Wednesday, 04 June 2025

Early voting irregularities reported in South Korea; Win by Left won’t stop exercises, U.S. general vows

World Tribune
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by WorldTribune Staff, May 30, 2025 Real World News

South Korea launched early voting on Thursday to elect a successor to former President Yoon Suk-Yeol, who was impeached after declaring martial law in an effort to preserve election integrity.

Leftist Lee Jae-Myung is expected to be elected the next president of South Korea.

The election is expected to swing to leftist candidate Lee Jae-Myung, who played a central role in Yoon’s ouster.

More than 15 million out of 44.3 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the early voting period, according to the National Election Commission.

Election day is June 3.

Six hopefuls are vying for the country’s top office, but the actual contest is between two candidates: Lee Jae-Myung of the Democratic Party (DP) and People Power Party (PPP) candidate Kim Moon-Soo.

The latest poll released Wednesday showed Lee Jae-Myung leading with 49.2%, followed by Kim with 36.8%.

Lee Jun-Seok of the New Reform Party was third with 10.3%.

Voting irregularities were reported on Thursday and Friday.

Dr. Tara O, director at East Asia Research Center and a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force (Ret.), posted to X on Friday:

Northeast Asia analyst Gordon Chang posted to X on Thursday:

Chang had noted earlier this month: “South Korea’s early-voting system is especially susceptible to fraud.”

Related: Allegations of fraud in South Korean elections called warning on new voting technologies, May 8,2020

Related: Globalized election fraud? South Korea’s election commission blocks hacking investigation, May 15, 2023

If the leftist Lee Jae-Myung wins as expected, it won’t change the operation of U.S. war games in South Korea, the head of U.S. Forces Korea vowed.

The commander of America’s 28,500 troops in South Korea, Gen. Xavier Brunson, “made that clear when this reporter asked if the prospect of a leftist, supported by anti-American activists, winning Tuesday’s election as Korea’s president would bring about a cancellation of the exercises,” Donald Kirk wrote in a May 28 analysis for The New York Sun.

“We are preparing to exercise again,” Brunson responded during a Zoom meeting set up by the Institute for Corean-American Studies. (The Philadelphia group spells Korea with a “C,” as European visitors spelled it in the 19th century.) “We are trying to ensure we can manage crisis. The intent is to forestall conflict.”

Brunson’s remarks, Kirk wrote, “may not have removed concerns among the American brass that the leftist candidate for president, Lee Jae-Myung, will want to loosen the tight bond with Washington that South Korea’s latest conservative president, Yoon Suk-Yeol, formed during his three years in office before he was impeached and ousted after attempting to impose martial law on December 3.”

Lee is mired in corruption scandals but stands to avoid a number of the charges he is facing if he wins the election.

Kirk, a WorldTribune.com contributing editor, noted: “In any case, Lee is not expected to revert to the policies of the previous Minju president, Moon Jae-in, the leftist who canceled American-Korean war games, other than computerized exercises, while in office between 2017 and 2022 before losing by an eyelash to Yoon.”

Lee “aims to restore the ROK-U.S. alliance and deepen the trust,” one of Lee’s closest advisers, Wi Sung-Lac, a former ambassador to Moscow who also served in top posts in Korea’s embassy in Washington, said, referring to the Republic of Korea. “Close cooperation with our allies is needed.”

Wi qualified those diplomatic words, though, by stressing “the need to maintain amicable relations with countries of the region,” notably Communist China. “Confrontation between the U.S. and China is one of the elements,” he said in a talk at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club. “We believe we can improve.”

Given the nuclear and missile threats posed by North Korea, he went on, “there is no reason” for South Korea, China, and America “not to cooperate.” All three, he said, “can work together.”

Assuming Lee does win on Tuesday, Wi suggested that he should engage in “a summit-level phone conversation” with U.S. President Donald Trump, after which he said the two should meet in person.

“The first order of business is a summit,” Wi said. “We would have to have a working-level meeting.” Aside from the Korean-American alliance, “negotiations” on high tariffs Mr. Trump is imposing would be “one of the most pressing issues.”

But what about those joint military exercises? “As a matter of principle, we will maintain the ROK-U.S. exercises, for the combined defense ability of Korea,” Wi said.

Brunson, a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina (Ft. Bragg), said the Joint exercises are “basic” to “our ability to be operational” — “to be able to work together.” He said he was confident “the ROK government understands the importance of our alliance.” Regardless of the rise of a new president in South Korea, “We are going to continue to exercise.”

Earlier in May, Defense News reported that, at his office in the Pentagon, Brunson displayed a map printed on a paper sheet depicting Seoul and its distance from other nearby capitals: Tokyo, Taipei, Manila and Beijing, among others. Rather than showing the usual north-to-south view of Asia, this one displays what the region would look like if peering out from China’s eastern coast.

Brunson has been sharing the map in his many meetings in Washington, while arguing for the value of his command. Seoul has one of Asia’s strongest militaries and sits inside the vital “first island chain” of countries that arc off China’s coast like a parenthesis.

“It begins with looking from an enemy’s perspective and then seeing where you are and how you might array your capabilities,” Brunson said.

“The new leader in the Republic of Korea from 4 June forward has to take on the fact that his nation sits at the juncture of an alliance of sorts that he’s got to counter.

“We have the means to continue to assure our ally that we are there. That also sounds the bell every day that we’re on the peninsula to Russia and China. We’re in the neighborhood.”

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Early voting irregularities reported in South Korea; Win by Left won’t stop exercises, U.S. general vows added by on May 30, 2025
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