janeemaria

South Korea’s election to select National Assembly members on April 15, 2020 was rigged by President Moon Jae-in’s administration. Or so a diverse group of South Korean citizens claim. This is a serious charge. Even more so, if true. Not least for the threat it poses to South Korea’s democracy and to the entire U.S.-South Korea alliance. But before dismissing this charge as sour grapes by the losing party and its candidates, it’s worth considering the evidence, which does raise serious and credible concerns that the Moon administration working with China ‘fixed’ the election. First, some context is important. Despite occasional hiccups, one tends to assume the U.S.-South Korea relationship is solid. It is nearly 70 years old, was forged in blood during the Korean War, and is based on shared democratic and free-market values and a common perception of the North Korean threat. This includes a mutual commitment to defend against North Korean aggression and nuclear blackmail. But nation-to-nation relationships – just like people-to-people ones – can change over time. And while unpleasant for supporters of the U.S.-ROK alliance to contemplate, could we be seeing a quiet but systematic effort – led by a committed core of South Korean hardline leftists represented by Moon Jae-in and a coterie of longtime associates to turn the Republic of Korea into a one-party state? A further objective of this consolidation of power, so the theory goes, is to unify South Korea with North Korea, and to align South Korea (and a unified Korea) with the People’s Republic of China – with whom there is seen a ‘common destiny.’ Although unstated, since a majority of South Koreans currently oppose the idea – as well as the idea of unifying with the North – the ultimate aim of Moon and associates is to delink South Korea from the United States and remove U.S. forces from the Korean peninsula. Far-fetched? Maybe not. Especially given what is known about Moon and his associates' backgrounds and ideological positions. More than just leftists or ‘socialists’, some of Moon’s closest advisors and current South Korean officials were associated with anti-American, pro-North Korea student groups – and have never renounced such ideas. Others have been implicated and charged with spying on North Korea’s behalf. Moon and South Korea’s leftists have made considerable progress towards controlling the levers of governance and power in South Korea. This includes dominating the media, the judiciary, the intelligence service, the National Election Commission, and even putting the South Korean military on notice with the arrest of a four-star General three years ago on questionable abuse of power and corruption charges, for which he was eventually found not-guilty. The Moon administration has used libel laws, tax audits, and regulatory powers to rein in free speech and bring the media and other critics to heel. Academia has mostly been aligned with South Korea’s leftists for many years. The leftist faction and the Moon administration also use the aggressive, noisy Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) as a political weapon. This includes intimidating and cowing political rivals, and even some of Korea’s main private companies – with Samsung currently being in the cross hairs as a potential obstacle to Moon and the leftists amassing power. But Moon et al still needed the National Assembly. Until recently, South Korea’s fractious and nominally conservative opposition, the United Future Party (UFP), could at least serve as a counterweight to the left and some of its leaders’ more sinister objectives. However, the April 15, 2020 South Korean election resulted in an overwhelming victory (180 out of 300 seats) for the ruling Democratic Party (DP) over the main opposition UFP. This majority is enough to pass any legislation the DP desires, and peel off just three more votes in the National Assembly and revising the Constitution is possible. The overwhelming election victory was a surprise to many, though not all, observers and has led to claims the vote was rigged. 137 lawsuits have been filed, covering nearly half of all voting districts and seeking to overturn the election results. 25 losing candidates are among the litigants. This is far and away more than the number of suits brought following any previous South Korean election. And usually those suits are just asking for a recount. These are seeking to overturn the election as being illegally run. Despite the fraud allegations, surprising – even stunning – election outcomes do occur – as shown in the famous photograph of a beaming, victorious U.S. President Harry Truman holding a newspaper with the headline ‘Dewey Beats Truman.’ Even Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory was a rattling surprise for many people. With this in mind, this writer was inclined to consider the April 15, 2020 election outcome as just ‘one of those things’ that happens in a democracy. So this writer’s inquiries began with a degree of skepticism mixed with curiosity to see if there was a case to be made for the election fraud claims – beyond the outcome simply being so surprising that some people assumed there must have been fraud. Before long, however, one sensed that these were not just sore losers venting frustration. Rather, they came across as level-headed – and included individuals who are eminent in their professions and experts in the specific areas where they allege electoral fraud. It’s a mix of professors, lawyers, statisticians, computer programmers, data analysts, software and semiconductor engineers, politicians, journalists, and ‘regular’ citizens – including a former leftist who spent time on the run from South Korea’s military regime. Even a large number of academics (not exactly known as conservative by nature) have joined in. Collecting evidence to make the case for ‘election rigging’ is obviously a challenge – no matter what country it is, not least since election rigging is intended to be hidden. In South Korea, gathering information is no easier given the DP’s heavy hand over government, bureaucracy, the media, and other instruments of power. And there is also the simple reluctance of people to 5 believe systematic election fraud can happen in a first-world democracy such as South Korea.