamity that is South Korea.
As a Korean American, I’ve noticed that Korea is always a little behind on American trends — whether it’s esports, Myers-Briggs personality tests or alt-right pipelines. Trumpism is no different. In 2016, reports that then-president Park Geun-hye disappeared for seven hours during the Sewol ferry disaster — which killed 300 people, including 250 high school students on a field trip — led to nationwide candlelight protests. By the next year, Park was impeached, removed from office and ultimately imprisoned. At this point, Trumpism had already made its way into the Korean far right. Fringe pro-Park counter-protests in 2017 featured American flags right alongside Korean flags — a feature which soon established itself as a hallmark of the Korean right, much as the stars and stripes do today with the American right.
Enter Yoon Seok-yeol, the conservative who won this year’s presidential election on an anti-woke economic platform. What made Yoon stand out was that he wasn’t the typical politician. He was more than willing to break convention. He didn’t care for it. Any American who was alive in 2016 — when Trump won because he was funny, memeable and didn’t give a shit — will recognize that line of reasoning. And just as it was Trump’s downfall, so too is it now with Yoon’s little regime.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of his administration’s failures.
The instant Yoon took office, he packed his cabinet with former prosecutors, many of whom were his former underlings at the Ministry of Justice. Prosecutors at the ministry are infamously difficult to prosecute (surprise!). Now, with prosecutors installed all over Yoon’s administration, the entire government is shielded from legal accountability. On Oct. 24, reports emerged, with evidence, that Yoon partied with his Minister of Justice and some 30 lawyers from a large law firm at a high-end bar. Yoon has so far vehemently denied the reports, calling them “cheap and childish fake news.” Remind you of anyone?
Yoon’s performance in foreign diplomacy is miserable to say the least. He declined to meet Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi when she visited Korea Aug. 4, saying he was on vacation. He met with President Joe Biden Sept. 21 at a conference for the Global Fund, and spoke with him for a grand total of 48 seconds — after which Yoon was caught on tape insulting Biden and U.S. Congresspersons. As world leaders met in Britain for Elizabeth II’s funeral, Yoon arrived late, attended the reception, refused to wait in line to pay respects to the queen lying in state and left.
With Korea’s image devastated, its economy destabilized with a weak currency and struggling stock market, and Yoon refusing to take responsibility, his approval rating as of last week stands at 30%, an improvement from 24% last month. Oct. 22 saw yet another candlelight protest, which organizers estimated brought 300,000 people to the streets demanding that Yoon resign. Their calls will likely fall on deaf ears; for now, South Koreans join Brits, Americans and others in patiently waiting to elect the next lunatic into office.
Jonathan Park is a sophomore writing about international politics outside of Western interests. He is also an assistant news editor for the Daily Trojan. His column, “Bursting Your Bubble,” usually runs every other Tuesday.