이주민 // Jumin Lee

And what should scare the hell out of the Democratic Party is that despite all of that, *Lee is still outpolling his party by nearly 10%*

The “at least he’s not Yoon” halo is doing a lot to hide the fact that Lee is himself an incredibly unpopular politician. Given how quickly presidential approval ratings tend to drop in Korea, his administration may be facing aggressive headwinds surprisingly soon.

So far Lee has managed to turn what should be a comfortable post-Yoon-ouster honeymoon into a tepid margin of victory in the election and middling approval ratings.

“Bye dh”, you mean.

Now a law firm partner and (despite that) a reasonably well-settled, productive member of society. But the entire path here was basically dumb luck.

Came here in 2013 for law school, started at big NY law firm on OPT, got H1B lottery on literal last day of approval notices (HR was telling me to start thinking of other options). Did not get green card until 2023 (less than a year before I would have had to leave due to H1B time limits).

"Sir, this is a Lotteria."
(Evil grin) "Yes. I know."

I guess the Lotteria part kind of makes sense from an OPSEC perspective. If you were sitting at an Arby's and four old dudes next to you were discussing overthrowing the government over a Beef N' Cheddar, who among us would think they were being serious?

1. Dude is found guilty of sexual harassment and kicked out of military

2. Becomes a fortune teller.

3. "Somehow" befriends President Yoon.

4. Becomes the go-between that recruits active-duty generals to support Yoon's coup.

5. Plans the coup with said generals at a Lotteria.

Normal humans: “Krypto is the cutest!”

Me: “holy shit comics-accurate Mr. Terrific deploying a T-Sphere shield.”

From “I can has shadow president?” To “welp I guess my political career is over.”

Han Dong Hoon has had quite the week.

Will never get over this crazy timeline we’re in, where the president attempts a coup and 다만세 is the 임을 위한 행진곡 for our generation.

All of this is wonderful, but as someone who grew up listening to SNSD in college, man does it make me feel old.

“ChatGPT please generate a 1000 word speech in the style of Korean right wing YouTube.”

“What are you going to do, impeach me?”

- man who was impeached

It was not highly calibrated, it was not political, and it certainly did not display any kind of good judgment.

Han’s plan to “Weekend at Bernie’s” Yoon was only viable if Yoon himself was willing to go quietly into the night. He is clearly not.

In my latest for Korea Pro, I predicted the thing that was totally obvious to everyone other than PPP leader Han Dong Hoon, which just happened on national television.

“Yo dawg I heard you like coups, so I put a coup in a coup.” - PPP

South Korea’s leadership unclear as Yoon struggles to retain power South Korea’s defense ministry insisted that President Yoon Suk Yeol remained in charge of the country’s armed forces on Monday, even as the justice ministry enforced a travel ban against him followin...

As we begin another day of political uncertainty in Seoul,

- It's still unclear who is running what in the country
- No details about any power sharing arrangement that allegedly exists
- We don't know the legal rationale for any such deal
- The presidential office has essentially gone dark

Correct, those demands were unconstitutional then, and remain unconstitutional now. Impeachment is the only legal recourse.

Every day that President Yoon lingers is another day that the government remains paralyzed, and unelected officials rule in his stead without legal basis.

The former harms our national interest, the latter our constitutional order. And the longer this goes, the more both harms become irreversible.

As someone who also enjoys playing with this distinction, I get it.

But at the same time, seems like a failure to acknowledge reality. He is still president, with all the privileges authorities of that office. That's precisely the problem that needs to be addressed ASAP.

Worth noting: Korean law explicitly says that the crime of insurrection is an exception from presidential immunity. Never thought that would turn out to be useful but here we are.

Korean law enforcement after the failed impeachment vote:

It’s not a bad thing when political expediency and doing the right thing happen to align!

I finally get be that annoying pundit that declares “we’re in a constitutional crisis.” But “crisis” didn’t seem strong enough to describe the absolute goat rodeo going on in Seoul right now.

So I went with constitutional collapse instead.

Lee knows this playbook well. A large part of his rise to prominence was him being the first mainstream Democratic politician to openly call for Park’s impeachment, when other leaders such as Moon Jae-In were still demurring.