FPI / November 10, 2021
Geostrategy-Direct
The presidential candidate from [U.S. ally] South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party of Korea (Deobureo Minjoo Party) is steeped in pro-China, pro-North Korea, and anti-United States political stances, an analyst said.
Lee Jae-Myung, who was the governor of Gyeonggi Province (which surrounds Seoul) until late October of this year, is running to be the successor to leftist President Moon Jae-In. The election is set for March 9, 2022.
Lee “has a variety of government resources at his disposal,” Tara O noted in a Nov. 3 analysis for East Asia Research Center.
Lee’s proclivity for supporting North Korea was evident last year when he vowed to arrest any member of defector groups in South Korea who send informational leaflets via balloon into the North.
When Kim Yo-Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, complained about the leaflets in June 2020, Lee responded quickly, saying, “I will arrest on the spot those who are distributing leaflets to North Korea as criminals…I’ll pre-emptively block all possible ways. I’ll designate a part of the border area as a ‘dangerous area’ and prohibit the entry of those planning to send leaflets to North Korea…and place special police at the location.”
In his failed run for president in 2017, Lee told the Chinese propaganda outlet CCTV: “If I become president, I will renege on the THAAD deployment.”
Tara O noted that Lee had “thereby agreed to one of the ‘3 Nos’ demanded by China. The THAAD is deployed to South Korea to respond to North Korea’s missile threats, and the governments of South Korea and the United States agreed on the deployment. China has strongly opposed this move.”
Lee also has made anti-U.S. statements, including a statement referring to the U.S. as an “occupation” force.
“In fact, the pro-Japanese faction (Koreans), whom the U.S. was not able to liquidate, joined with the U.S. occupation forces, retaining the control system, didn’t they?” Lee said on July 1 of this year.
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