Complete List of Scandals Plaguing the Democratic Party
Why the Democratic Party is so desperate to oust Yoon and attain the Presidency before its too late as the investigations reach their conclusive stages
This will be a comprehensive article discussing all the criminal activities of the Democratic Party [DP] they wish to bury in the history records by impeaching President Yoon. Even Koreans are forgetting their endless series of corruption and abuse of power as time passes which is what the Democratic Party is betting on. They also seek to end the prosecutions against them to avoid jail and accountability for everything they’ve done. For this, they destroyed the rule of law, destroyed the entire prosecutorial system before leaving the Presidency, and have now issued 24 impeachments to cripple the Yoon Administration before the convictions arrive to shut down all these cases. I have found it extremely distasteful how the foreign press covers the Moon Presidency as “scandal-free” because he hasn’t gone to jail yet. There is also zero coverage of the Democratic Party’s increasingly Stalinist and Cultural Revolution-type behavior. This will be split into two categories: crimes committed by the Moon Jae-In Administration (2017-2022) and the other done by current DP Leader (also their 2022 Presidential nominee) Lee Jae Myung. [Note: I will not be mentioning several minor scandals but only discussing the major scandals affecting Korea]
Moon Administration’s Scandals
Former President Moon Jae In and DP Leader Lee Jae Myung have been bitter political rivals since 2017 but because Yoon’s investigations since he was Attorney General are putting both in threat of jail, they have allied to impeach and remove him from office before convictions are finalized in courts. Then, Lee (most likely) or a candidate from Moon’s faction can become President, cancel all the investigations, and pardon everyone in DP facing indictments or convictions.
Forced deportation of a North Korean Defector
On November 2nd, 2019, the Marines detained two defectors, who voluntarily accepted custody, from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [DPRK] who came via fishing boats. DPRK immediately shot back demanding the two men be returned claiming they are criminals who murdered over 15-16 people who were on the boat and then ran away to avoid accountability. These are typical smear tactics the North makes for ALL who flee their country to South Korea. In an unprecedented move, the Moon Administration announced they decided to deport the two back, which is an automatic death sentence as DPRK tortures and painfully executes all defectors caught including their families (or other associates). On November 7th, the two were sent over to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) with their eyes covered. It is reported that when they learned of their fate, they fell to their knees, bit their tongues, and desperately slammed their heads on whatever wall they could find to commit suicide. They tragically survived and were never heard from since.
The Constitution states all defectors from DPRK are defacto citizens of ROK especially when they unequivocally expressed willingness to enter South Korea so this can be interpreted as complicit in murder. It’s also a significant breach of human rights and a violation of international law to deport them without any sort of investigation or trial (as one obviously can’t expect a fair process from DPRK). The most dangerous element is that the South Korean government just trusted the North’s claims as is and acted upon them. Since this incident, number of defectors plummeted from an average of over 1200 to 300. COVID is one factor behind this but DPRK did use this incident to warn citizens to think twice before fleeing. Currently, four cabinet officials formerly part of Moon’s Blue House are under indictment (Chief of Staff, NSA Advisor, National Intelligent Services [NIS] Director, and a Minister of Unification.
North Korea’s Killing of a South Korean Official on the West Sea
On September 22nd, 2020, a South Korean Official part of the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries was declared missing and then discovered to be murdered on the South-North border (got there as being drifted by tides) by the DPRK’s Korean People’s Army via gunfire. They also burned his body afterward. The Moon Administration claimed this occurred as the official (name: Lee Dae Joon) voluntarily tried moving to North Korea. The victim’s family sued the administration claiming the government is lying and defaming Lee to cover up their failure to rescue him from murder.
On July 2023, the Board of Audit and Inspection concluded the government’s claims of Lee’s attempted defection were a lie which began prosecutions of Moon’s officials for the coverup of the murder. The investigations additionally show the administration was aware of Lee’s whereabouts when he was alive being detained by North Korea yet did nothing about it. 1 and 2 are in parallel with Moon’s pro-North Korea foreign policy and avoiding any areas of conflict with the DPRK government to leave the possibility of pursuing diplomacy like the summits in 2018 open.
Election interference in the Ulsan Mayoral Race during the 2018 gubernatorial election
In 2018, back when President Moon’s approvals were sky high nearing 80%, the Democratic Party dominated the gubernatorial election held during that year, sweeping nearly 4/5ths of all the seats up for grabs. Ulsan mayoral race, which is a historically heavily conservative-leaning seat, flipped to DP for the first time in history. Three months before the election, there was a search and seizure on incumbent PPP Mayor Kim Ki-Hyun’s office, which became a very political incident that hurt his chances at re-election significantly. After Kim lost, he was found not guilty of the alleged charges.
