by WorldTribune Staff, June 2, 2025 Real World News
What’s at stake in South Korea’s presidential election is far more than just the presidency returning to the nation’s leftist faction.
Seoul is on the precipice of becoming a one-party state that is in the orbit of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an analyst said.
South Korea’s main presidential candidates, Lee Jae-Myung, left, and Kim Moon-Soo.For that reason, the United States should break its silence on the election slated for Wednesday, June 3, Grant Newsham wrote for the Asia Times on June 2.
“I’ve been in Seoul, South Korea, for about a week, having been asked to come and see what’s going on with the upcoming presidential election,” Newsham wrote. “You wouldn’t know that an election that might determine South Korea’s future is underway.”
The election was called three months ago after conservative president Yoon Suk-Yeol’s was impeached following his declaration of martial law. Yoon called Seoul’s National Assembly a “legislative dictatorship” that made it impossible to govern.
Leftist Lee Jae-Myung of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is favored to win Wednesday’s vote over Kim Moon-Soo of the generally conservative People Power Party (PPP). Lee Jun-Seok of the small New Reform Party is expected to siphon off votes from Kim.
“The DPK contains some hard-core radicals who want to align with the People’s Republic of China and North Korea and even end the U.S.-ROK alliance,” Newsham noted. “Lee himself has called the U.S. forces ‘occupiers’ – and is charged with involvement in sending $8 million to North Korea when he was governor of Gyeonggi Province. One of his lieutenants has already been convicted.”
If Lee prevails, leftists will have nearly every lever of power in South Korea. They already have the National Assembly (189 seats of 300), much of the judiciary and the police, the media, academia, labor unions and the all-powerful National Election Commission (NEC).
Lee is not expected to sever the U.S. alliance or cozy up to China and North Korea. Not right away, at least.
“U.S. officialdom will tell itself the leftists are pragmatists and won’t end the good thing they have with the United States,” Newsham wrote. “But bit by bit the U.S.-ROK relationship will grow colder. Seoul’s relationships with Beijing and Pyongyang will warm up. Ties with Japan – improved under President Yoon – will enter the walk-in freezer.
“The National Assembly and the leftist president will do whatever they want – and nobody can stop them.
“South Korea will effectively be a one-party state.”
Meanwhile, the National Election Commission “has been stonewalling widespread and detailed citizen-produced evidence of electoral irregularities starting with the 2020 National Assembly election – which gave the DP a solid majority for the first time,” Newsham added. “Similar evidence was produced after the 2022 presidential election and the 2024 National Assembly election.”
South Korea’s election system remains “ripe for and apparently rife with manipulation. And authorities will not examine the evidence,” Newsham continued. “Some South Koreans are trying to ensure honest elections. But they are beleaguered. They would sorely appreciate a kind word from President Trump.”
The Trump Administration, however, has thus far stood by “mute, with eyes primly averted. It declares the relationship ‘rock solid’ and ‘forged in blood? And ‘who are we to meddle in another country’s politics?’ But rather than electoral interference it would be providing oxygen to people who want to be free and are under pressure. There’s nothing wrong with speaking up for consensual government, and civil liberties – and for your friends.
“And it puts the bad guys on notice.
“If they think America doesn’t care or won’t do anything at all they’ll smother the opposition.”
Newsham concluded: “Koreans can be mercurial. They may not quietly go along with what South Korea’s hard-core radicals have in mind. So this isn’t just another election. If Washington hasn’t paid proper attention to South Korea yet, it will have no choice but to do so before long.”
Revive the American Free Press!
U.S. silence on South Korea’s election may lead to a one-party state in the CCP’s orbit, analyst warns added by Editor Two on June 2, 2025
View all posts by Editor Two →
Source link