politics
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How South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol Capitalized on Anti-Feminist Backlash to Win the Presidency
No candidate capitalized on the anti-feminist movement like Yoon Suk-yeol, who narrowly won Wednesday’s election and will become South Korea’s next leader. The populist, from the conservative People Power Party (PPP), worked to appeal to men who are anxious about losing ground to women, and helped turn a fringe online community into a major political…
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The spy chief who shot the President: two films on the assassination of Park Chung-hee
The assassination of Park Chung-hee is arguably the most spectacular non-event in modern Korean history. Spectacular as the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth President of the Republic of Korea, who has been ruling the country for about two decades, was shot dead by his right-hand man, the head of the notorious intelligence agency whose…
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North Korea to join Seoul Standard Time: why it’s so important?
When I refer to something as symbolic regarding North Korea issue, I usually mean that it is devoid of things tangible. For example, Kim Jong Un’s recent announcement that North Korea is going to shut down the nuclear test site in Punggye-ri is more symbolic than tangible in terms of denuclearization because it was decided…
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Now the game is a draw. Ahn Cheol-soo has caught up with Moon Jae-in.
Of the numerous national slogans Korea gives itself, discarded by each new administration, I think Dynamic Korea was the best. So dynamic is Korea, that even I— a born, raised and bred Seoulite—sometimes find myself confused. The political arena is, of course, a bloodbath. Especially the presidential elections. Well we had all been thinking Moon…
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이젠 우파에게도 ‘민중가요’가 필요한 때가 아닌가
#장면 하나 2017년 3월 10일, 역사적인 박근혜 대통령 탄핵심판 판결이 내려지던 때에 나는 종로 경운동의 소위 ‘태극기집회’ 현장에 있었다. 탄핵소추 인용으로 대통령이 파면되자 물론 분위기는 흉흉했다. 그런데 그것보다 내게 더 인상적이었던 것은 그날 집회에서 들려오던 노래들이었다. 정말 단 한 곡의 예외도 없이 죄다 군가였기 때문이었다. 심지어 내가 좋아하던 군가도 나와서 그 와중에 그 군가를 따라부르기도…