Later, allegations emerged the Blue House actively pressured the Police to investigate Kim and inflict significant political damage on him to get President Moon’s longtime friend Song Chul-ho elected, which he did. To things worse, the policewho headed these charges, Hwang Un Ha was nominated as a DP candidate for the National Assembly during the 2020 Parliamentary election, which he won but raised questions of political bargaining. He was also reelected in 2024 DESPITE being proven guilty of illegal election interference via proportional representation through the Rebuilding Korea Party (a close DP ally). Additionally, Song was convicted for 3 years and multiple former secretaries in the Blue House also received a guilty verdict for election interference via pressuring the police to open an investigation without credible evidence.
Fabrication of Official Government Statistics
One of the main reasons the Democratic Party lost power in just one term, which is a historic first in Korean history since they democratized (each side always had two terms before switching before this), is due to skyrocketing housing prices caused by their regulatory policies. A controversial moment was when Housing Minister Kim claimed before the Assembly that housing prices only went up by 11% citing official government statistics.
This nonsensical claim began public scrutiny that the Moon Admin is fabricating statistics in ways that produce favorable data for the government on multiple fronts. They used it to claim Moon’s signature “income-led growth” policies had a positive effect (it led to massive layoffs and plummeting employment numbers), and fired the Commissioner of Statistics to a partisan hack who’s willing to do this for them.
The Yoon admin began investigating these allegations through the Board of Audit and Inspection investigating the ministers and bureaucrats mainly concerned with housing and economic policy. In response, the Democratic Party impeached the General Auditor, suspending his duties. This impeachment is one big reason that caused President Yoon to conclude a declaration of martial law was necessary as a warning as they’ve gone beyond going after prosecutors to now auditors as well.
National Election Commission Issues: Bias, Hacking, and Employment Corruptions
Bias
The controversy surrounding the National Election Commission [NEC] began when President Moon appointed one of the commissioners Cho Hae Joo, who was part of his presidential campaign in 2017. The precedent has been to appoint someone neutral and objective to prevent any biased interferences. The conservative opposition vehemently expressed their opposition but President Moon went through. He works in the NEC to this day.
Next, the head of the NEC is one of the Supreme Court justices. At the time during 2020, the head was Justice Kwon Soon Il. He first sparked controversy refusing to step out of heading the NEC after his six-year term ended in 2020 tryingto make last-minute appointments. The biggest problem emerged when DP Leader Lee Jae Myung’s embezzlement scandal regarding a construction project in Daejang District (will be further elaborated in the section where I discuss all of Lee’s scandals) because Kwon was selected post-retirement as Supreme Court justice as an adviser. It was revealed hereceived over 5 million won and even worse, allegations emerged this was part of a political bargain in exchange for Kwon voting Not Guilty which saved Lee Jae Myung in one of his cases. The vote came in his favor 7-5 so Kwon was a tiebreaker. This further raised skepticism over the objective conduct of the NEC.
Hacking
In 2023, there were multiple cyber attacks and hacking attempts from the DPRK into key government institutions in the South, the NEC being one of them. As this occurs very often, it is customary for the intelligence agencies to then check through all the cyber securities to verify their status and see if it was infiltrated.
The National Intelligence Services [NIS] revealed the NEC had the weakest and most porous cyber security of any institution. The report showed voting machines, servers, and databases could be externally controlled or fabricated by external forces. So they ordered the NEC to change passwords (citing how some were 12345) and tighten up, giving them a security score of 31/100. Though the NIS denied this means voter fraud occurred, they did say it was possible with such lax cyber security systems.
Because the NEC declares itself as an independent organization that mustn’t have any political interference, they’ve repeatedly used this excuse to avoid any thorough audits or investigations into what’s going on internally.
Corrupt Hiring Procedures
The immunity the NEC received from any sort of external inspection also predictably bred corruption. There have been revealed to be over 1200 instances of issues in their employment since 2013. The beginning is 10 cases of high-ranking officials in the NEC who hired their children and gave them a series of unprecedented promotions. Before the martial law, the General Auditor (prior to his impeachment) was in repeated clashes with the NEC whose board unanimously rejected efforts to inspect this situation.
All these three issues facilitate distrust in the NEC and lead to distrust. This is how it eventually led to claims of election fraud that began in 2020 and prompted President Yoon to instruct IT workers to go with troops during martial law to attain key servers in the NEC.
Honorable mentions (but not worth going into depth):
The Moon Administration is currently being investigated after the General Auditor revealed allegations that they leaked second-class secret information to China before the deployment of US anti-ballistic missile THAAD systems in Korea, which the left was vehemently opposed to but chose not to reverse.
