2017.05.09 04:54
Asia Pacific - New York Times Moon Jae-in Declares Victory in South Korea Presidential Election
MAY 9, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea — Moon Jae-in, a human rights lawyer who favors dialogue with North Korea, declared victory in the South Korean presidential election on Tuesday, after his rivals appeared to concede defeat.
“I will be a president for all the people,” Mr. Moon said in a nationally televised speech before a group of cheering supporters gathered in central Seoul, the capital. He said he would work with political rivals to create a country where “justice rules and common sense prevails.” Mr. Moon was leading in the vote-counting by a comfortable margin around midnight local time, though official results were not expected until well into Wednesday.
The vote caps a remarkable national drama in which a corruption scandal, mass protests and impeachment forced a South Korean president from office for the first time in almost 60 years, leaving the conservative establishment in disarray and its former leader in jail.
Mr. Moon’s victory would scramble the geopolitics of the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. Even as it is urging the world to step up pressure on Pyongyang, the Trump administration now faces the prospect of a key ally — one with the most at stake in any conflict with the North — breaking ranks and adopting a more conciliatory approach.
Mr. Moon has argued that Washington’s reliance on sanctions and “maximum pressure” has been ineffective and that it is time to give engagement and dialogue with the North another chance, an approach favored by China. He has also called for a review of the Pentagon’s deployment of an antimissile defense system in South Korea that the Chinese government has denounced.
Mr. Moon’s position on North Korea is a sharp departure from that of his two immediate predecessors, conservatives who tended to view anything less than strict enforcement of sanctions against the North as ideologically suspect.
While he condemned “the ruthless dictatorial regime of North Korea” during his campaign, Mr. Moon also argued that South Korea must “embrace the North Korean people to achieve peaceful reunification one day.”
“To do that, we must recognize Kim Jong-un as their ruler and as our dialogue partner,” he said. “The goal of sanctions must be to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table.” David Straub, a former director of Korean affairs at the State Department and a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, a think tank near Seoul, warned of “serious policy differences between the U.S. and South Korean presidents” over North Korea and related issues. He added that they could lead to “significantly increased popular dissatisfaction with the United States in South Korea.”
China, on the other hand, is likely to welcome Mr. Moon’s election, which may make it easier for it to deflect pressure from the United States to get tough on North Korea and strengthen its argument that Washington must address the North’s concerns about security.
Mr. Moon’s view of North Korea echoes the approach of the two liberal presidents who held power from 1998 to 2008 and pursued a so-called sunshine policy toward the North that included diplomatic talks, family reunions and joint economic projects, such as the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea, near the demilitarized zone. But that era was punctuated by the North’s first nuclear test, conducted in 2006, and much has changed on the Korean Peninsula since.
With four more tests under its belt, each more powerful than the last, and a rapidly advancing ballistic missile program, North Korea poses a greater threat to the South and appears to be closing in on nuclear arms capable of striking the United States. Mr. Moon also faces a mercurial adversary in Kim Jong-un, 33, who took power in Pyongyang after the death of his father in late 2011.
The American missile defense system, known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, presents another test for Mr. Moon. It went into operation last week, and Mr. Moon has complained that its deployment was rushed to present him with a fait accompli. But if he tries to undo it, he could strain the alliance with Washington while leaving the impression of bowing to Chinese pressure.
Acknowledging the complexity of the challenges he faces, Mr. Moon has been careful to say that when he promised to review the Thaad deployment, he did not necessarily mean he would reverse it.
And while he has said South Korea must “learn to say no” to Washington, he has emphasized that any diplomatic overture toward North Korea will be grounded in the South’s alliance with the United States. He has also often expressed gratitude to the United States for protecting the South from Communism and supporting its transformation into a prosperous democracy.
Mr. Moon’s parents fled Communist rule during the Korean War and were among tens of thousands evacuated from the North Korean port of Hungnam by retreating American Navy vessels in the winter of 1950. They often told him about the Christmas sweets that American troops handed out to those packed into the ships during the journey. Mr. Moon was born in January 1953, after his parents had resettled in a refugee camp on an island off the southern coast of South Korea. His father was a handyman, and his mother peddled eggs, coal briquettes and black-market American relief goods.
Asked by the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo what he would do with a crystal ball, Mr. Moon said last month that he would show his 90-year-old mother what her North Korean hometown looked like now and how her relatives there were faring. “If Korea reunifies, the first thing I would do is to take my mother’s hand and visit her hometown,” he said. “Perhaps, I could retire there as a lawyer.”
Mr. Roh completed his five-year term in 2008 and committed suicide the next year as prosecutors investigated corruption allegations against his family. “It was the most painful day in my life,” Mr. Moon wrote in his memoir, describing his friend’s death as “tantamount to a political murder” and placing the blame for it on a political vendetta by a new conservative government that wanted to discredit him.
