[intoamplitudes]

Transparent coup d'etat attempt rumored to happen for months. The only option when the mouse is cornered. Approval rating in the <10% range, Japan whispering in his ear and pulling the puppet strings, crazy selfish wife abusing state resources, it is almost comically predictable if not for how serious it is. North Korea is always the convenient excuse... only hope Westerners don't get fooled by the rhetoric. Guy digging his own grave, only hope Koreans get off their complacent asses and take this guy down quickly. World cannot afford more instability.

[NalNezumi]

>Japan whispering in his ear and pulling the puppet strings

I'm curious if you have some sources for this? I'm not that familiar with SK politics and I'm obviously biased since almost all info about SK I either get from English/Japanese sources.

Afaik he was pretty dovish towards Japan during his election, which goes against the decades long tradition of tit-for-tat during election between SK&Japan since "looking tough to the neighbor" win votes. I wasn't aware of any "Japan whispering in his ear" level embezzlement. He seems just more pro US, closer ties with Japan rather than "balance things between China/US-JP"

[decafninja]

The conservatives tend to blame the liberals for being North Korean sympathizers. The liberals tend to blame the conservatives for being Japanese sellouts. They use these angles to inflame public opinion against the other party and distract from other issues.

I’d say anyone seriously thinking Japan has bought out the conservatives is just as foolish as someone that seriously thinks the liberals are North Korean spies.

That said, there is a contingent of South Koreans that genuinely consider Japan a mortal military threat just biding their time and waiting to attack Korea. And that North Korea is just a merely misguided misunderstood brother that is absolutely harmless despite their sabre rattling.

[flerchin]

I'm seeing his approval rating at 25% or so. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/12/356_387448.h...

[ncr100]

Awaiting the jump to 105% approval. ;-/

I wonder what the level of journalistic independences is in KR. What their public discourse is like. How truth, and opinions are tolerated.

[flerchin]

RSF says:

> The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is a liberal democracy that respects media freedom and pluralism. However, tradition and business interests often prevent journalists from fulfilling their role as watchdogs, and populist political tendencies stoke hatred of journalists.

https://rsf.org/en/country/south-korea

[mrguyorama]

When Hwang Woo-Suk was lying about cloning humans, his connections in the government allowed him to suppress the story by putting pressure on the network to cancel the second episode of "Producer's Note" that would have aired the rest of the allegations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_affair

When the MV Sewol capsized a couple miles off the coast with 300 children actively drowning, the corporate control of the news channels allowed them to suppress the truth of the event, like how there was zero attempts at any rescue, and near zero survivors of passengers. Instead, the news spent a day reporting that all 300ish students had been rescued.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_MV_Sewol

South Korea is controlled by just a few Chaebols and that includes its news media. The president during the MV Sewol incident for example was ousted at least partially due to the kinds of corruption and non-democratic influences that were uncovered after the sinking.

When most media is produced, financed, owned, operated etc by a couple hegemons with aligning goals, I don't care what economic system you operate under, you do not have "free" media.

[sunrisetiger]

Generally free + outlets like the NYTimes are based in Seoul.

Taiwan is more free than Korea but due its political predicament, it is not a candidate for the bureaus. As for Japan, after a series of controversial bills were passed under Abe, their ranking dropped like a rock over the past decade and it is getting worse with so-called "press clubs" that are reluctant to criticise the govt due to how access is granted.

[ExoticPearTree]

> crazy selfish wife abusing state resources

Seems to be something that kind of happens when someone in Korea rises to the top of political power. Remember the former president that was pretty much ousted for corruption a few years back? She had a confidant that would pull her strings.

[coldtea]

Western politicians might pretend to take it at face value, as it's useful to fuel the foreign threat narratives, and help elites use similar excuses here too.

[jbm]

> Japan whispering in his ear

Anyone who has dealt with Japanese bureaucracy and government at large is stifling a giggle at this idea.

[jldugger]

Plus, their brand new prime minister called a snap election and damn near lost himself the job when his party came out worse than he started.

[ken47]

> rumored to happen for months

Source?

[intoamplitudes]

Sept 2, 2024 Defense minister nominee rebukes rumors about gov't plan to declare martial law https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.amp.asp?newsIdx=381...

Sept 3, 2024 Lee’s raising of suspicions of martial law plans isn’t baseless — just look back to 2017 https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1...

Sept 4, 2024 [News analysis] Why is Korea’s Democratic Party talking about martial law? https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1...

Sept 4, 2024 [ED] No room for martial law talk https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.amp.asp?newsIdx=381...

Sept 5, 2024 DPK's martial law claim backfires due to lack of evidence https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.amp.asp?newsIdx=381...

Sept 5, 2024 Martial law equals coup-d’etat: What would it mean for South Korea? https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.amp.asp?newsIdx=381...

[petesergeant]

> only hope Westerners don't get fooled by the rhetoric

This AP article is written very unsympathetically towards him

[tankenmate]

Maybe declaring martial law when there isn't a violent overthrow of the government in progress doesn't really garner much sympathy.

[bilbo0s]

He's being "oppressed" by all the "enemies of South Korea" out there engaging in the newly anti-South Korean practices of "reason and logic".

[petesergeant]

Yes brother, that was my point, wrt to the text I quoted

[happytoexplain]

I read it the same way the parent did - can you clarify?

[petesergeant]

There’s not usually much space between consensus Western opinion (when there is one) and AP editorial stance, so if they think he’s a loon, it’s safe to assume most in the West will too. “Unsympathetic towards” does not mean “biased against”

[brvsft]

His point was that Westerners aren't necessarily going to be fooled, with the example of the AP (Western) viewing his declaration of martial law unsympathetically.

[notahacker]

I don't think the AP is the sector of the West the OP is worried might turn sympathetic towards him if he makes the right noises and does outreach to the right people.

[hammock]

What if it was all part of the plan?

[willvarfar]

Are the army likely to back him?

[petesergeant]

Unclear if it’s better if they do or they don’t. On one hand it’s clearly against the interests of the country to support him, on the other hand democracies absolutely don’t want the military taking any domestic political role

[AnimalMuppet]

When someone declares martial law, that means that they intend to use the military to enforce their rule. At that point the military has been told to take a domestic political role - it wasn't the military's choice.

Of course, the military could refuse. In the abstract, I think that might be ideal. (I don't know enough to say whether that would be ideal in this situation.)

[diggan]

> democracies absolutely don’t want the military taking any domestic political role

If they're actively fighting against the democratic principles (like enforcing martial law to distract from something rather than when really necessary) then yeah, I think we'd want them to take them down if they don't leave by themselves.

[oldpersonintx]

and what of the massive US military presence?