Another is allegations former President Moon’s son-in-law was hired to a prominent position in Eastar Jet (a low-cost carrier in ROK) using his connections to the owner, a former DP politician Lee Sang Jik. Lee is currently convicted of embezzlement and the inappropriate use of funds. This is the case most directly tied to President Moon Jae-In.
Lee Jae Myung’s Scandals
Lee, despite losing the 2022 Presidential Election, returned to politics in a few months elected Party Leader and MP. Thisis for two purposes: take over the party to use its apparatus to obstruct the investigations and threaten prosecutors, andjudges (again, they have a filibuster-proof majority); use the constitutional right as an MP to avoid arrest unless approved by a majority in the National Assembly. He also enacted Stalinist purges of any moderates or opposition during the 2024 National Assembly Election so only loyalists were nominated, most of whom won. DP is now essentially Lee’s asset and weapon against the Yoon administration to fail on policy and push forward the investigations. He is currently on trial for five different cases.
Daejang District Construction Project Embezzlement (+ MANY other scandals related or similar to it)
This is the biggest one that Lee faced investigations for since 2021 where a public-private construction project in Dae-Jang District was embezzled by a small company (Hwa-Cheon-Dae-Yoo) owned 100% by one individual taking nearly half the profits from 1 billion won. The biggest problem is that they only owned 7% of the shares in this project yet took nearly all the private share of the profits ignoring the four biggest banks in ROK. This raised allegations of public malfeasance and even worse complicity from the then Mayor of Seongnam Lee Jae Myung. This company also hired several lawyers, prosecutors, and politicians as consultants or advisers giving them immense payments (bribes) to lobby and cover up, former Supreme Court Justice Kwon mentioned above being one of them. It is claimed Kwon was hired by this company as an adviser in exchange for freeing Lee from a guilty verdict in 2019 which would’ve barred him from running for any elected office for 10 years. This is in addition to allegations the profits were used to fund Lee’s 2022 Presidential Campaign and hire an extravagant list of the best lawyers for his cases.
This strings to all sorts of scandals Lee is currently on trial for. One is the scandal itself.
The scandal Lee averted a guilty verdict from is also relevant to the Daejang scandal because he was alleged to have lied on the campaign trail during the 2018 gubernatorial election saying he did not force his older brother into a mental asylum when he did. Lee is notorious for having horrid family relations and it is alleged he forced his brother in there to stop his attempts (with another reporter) to expose the Daejang District corruption.
Another case directly affects DP. The investigation into this corruption began in 2021 thus the entire 2022 Presidential Election cycle. During the process (and after), the CEO of Hwa-Cheon-Dae-Yoo, Lee’s chief campaign manager, the head of public construction projects in Seongnam, and many more were all arrested (also received convictions). The last person on this list is notorious for throwing his phone outside a building to remove evidence when prosecutors came to enforce the arrest warrant. Even worse, 5 individuals additionally related to this case committed suicide. When Lee was askedabout one of them on the debate stage, he said he didn’t know the person (Kim Moon Ki) despite a photo later emerging golfing together. This has been alleged to be a lie and Lee is on trial for it. However, because this occurred during the presidential cycle, if found guilty (which he has received a conviction for but is on appeal), this would mean DP must reimburse all the public campaign funds they received during 2022 (434 million won roughly). Korean parties barely have any money so they’d essentially go bankrupt if this conviction goes through, which is why the party also has an incentive to fight tooth and nail to shut this case down.
As Lee’s background was notoriously poor (was homeless for a while during childhood), I believe he used his political positions to accumulate money (campaign funds, personal pocket, hiring lawyers [also lobbyists and many others, etc…]) and power to one day become President.
Illegal Delivery of Funds to North Korea
As historic summits were being held in 2018-19 between DPRK and the US, the Moon administration held great hopes in sanctions going down to begin economic cooperation with their Northern counterparts, which has been the left’s dream to begin processes for reunification.
During this process, the Governor of Gyeonggi Lee seeks to make political headway by conducting projects with North Korea. He wanted to hold a summit of his own with DPRK officials and conduct projects together. However, going against US sanctions and Korea’s laws, Lee sends over funds to North Korean officials in order to accomplish this.
Those most affiliated are the owner of a shady company (Ssang Bang Wool) Kim Sung Tae who’s connected to Korean gangs and deputy to Governor Lee Hwa Young. It’s rumored they also tried conducting a crypto industry and hoarding all sorts of projects planned with the North with Lee’s associates (Kim being one of them). Lee Jae Myung’s trial on this is still ongoing but Kim has been convicted for 2 1/2 years while the deputy also faces jail for 7 years.