But he narrowly lost to Ms. Park, the daughter of the South Korean military strongman Park Chung-hee, and spent the next four years as a leader of the opposition. In a recent interview, Mr. Moon recalled how he visited Mr. Roh’s predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and architect of the sunshine policy, shortly before Mr. Kim died in 2009.
Mr. Kim was so feeble by then that he had to be fed by his wife, and he was heartbroken. He had devoted much of his career to building trust with North Korea through humanitarian and economic aid, and the conservatives in power were dismantling that legacy and embracing sanctions against the North.
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2017.05.09 05:24
2017.05.09 09:35
FYI (1);
Post-Election Korea
- What's Coming Next & As A Conservative, What We Have To Do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM-na0WC7Es
2017.05.09 11:04
Dear WM,
To tell you the truth, I am experiencing the most difficult days in my life at this time for obvious reason.
I would like to extend my gratitude to you for presenting this article written by Choe Sang Hun: Asia Pacific - The New York Times.
First of all, I am curious to know exactly what sort of education this fellow received especially in regard to history of Korea between 1945 and 2008. I presume he received totally distorted and communist-led indoctrinations only.
This man said 0509 2017 vote caps a remarkable national drama in which a corruption scandal, mass protests and impeachment of president Park keun Hae were dealt.. What corruption? I must let him know the fact that corrution charge has never been formally judged by court through legitimate channel. "Mass protests"? He is talking about only fabricated ones, never about massive patriotic counter protests!
Unquestionably, this guy is unaware or disregarding the whole treacherous political maneuverings which led to this election.
Sun-shine policy of 1998 - 2008 only caused NK able to conduct nuclear test in 2006. Yet, this guy reported that Washington's reliance on sanction and maximum pressure have been ineffective and Moon believes that it is time to give engagement in dialogue with the NK another chance. What a horrendous intrigue?
This guy also said serious policy differences between the U.S. and S.K could lead to significantly increased POPULAR dissatisfaction with the U.S. in South Korea. What does he mean by 'popular'. I dare say silent majority patriotic Korean populace will never agree with this statement.
He reporterd that in the presidential race of 2012, Moon vowed to finish work by fighting against corruption, family-owned conglomerates and politically motivated prosecutors. Moon himself is the most corrupt person and a liar. We all witnessed about everything committed by (pro-communist) political prosecutors in the entire involved level of courts illegally impeaching innocent president Park Keun Hae.
Reportedly, Moon said must embrace NK people to achieve peaceful unification one day. Unless NK Labor Party delete clause in its platform declaring their aim of unification only under communism, negotiation with NK regime is total non-sense.
John Soosup Lah
2017.05.09 16:05
Dear Dr. Lah:
I agree with you fully. There isn't much more for me to add to your thorough analysis of the Korean situation.
I am thoroughly disappointed and even shocked at the outcome of this disastrous election result.
I have been anti-communist all my life though never been an activist or a fighter politically.
Moon has persistently refused to declare Kim Jung Un as our main enemy, "주적(主敵)".
Is there any Country in this world to be an enemy to us except North Korea and its Government?
And the new Korean President, Moon Jae-In, persistently refuses to call it as our enemy.
How can he lead our beloved fatherland (조국) to the right direction?
I am disappointed and deeply saddened as of now, but as to his leadership, we shall see day by day.
2017.05.09 17:30
FYI (2);
- What's So In A Hurry? -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlYsikIe8Kw
2017.05.09 23:13
Let the Freedom Ring out in Korean peninsula!
"...At that moment, the ship owner announced that we were now crossing the 38th parallel.
What an ecstasy at attaining freedom; what a sense of relief which was absolutely beyond expression never ever
experienced in my life. The date was May 24, 1947." - an excerpt from my book.
Now I am keenly seized by anguish upon seeing the Republic of Korea taken over by NK-style communists hegemony.
What else? We all observed in utter helpless amazement about the inauspicious political developments in ROK starting from impeachment of innocent president without sound legal processing and then the election of communist radical as new president. This guy's road map is headed for NK-communist style dictatorship in the ROK under KJU's rule exacted for our good-natured compatriots. When that time comes, in any family, father could not trust his own son and whenever two or more persons gather you will be seized by secret agents for an arrest or
interrogation. In a day's time, every minute of everybody shall succumbs to harsh communist propaganda machine. This is my honest statements based on my first-hand experience in Pyongyang, NK. I do not come from rich or land-lord family. I just come from a simple and hard-working conscientious one.
As shown by all the dirty political transactions in the ROK ever since November of 2016, things were left at the mercy of NK-style communist infiltrators completely occupying in mass media, judiciary system, school education and labor unions. ( 어찌하여 이런 무법 천지가 되었는가. 아아, 가슴 아프도다) Alas! I only deplore in my deep grief.
