Yoon just said that he would strengthen relations with the US. He said the door to talks with North Korea will always be open. He also said that he'd improve relations with Japan.
Well, at least one out of three is definitely achievable.
Yoon: To cooperate with the opposition (Minjoo) party, we need to make sure that every region and province develop together. I trust that we will cooperate as we are all working to serve the people.
That doesn't really answer the question about how he'd work with Minjoo Party.
Yoon: I promise that I will have many press conferences to answer questions from the news media.
We shall see.
Yoon: I have not yet had much time to think about who to staff in my transition team or cabinet. We will resolve this as quickly as possible.
Hm
Q: What do you think will be your relationship with the Moon administration?
Yoon: Moon called to congratulate me this morning. By cooperating with the Moon administration, we will ensure a smooth transition to bring about reforms.
Q: Will you investigate Lee Jae-myeong over his property scandal?
Yoon: I'd rather not talk about that today. (Laughter from the press)
Q from Asahi Shimbun about ROK-Japan relations.
Yoon: We need to seek a future oriented relationship that benefits both of our national interests. Regarding past issues, we need to cooperate to resolve them. But the important thing is to focus on the future and our interests.
Q: There was a gender divide in the votes. How will you resolve this?
Yoon: I have never tried to split the genders.
(Oh really?)
Yoon: We need to seek ways to better protect women.
Q: What will be Ahn Cheol-soo's role in your government?
Yoon: We need to seek a united party ASAP. We have not officially decided what his role will be, but he is an important figure in our soon-to-be united party.
Q: Can you te us about your phone call with Biden?
Yoon: I can't reveal everything. He congratulated me. I look forward to meeting him ASAP so that we may discuss the many issues that affect our countries.
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Some people might be hoping that now that Yoon Seok-yeol will assume South Korea's presidency in May, South Korea and Japan might be able to take steps to improve relations. I am here to tell you not to hold your breaths because, you know, it takes two to tango.
Yes, a lot of South Koreans don't have a lot of love for Japan. But it's also true that a lot of Japanese don't have a lot of love for South Korea, too. But the Japanese sentiment toward South Korea is more tinged with apathy than resentment.
Combined with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio's cabinet that is full of hardliners, Japanese apathy toward South Korea means that Kishida has no incentive whatsoever to make any concessions to South Korea regarding comfort women, historical issues, etc.
I never had any affinity for Lee Jae-myeong, but he did put up a hell of a fight. And he'd have won, I believe, if it hadn't been for the Minjoo Party's cowardice in seeking genuinely progressive social goals.
The Minjoo Party's most glaring failure, in my opinion, has been its failure to pass an anti-discrimination law despite its overwhelming majority in the National Assembly. They should have fought hard against the churches to say that the LGBTQ community deserves to be protected.
They should have fought much harder for women and feminists. When the incels began their reign of terror on the internet against women, when one of those incels became the People Power Party's chairman, the Minjoo Party should have stood up for women.
Seeing how the polls close at 7:30pm, a 60%+ turnout by 1pm (including early votes that were cast on the weekend) is a pretty good turnout. Only four more hours to go.
At the 2pm mark, South Jeolla, North Jeolla, and Gwangju (Honam) are showing the highest turnouts. Honam has firmly sided with the progressives for years. So, right now, things are looking pretty good for Lee Jae-myeong.
I just had a thought. If the Korean Wave had been as big back in 2002 as it is today, people would have referred to the 2002 election as the "Winter Sonata" election.
Now I'm thinking of all the different possibilities.
The My Sassy Girl Election
The Shiri Election
The JSA Election
The Reply 1997 Election
The Train to Busan Election
And why I am thinking such dumb thoughts? I don't know. I clearly professional help.
This will raise gas prices, and everyone in the world will feel it. And it will hurt - especially, as usual, low-income earners. But this has to be done. This will be highly unpopular in Asia. It's even unpopular in Europe where they have the most to lose from Putin running amok.
Germany, the biggest European economy, which just announced that it will completely overhaul the way it thinks about its defense spending and military policy, is far too addicted to Russian oil. Chancellor Scholz has rejected Biden's plan.
If the Europeans are that upset about something that directly affects them, you can bet that Asians are going to be up in arms. For a lot of Asian countries, Ukraine is on the other side of the planet. Russia's invasion of Ukraine doesn't affect us that much.
You know what that sounds like? Russians are getting desperate after realizing that things are going very badly for them. And you know what? I think kicking Russia when it's down is a perfectly all right and legitimate thing to do.
The sanctions and especially the Russian oil ban Biden is supposedly going to announce today will hurt all of us in the rest of the world, too. Gas prices are no joke. But it will hurt Putin, his cronies, and the Russian economy a WHOLE HELL of a lot more than it will hurt us.
And in a few months from now, when the Russian economy is less valuable than used toilet paper, when the Russian regime collapses for a second time within a generation, then we turn our full attention onto Putin's thugs in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.