Honorable Mentions (but not worth going into depth):
This scandal isn’t related to Daejang but is very similar in structure. It’s alleged Lee did a similar set of corrupt acts in a construction project in Baekhyun District. The CEO of this company also received a conviction (Lee not yet). There are also allegedly similar activities surrounding the Soccer team in Seongnam (Seongnam FC) embezzling investment funds in exchange for construction favors. Lee and his wife are on trial for privately using Gyeonggi’s corporate card (aka taxpayer money). Last but not least, Lee is also on trial for ordering one of the witnesses during the 2019 trial to fabricate testimony. The district court found Lee not guilty despite acknowledging the testimony was fabricated because there was not enough evidence of his “intent” behind it.
Updates on the current state of affairs in the Republic of Korea [ROK]
As a compromise to avoid impeachment and stabilize the political situation to prevent it from further hurting Korea’s economy, Acting President [also Treasury Minister] Choi Sang Mok appointed two Constitutional Court justices (chosen by DP and the incumbent People’s Power Party [PPP] evenly) making the total number 8 out of 9. This now requires President Yoon to produce 3 Nos to avoid removal from office, a much more difficult task than just 1 he needed when the number of justices was 6. The new composition of the Court is 3 liberals, 2 moderates, and 3 centre-right/conservatives.
The Court also significantly takes into account public opinion when weighing their decision. In 2017, because such an overwhelming majority backed President Park’s impeachment (80-85%), they issued a unanimous 8-0 verdict in favor. However, this front is very different from 2017. Since former party Leader Han Dong Hoon resigned due to his support for Yoon’s impeachment, the PPP has taken a much more consolidated, pro-Yoon turn. The new minority leader of the Assembly Kwon Sung Dong and Emergency Response Chair (aka temporary head of PPP) Kwon Young Se are both President Yoon’s closest associates in Yeouido (political capital of Korea). The party unlike splitting in two in 2016 is uniting to save President Yoon and fight back against the extremely unfavorable narrative and political environment the Right faces. As a result, the conservative base is having a coming home effect where both the PPP and President Yoon are surpassing 35% in support. Meanwhile, opposition to impeachment initially was 74-78% but is now cratering to 62-65%. DP also surpassed 50% but their support crashed into the low 40s and most polls now have the PPP surpassing them (46 vs 42). This can be attributed to the fact DP has overplayed its hands and acting extremely arrogant. It’s also a deep-seated fear in a Lee Jae Myung presidency along with an overwhelming majority in the Assembly. They’ve impeached Prime Minister Han Duk Soo for vetoing their bills and reinterpreting the number required to remove Acting Presidents from 200 to 151 for their convenience sakes. They are also repeatedly threatening to impeach Now Acting President Choi for refusing to pass their Special Counsel bills.
All these acts give the impression to the people they’re just out for power and aren’t interested in stabilizing the country. So in my opinion, the current state of public opinion gives Yoon enough maneuvering room to prevail if he can make a solid case against the National Assembly’s Articles of Impeachment in Court (50-50 odds).
The third front aside from public opinion and the trial is the prosecutions. The current President has been arrested and put in jail for the first time in history. The Corruption Investigation Office, despite having no powers to prosecute insurrection charges pushed through. They got a warrant approved applying to the Seoul Western District Court, not Central where they were supposed to do (it is alleged they went “judge shopping” as that court is run by a judicial official who wasformerly part of a pro-DP thinktank). Now CIO tossed it to the Prosecutions Office, who also don’t have powers to investigate insurrection charges and the lawfare continues….
Conclusion:
The general political pattern in South Korea since 1987 democratization is whenever a presidency approaches its end (or after it) every 5 years (the Constitution only allows for one term), the administration becomes unpopular and all the institutions of government turn on them. Then the prosecutions against the administration swarm and many go to jail over multiple scandals that they didn’t dare touch before the President was in lame-duck. This is a tradition where bureaucrats act in a tribalistic fashion to win favors for who they anticipate to be the next to assume power. It’s a curse no president escaped.
Yoon is a unique case his issuance of martial law caused institutions to conclude he’s finished 2 1/2 years in office sothey’re lashing out against him now predicting DP will return to the presidency. The most evident proof of this is that DP’s cases have begun investigating as early as 2019, 2020, and 2021 yet final convictions still haven’t emerged. On the other hand, Yoon, his Ministers, and anyone allegedly complicit in the insurrection have all been arrested within a month. Lee, Moon, and DP are attempting to seize this opportunity to finish their coup because if Yoon finishes all these investigations, all the leading forces of the left will be annihilated. They have to seize power, shut down all the cases, pardon each other, and purge all the forces like Yoon who are trying to hold them accountable.