In my afterthoughts, coup detat could have prevented this course. Whang Gyo-An appeared to be a conscientious objector-style impotent person. Or one could not even trust the ROK military to do the job.
At this point in time, I am of the feeling that one future solution to regain integrity of the Republic of Korea should be 4.19-style autogenous
young people's uprising BEFORE it is too late.
John Soosup Lah
2017.05.10 09:27
Dear Dr. Lah;
I am terribly sorry that I put up the article by Choe sang-hun. You can see about him in the URL below.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/choe-sang-hun
This was the only article available about the results of Korean election at that time.
As you may know, N.Y. area has a lot of communists. He may be one of them. I do not know.
Anyway, when I read his article first, it looked OK to me. I did not smell any communist characters.
Moon's victory was as much disappointing to me as you might have felt when you heard it.
I was communicating with a few people in Korea and it definitely looked like Moon was to win.
As you may know, we fought rather hard in our website to support the conservative factions.
But it was not us who decided the fate of the presidential election. It was Korean people.
What could we have done? Nothing !
Please, Doc, don't be too much disappointed or frustrated on these Korean events.
I have now realized that we are only the bystanders across the giant Pacific Ocean.
Having run away from NK, you have much more stronger feeling at the fact
that the damn communists seem to be winning in SK.
Our family and myself did the exactly same thing - having run away from NK to SK in 1945.
Let us keep ourself cool and try to save our coronary arteries from getting too much spasm.
In a stressful situation like this, we should keep ourselves from getting anguished too much.
I know we have been defeated by the communists and their organizations.
To make the things even worse, the people in South Korea defeated us as well. Crazy !!
We could not have done anything to change it.
You and I ran to South Korea in 1940s, and then to America again afterwards
to find the freedom and happiness. Please don't let this damn things ruin what we searched for.
We shall just calmly wait and watch.
The things may turn out to be not as bad as it seems.
Can we hope for the blessings in disguise? We never know.
2017.05.10 12:30
WM 님,
You have nothing to apologize on this matter. That's the way it is at the present time.
That guy you quoted is just one of those who does not know what he is doing.
As an American living in this country, I just can't shake off my scrutiny as to how did those previous
government leaders over the past decades let it happen like that in the Republic of Korea.
We are living far away in this safe haven and therefore, I could also stay nonchalant about it.
That could certainly be easier way for me. It could be said that it is absurd of me to show such an attachment
about homeland I left behind! Is it naivete I am attached with?
I know I have nurtured enough wisdom as a man of age. One must control oneself when faced with adversity.
I also am fully aware that there is limit for anyone's ability. As you said we shall calmy wait and watch.
JSL
2017.05.10 20:25
FYI (3)
- Comments by Washington Post on Presidential Election in Korea -
http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2017/05/10/2017051002970.html
PS;
The story reminds me of an old anecdote - "Blind Men & An Elephant"
- which we all know, but let me consult wikipedia to refresh our memory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant
By the way,
WP is a Conservative newspaper in America?
2017.05.11 09:20
FYI (4);
Voting Result among Koreans Overseas, Not Korean-Americans
- what does it mean?
http://ny.koreatimes.com/article/20170511/1055526
2017.05.11 12:51
Doc, 해외 이민들의 59%가 문재인을 찍었다는것은 정말 믿을만한 사실입니다.
아마 New York 지방에서는 80-90%가 문재인 찍었을것입니다.
한국에서 부귀 영화 권세를 누리는 사람들이 이민왔겠읍니까?
왜 이사람들이 조국을 버리고 이민왔을가요. 이민 온 사람들이 누구인가 이제 아시겠지요?
이것이 왜 우리가 "서울대" 나왔다는 얘기를 이민사회에서 하면 않된다는 이유이지요.
떠들고 다닌것은 보수파 사람들이지만, 좌파는 조용하게 있으니 겉으로 봐서 모르는것이지요.
우리 website에서도 일언반구 않했던 사람들은 대개 문재인을 찍었을것입니다.
We should realize the truth about "이민 온 사람들". Now, you know.
미국 언론을 보면 문재인을 영웅으로 보는 글이 꽤 많군요. They don't seem to know !!
오늘 마국상원 Intelligence committee meeting에서 North Korea 얘기가 많이 나왔는데
민주당 단 한 의원만 (South Carolina) 문재인의 당선을 걱정하더군요.
There are things we can do and there are things that we can not do.
As much as I hated Moon, South Korean people must have loved him.
It is their land and their world. They deserve to chose and get what they wanted.
Now, Korea is moving toward a new destiny and I wish the best for them.
Under the lock-jam between to giant forces of China and US,
the unification has been impossible so far and appears to be so in the future.
Just look back our history since 1945 up to now.
One way or the other, a new change has happened. We will see how and what it will bloom into.
Probably, US will be moving out of Korea and set the new defense line at the shore of Japan.
We will see what happen to South Korea. We just hope that Moon is not a fool.