South Koreans Demand Impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol Following National Elections
The recent 85th Candlelight Vigil to protest the anti-social and warmongering policies of President Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea called for his impeachment following the April 10 elections where Yoon's People Power Party was reduced to 108 seats out of 300 seats in the National Assembly. This was the worst defeat of any political party since the creation of the Republic of Korea by the U.S. in 1948, a political move to keep Korea divided and for the U.S. to maintain a military and political hold on the Korean Peninsula.
Since coming to power in May 2022, Yoon has not only undertaken an anti-social offensive at home, but has built closer links with the U.S. and also with NATO. The ROK is now one of the supply depots for weapons bound for Ukraine, the U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia and also weapons for the U.S./Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people. The ROK is also vying with Japan to be the official outpost for NATO in East Asia. The peace movement in the ROK has consistently opposed these policies as well as the Yoon government's participation in war games against fellow Koreans in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
In his two years in office, Yoon has acted to undo the positive inter-Korean relations established during the tenure of the previous President Moon Jae-in and has stepped up participation in U.S.-led military drills in south Korea aimed at provoking the DPRK. Additionally, under pressure from the U.S. and Japan, the Yoon government has taken a soft approach towards Japan's wartime crimes against the Korean people and instead sought to strengthen bilateral ties with Japan. The matter of the tens of thousands of Korean "comfort women" who were abducted into sexual slavery to serve the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II, for example, has also been put aside. Under U.S. dictate, Yoon has also worked to strengthen ROK-Japan military relations and also U.S.-Japan-ROK relations in order to serve the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy of containing China and the DPRK.
It is no surprise then that the electors gave Yoon his comeuppance at the polls. It does not bode well that following the April 10 elections which resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Yoon's Chief of Staff Lee Kwan-sup, Yoon said on national television, "We must humbly accept the popular sentiment that was revealed through these elections. We will engage in more communication with flexibility and an open mind, and I will be the first to listen closely to popular sentiment."
In other words, it will be business as usual. The people living in the ROK are not about to put up with this type of arrogance and high-handedness, and it is very possible that President Yoon Suk-yeol may not make it to the end of his term of office in 2027.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 3 - April 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M5400325.HTM
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