The New President of South Korea

[Aroob]

Um... I dont know much about this topic. But a lot of my Korean friends are complaining about the new president. They say the old president didnt do much for the country, and the new one wants to make changes.... Such as have a canal. In order to create it, he's going to have to destory a certain part of nature ( I think cut through some mountains or something like that).

Although he promises a lot of jobs for people in their 20's (which is a good thing) they all insist that he's corrupt.

What do you guys think?

I know that there will always be people who are for or against their government.. But I found it odd that all of my Korean friends (who dont know each other) said the same thing... That he is bad.


How does the election work in South Korea?

[manyakumi]

There is a saying in Korea.

좋은 자리에서는 정치와 종교 얘기를 하지 말라.
Don't talk any issues about the politics and the religions if you're in a good place.


Koreans hate arguments making them into an inconvenient situation.
Because maybe they lived in a group for a long time in agricultural tradition,
and that kind of situations bring them a lot of troubles in collaboration at work.
Of course it might cause big loss in production.

Throughout their history, their characters become more emotional than to be reasonable and easy to loose their tempers.
You can easily find a discussion change suddenly into a fight in Korea.
So, the saying above comes out.

But, please don't mind Aroob,
I didn't mean to stop talking about.

[Aroob]

manyakumi, thanks for telling me that saying and for explaining how sometimes a discussion could turn into a fight in South Korea.

I have discussed him (the president) with my friends again. One of my friends says that there is a ministry in South Korea, I'm not sure what its official name is, but it's about... women & family? Anyway, he told me that the new President plans on dissolving this ministry.

I asked my friend if the President has the power to do that. From my experience & knowledge, a person has to go through so many channels to remove something that is part of the government, and get the approval of the congress/parliament/royal council/...etc. Whatever committee the country has. He said the congress would have to approve on this, but even so, that doesn't change the fact that by wanting to dissolve it, he is showing that the next 5 years will be a grim year for South Koreans and a year that will not really have a good development.


If this is true, then that's not good at all. I found a website for the Korean Herald (a Korean newspaper in English). I'm going to read this everyday and look for news about the President's activities to see for myself what he's like and judge his actions on my own.

Um... I like politics if you couldn't tell by now

[manyakumi]

I agree with you in many point of view.

But let me give you an advice.
Don't trust the newspapers too much.
Most of Korean newspapers are on the new president's side in their tones.
Because he has a business-friendly policy.

[Aroob]

Ah ok. Thanks for the info!

You're right, it would be hard to find a good newspaper for politics. Haha, usually they take sides. Those who are with him wouldn't mention bad things. Those against him wouldn't mention his good side.

It's hard to find an objective newspaper these days


What do YOU think of him? Since you're Korean

[manyakumi]

I don't like him so much,
but the Politics are Politics, not concern my favor.

I'm worrying about him because he always works for showing.
like 청계천, 시청앞 공원 and Seoul exclusive lane for buses.
All of these were made by his order as the mayor of Seoul.
Some of those works became good for citizen finally,
but they caused lot of side effects.

Actually, he didn't elected because most people likes him but we didn't have any choices.
He is misunderstanding people's public opinion, I think.



Here is a funny example like this.

LG credit card company was merged with Shinhan finance group because of insolvent operation.
But This company advertised on the TV before they had been merged,
like this:

천만인의 카드 - LG카드
(10 millions' card - LG card)

The population of South Korea is about 40 millions.
If 10 millions people use this card, it is 1/4 of Korean people.
Isn't it great?

But everybody knows this company had asked people to join as a member without any judgement.
The number of 10 million members never stands for the excellence of this company at all, but they advertised it.
It doesn't make sense.


I think our new president would make the same mistake.

[javiskefka]

So, the president's approval rating has dropped to 20 percent. Apparently an online petition calling for his resignation gathered 1.5 million signatures. I wonder how many of those were eligible voters, though. Writers at OhMyNews are attributing his election to a low voter turnout and restrictions on netizen participation in the campaign process.

Netizens are now fueling the mass protests, while the government and mainstream media worry that the young students participating in those protests are being influenced some third party.

[austinfd]

So, the president's approval rating has dropped to 20 percent. Apparently an online petition calling for his resignation gathered 1.5 million signatures. I wonder how many of those were eligible voters, though. Writers at OhMyNews are attributing his election to a low voter turnout and restrictions on netizen participation in the campaign process.

Netizens are now fueling the mass protests, while the government and mainstream media worry that the young students participating in those protests are being influenced some third party.

I think that article gives a good overview of what's going on. Surprisingly, I wasn't really all that caught up with everything. Now I feel informed!

[javiskefka]

Korea Beat is a blog that translates news, opinion pieces and blog posts about current events in Korea.

[the_haunted_boy]

Young people always complain about their president and political issues. A conservative leader might be somewhat disliked by liberal people, just like a liberal leader might be disliked by conservative people.

[Walton]

I tried to go to that website, but it is blocked as being some sort of malicious threat. Any clue as to what is going on? The idea of someone translating the Korean press seems interesting to me. I do know some Korean, but I don't think it is good enough to read the newspapers here.

[javiskefka]

I think the webmaster went on vacation recently, but there have been updates in the meanwhile. Maybe he just hasn't had time to address whatever set off this warning from Google.