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fullscreen South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol has recently taken several steps to the right on the political scale, according to former ambassador Lars Vargö. Photo: South Korean Presidential Office/AP/TT
The dramatic development in South Korea may be about President Yoon trying to get his budget through, which has been stalled in parliament, according to former ambassador Lars Vargö.
Lars Vargö, who was ambassador to South Korea 2006–2011, describes South Korean domestic politics as infected with a conservative and a liberal phalanx that avoid each other like the plague.
– When a new president has been elected in democratic elections, there has been a tendency for the prosecuting authorities to go rather hard on the representatives of the previous regime, even though South Korea is a genuine democracy without electoral fraud and the like, says Vargö.
Clear confrontation
Polarization has increased recently as conservative President Yoon Suk-Yeol has moved several steps to the right on the political scale.
– The opposition has thus gone one or more steps to the left, and there has been a clear confrontation in parliament which has led to Yoon having difficulty getting his state budget through, says Vargö.
The president’s accusations against the opposition that it sympathizes with the communist dictatorship North Korea, Vargö sees as an expression of a split within the country regarding the view of the neighbor to the north.
– When Yoon Suk-Yeol accuses the opposition of being North Korea sympathizers, he is actually saying that he dislikes those who strive for a dialogue with North Korea, says Vargö.
Get through the budget
The former ambassador says that the development of events may show what Yoon’s goal is in introducing a state of emergency.
– With the power he has as president, he has the opportunity to push this further, at the same time there is strong opposition to him in parliament, which makes the outcome more uncertain, says Vargö.
It may very well be that the president wants to trigger new elections, in the hope that his party, the People’s Power Party, will gain increased support in parliament, which in turn would increase the chance of getting the budget through.
– Then he surely wants to test in the courts whether those he accuses of treason, whether they can really be prosecuted for it. It is something that will last for some time and upset many, and certainly increase the confrontation between the two sides.