Recently, South Korea is really in chaos, the previous medical reform issue is in a uproar, Yoon Suk-yeol seems to be unable to settle at all, the ruling party National Assembly suffered a major rout in the election in the past two days, which directly led to the resignation of South Korean Prime Minister Han Deok-so, the secretary of the presidential office and other members, indicating that South Korean politics is about to usher in a major reshuffle, and these people quickly withdrew in advance. Of course, the blame for the failure of the parliamentary election cannot be borne by them, and the main responsibility lies with Yoon Suk-yeol.
With the ruling party's crushing defeat in the parliamentary election, the day of Yoon Suk-yeol's ouster and liquidation seems to be not far off.
In this parliamentary election, Yoon Suk-yeol vigorously promoted the reform of the medical system, which attracted the support of many voters. Originally, it was predicted that the gap between the opposition parties and the ruling parties would be very small, and even if the opposition parties win, it would only be a small victory. However, the final result surprised everyone, and the ruling National Power Party can be said to be "defeated". As it turned out, Yoon Suk-yeol did not win the hearts and minds of the people. The final statistics show that South Korea's largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), and its satellite parties won a landslide victory with 175 seats. The ruling National Power Party and its satellite parties won only 108 seats.
What does this result mean? This means that even if Yoon Suk-yeol insists on not resigning, he may face the risk of being impeached and removed from office by Congress at any time. If Yoon Suk-yeol sticks to his post, his room for governance will be severely limited unless the bill he pushes can be supported by the Democratic Party of Korea. With the opposition holding well over half of the seats, they theoretically have the right to block any bill from passing in the Diet. Therefore, it is not surprising that Prime Minister Han Duck-so, the head of the Presidential Office's secretary's office, the head of the policy office, and the chief secretary all resigned. On the one hand, they will bear the responsibility for the crushing defeat in the general election, and on the other hand, the road ahead will be full of difficulties, and perhaps leaving early is a good choice.
Less than two years after Yoon Suk-yeol came to power, he has been riddled with flattery to the United States and Japan and hostility to China. He was afraid of the curse of the Blue House from the beginning and insisted on moving the presidential palace to the Ministry of National Defense building, but now it seems that the curse of the Ministry of Defense may be even more terrible than the Blue House, and Yoon Suk-yeol may face impeachment before his term expires.
However, the Ministry of Defense cannot be blamed completely, because which president is not digging his own grave by engaging in humiliation diplomacy, and Yoon Suk-yeol's behavior is too ostentatious, and it can only be said that he is asking for his own suffering. And the recent screwing of South Korea's medical system is even worse, which is simply losing reason for the sake of votes and artificially creating a medical disaster. For the ruling party, the election of such a president is simply a disgrace, and if such a person is not ousted, the cauldron carried by the previous presidents will appear to be very wronged, and they will definitely be restless after their deaths.
After Yoon Suk-yeol came to power, South Korea's economic level fell sharply. In 2022, South Korea's GDP was $1.6733 trillion, ranking 13th in the world. After three years, I fell out of the top 10 again, and it may take a long time to squeeze into the top 10 again. South Korea's core industries such as shipbuilding, automobiles and semiconductors have been hit hard by China's manufacturing sector.
It can be said that Yoon Suk-yeol lacks a level in politics. After taking office, he first challenged China-South Korea relations, and then improved Japan-South Korea relations to increase his approval ratings, only to suffer a setback. Then he pushed for domestic health care reforms to boost support ratings, and now it's in trouble. Yoon Suk-yeol's wife has been exploited by political opponents in a series of scandals, and after the parliamentary election, Yoon Suk-yeol has become a highly questioned president, and whether he can die well has become a big question.
Even if we bow to the United States and Japan, it seems that there is no good result now. As recently as April 10, Biden and Fumio Kishida met at the White House, chanting "the most important upgrade of the U.S.-Japan alliance since its inception" and "the U.S.-Japan alliance has become a beacon for the world." South Korea has been trying to prove itself stronger and more useful than Japan, but in the eyes of the Americans, it is still far inferior to Japan.
No matter how hard he tries, Yoon may have one last way left, which is to take the initiative to improve relations between China and South Korea and see if he can get some support from China. China, however, has long since made it clear that it supports Yoon's political opponent, Lee Jae-myung. In June last year, Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming met with Lee Jae-myung, head of the Democratic Party of Korea, at his official residence.
Yoon's resignation may be an opportunity to ease the crisis on the Korean Peninsula, hopefully improve inter-Korean relations, and reduce pressure on the northeastern side of the mainland, which is also a good thing for us.