A few days ago, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, the largest opposition party in South Korea, was suddenly assassinated while attending an event, and was subsequently sent to the hospital for treatment, and his life is not in danger for the time being.
In the past two years, the political struggle in South Korea has become increasingly fierce, and Lee Jae-myung has gone on a hunger strike to protest again, and now he has been attacked, highlighting the situation in which social contradictions in South Korea have intensified and partisan struggles have escalated.
In times of peace, this is a very serious political event. Objectively speaking, the ROK authorities have not yet given an accurate account of the assassination of Lee Jae-myung, and all the speculations and judgments of the outside world on this matter cannot be counted.
Lee Jae-myung was assassinated
But the wind rises at the end of Qingping, and there must be inevitability in the accident of such a serious political event. In layman's terms, Lee Jae-myung was assassinated for a reason.
From a macro point of view, in the past two years of global economic downturn, after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol came to power, he has adopted a grovelling diplomatic line, changing the past line of South Korea seeking neutrality between the two superpowers of China and the United States, which has undoubtedly brought very serious trauma to the South Korean economy.
According to data reported by the South Korean media, in 2023, the South Korean economy will run a trade deficit. For a medium-sized country with a relatively small size and an economy heavily dependent on foreign trade, the significance of a trade deficit to South Korea is unusual.
To put it bluntly, South Korea, like Japan, does not have much resources and its domestic market is not large enough, so its economic development is heavily dependent on foreign trade, and once foreign trade is damaged, it will directly affect the foundation of South Korea's economy.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol
In the past two years, under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, trade between China and South Korea has been affected, and China has gone from South Korea's once largest trade surplus to a trade deficit. That is, in the past, South Korea made money from China, and now China makes money from South Korea.
Although South Korea's economic and trade data showed that South Korea's exports to the United States increased last year, the emergence of the overall trade deficit proves that the United States cannot replace the important position of the Chinese market for the South Korean economy.
The economic foundation determines the superstructure, and if the economic foundation is not good, it is easy to breed all kinds of social problems. In addition, in order to stabilize its own approval ratings, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has actually adopted a conservative approach to foreign and domestic affairs. Specifically, it is a deliberate incitement of populist extremist sentiments in the country.
However, like most political parties in Western countries, under the so-called democratic political system, if a political party cannot solve the livelihood problems of the people in the country, but still wants to gain high support ratings, it can only adopt the line of agitating public opinion and taking the line of extremism.
U.S.-South Korea relations
Yoon's National Power Party is the same, they are constrained by the United States, and they cannot make the right choices that are beneficial to South Korea's economic development based on South Korea's own interests, while also hoping to increase their domestic approval ratings.
Therefore, they can only use the hype of the contradictions on the Korean Peninsula and the relations between the DPRK and the ROK to prove their "toughness" and win their support.
A short-sighted party that cultivates a short-sighted voter. Many voters who have grown up under this kind of erroneous public opinion propaganda do not know that the root cause of South Korea's current problems is that the ruling People's Power Party has blindly chosen a pro-American line, which has deprived South Korea of the opportunity to further expand the Chinese market and achieve further economic development.
On the contrary, these voters believe some false propaganda of the People's Power Party, such as that South Korea should be tougher on North Korea, that it should ally with the United States, and even that there are some anti-China public opinion.
Korea
As everyone knows, one of the most prominent characteristics of party struggle is that in order to attack each other, the two parties often blame one side entirely for the problems encountered in the domestic economy.
But in fact, no snowflake is innocent at the time of an avalanche. Yoon Suk-yeol's National Power Party will certainly hurt the South Korean economy more than the Democratic Party of Korea. After all, what the Yoon Suk-yeol administration is doing so far is almost tantamount to slashing at the main artery of South Korea's economy.
However, supporters of the People's Power Party are not aware of this, and they have instead regarded the Democratic Party of Korea, which is sincerely concerned about the long-term development of South Korea, as an enemy under the guidance of the Party's erroneous propaganda.
There is no definite conclusion about the attack on Lee Jae-myung, but if this is not a personal vendetta, but related to South Korea's domestic political struggle, then the National Power Party and the Yoon Suk-yeol government will certainly be to blame.
Korean politics
Even if the matter itself has nothing to do with them, in order to stabilize its own support rating, the People's Power Party has taken the initiative to intensify the struggle between the two parties in South Korea, and in fact, it has also created an environment and atmosphere for the occurrence of similar extreme and vicious incidents.
Finally, judging from the impact of this incident, Lee Jae-myung is not an ordinary politician, he has huge influence within South Korea's largest opposition party, and this party represents the interests of a large part of South Korea's economic forces.
Now that Lee Jae-myung has been attacked, it means that the representatives elected by the opposition parties and the economic forces behind them have been maliciously attacked, and this will inevitably trigger more fierce resistance from them, and if this matter is confirmed to be related to the ruling party, I am afraid that the next political struggle in South Korea will deteriorate rapidly.
Judging from the situation in the entire Northeast Asian region, the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the attack on the head of South Korea's largest opposition party, we can clearly see that in recent years, the US strategic center of gravity is shifting eastward.
U.S.-Japan-South Korea relations
The factors of turmoil and instability that this has brought to countries in the region are becoming more and more numerous. It is not an exaggeration to say that wherever the United States goes, it takes disasters and turmoil with it.
It is hoped that the current ROK and Japan will wake up as soon as possible and truly realize that what the United States has brought to them is chaos and insecurity.
Otherwise, the political struggle in Northeast Asia, especially in Japan and South Korea, will only become more and more intense, and will eventually damage the foundations of South Korea and Japan themselves.