South Korea's president denies wrongdoing in a growing scandal

Hyung-Jin Kim and Kim Tong-Hyung
| Associated press

Seoul, South Korea – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday denied wrongdoing in a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife that is severely damaging his approval ratings and providing his rivals with political ammunition.

The political storm coincides with South Korea facing a slew of crucial foreign policy issues, such as Donald Trump’s election victory to become the next president of the United States and North Korea’s reported participation -Korea to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The scandal centers on allegations that Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee exerted undue influence on the conservative ruling People Power Party to choose a particular candidate for 2022 midterm parliamentary elections, at the request of Myung Tae-kyun, an election broker. and founder of a polling company that conducted free polls for Yoon before he became president.

The scandal has been making headlines in South Korea for weeks as Myung’s leaked phone conversations show he bragged about his influence over the presidential couple and other top ruling party officials.

Asked about his ties to Myung during a press conference Thursday, Yoon said, “I have not done anything inappropriate and have nothing to hide regarding Myung Tae-kyun.”

Yoon said he never interfered in any candidate nomination process at the PPP, and never asked Myung to conduct surveys for him, although he acknowledged that Myung helped him in some way during his 2021 presidential primaries .

The main liberal opposition party, the Democratic Party, said Yoon’s response only showed his “arrogance” and “self-righteousness.” The party previously demanded that Yoon apologize, reshuffle top officials and accept an independent investigation into his wife.

The Democratic Party recently shared an audio file of phone conversations between Yoon and Myung on May 9, 2022 – a day before Yoon took office for a five-year term. The opposition party claims the conversation shows Yoon Myung provided political favors in exchange for free surveys.

In the audio file, Yoon can be heard telling Myung that he has asked a PPP committee to choose senior party member Kim Young-sun to run for one of next month’s midterm parliamentary elections. Kim Young-sun eventually received the party’s nomination and won the election.

In the file, Myung is heard saying, “I will never forget this favor for the rest of my life. Thank you!”

South Korea’s election law prohibits officials, including the president, from interfering in elections, but has no such restrictions for an elected president. So it is unclear whether Yoon broke the law.

Recent surveys have shown that Yoon’s approval rating has fallen below 20% for the first time since his inauguration. Kim Keon Hee is dealing with other scandals, such as spy camera footage showing her accepting a luxury bag as a gift from a pastor.

Yoon apologized for causing public concern about him and his wife, but stressed that many of the accusations made were not in accordance with the facts.

Some ruling party lawmakers have accused the Democratic Party of deliberately stepping up political attacks on Yoon and his wife in an effort to save embattled leader Lee Jae-myung from legal trouble.

Lee, a lawmaker who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election, is facing four separate trials on corruption and various other charges. The district court’s first two rulings on Lee on his election law violation and perjury charges are scheduled for Nov. 15 and 25.

A prison sentence or a fine of more than 1 million won ($750) in the election lawsuit would remove Lee as an MP and disqualify him from running in elections for five years, although he is likely to appeal any guilty verdict.

Polls show Lee is the early favorite for the 2027 presidential race to succeed Yoon.

On foreign policy, Yoon – who has worked closely with Washington and Tokyo to strengthen security cooperation in the face of North Korean threats – expressed optimism that the three-way partnership will continue to expand under the Trump administration. He said he plans to meet soon with Trump and new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to coordinate policy.

During his previous presidency, Trump was involved in highly orchestrated nuclear summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Yoon noted that North Korea’s arsenal has improved significantly since Trump’s diplomacy with Kim collapsed in 2019.

Yoon said Trump “will very soon receive comprehensive reports on how North Korea’s nuclear technologies and capabilities have changed since then.”

“After receiving these reports, I believe we can have more meaningful and in-depth discussions when we have the opportunity to meet,” Yoon said.

When asked about concerns that Trump’s “America first” approach would harm South Korean trade interests through higher tariffs and other measures, Yoon said Seoul is making “multi-pronged efforts to minimize losses to our people’s economy.”

“Things may not be exactly the same as they were during the Biden administration,” he said, “but we have been preparing to hedge against these risks for a long time.”

Earlier Thursday, Yoon had a telephone conversation with Trump, in which he congratulated him on his election victory and discussed strengthening bilateral cooperation. According to Yoon’s office, the two agreed to arrange a face-to-face meeting soon.

The prospects for South Korea-US relations under Trump “could depend on whether Yoon is able to immediately establish positive chemistry with Trump during the transition and foster a close personal friendship to dissuade him to support and promote Seoul’s interests,” said Duyeon Kim. , a senior analyst at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.

“This may be the only way to avert devastating consequences and surprises in the alliance relationship – including South Korean questions about Washington’s defense commitments – which we currently assume would happen based on Trump’s harsh rhetoric against allies and transactional style,” she said.