Washington Post profiles CCP-backed leader in Seoul as pro-Yoon protests continue

by WorldTribune Staff, February 23, 2025 Real World News

How effectively is South Korea handling negotiations with President Donald Trump who is set to impose punishing tariffs on the East Asian economic powerhouse? Not so much.

The nation’s popular conservative President Yoon Suk-Yeol has been impeached, sidelined and is in detention. The acting president Choi Sang-Mok reportedly cannot get his phone calls returned from Washington.

A massive anti-impeachment rally in Daegu. These rallies calling for jailing Lee Jae-Myung and investigating election fraud are occurring nationwide on Saturdays. / Tara O / Facebook

Meanwhile, the Washington Post, while billing leftist South Korean Democratic Party (DPK) leader Lee Jae-Myung as a figure of unity, joins the legacy international and Korean media in ignoring massive weekly protests calling for Lee’s arrest and jailing.

Without reporting his strong backing from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Post cites Lee as saying that South Korea can’t afford to alienate China.

How is a leader of a top security ally of the United States, who is accused of seizing power through election fraud and hiding financial ties with communist North Korea, positioning himself with new U.S. Administration?

Lee is floating his support of U.S. President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to multiple news reports.

Lee “would also temper South Korea’s hawkish approach toward China — potentially putting him at odds with the Trump administration — if he becomes the country’s president and returns a progressive government to Seoul,” the Post’s report said.

“It’s an issue of managing a balance,” Lee said in an interview with The Washington Post on Thursday. “The problem is that South Korea is on the front lines” of a challenging geopolitical landscape in the Asia-Pacific region.

Related: Analyst: Only Trump stands in way of Xi’s brutal plans for South Korea, Japan, February 5, 2025

Lee was central in the impeachment of conservative President Yoon Suk-Yeol. South Korea’s Constitutional Court is approaching the final phase of proceedings before it decides in March whether to uphold the impeachment of Yoon over his brief martial law tactic in December that he states was intended to force an investigation of the 2024 elections which delivered an overwhelming if unlikely majority to Lee’s party in the National Assembly. Yoon’s approval ratings have continued to improved during his being hounded from office.

As for Lee, he has been convicted for violating election laws and is also “on trial or under investigation for cases involving real estate corruption, bribery of a Supreme Court justice, and sending money to North Korea,” East Asia Research Center Founder Tara O noted.

Protests opposing the impeachment of Yoon have taken place in major cities across South Korea in February, with one of the largest rallies held at Park Jeong-Hee Square near Dongdaegu Station in Daegu, The Chosun Daily reported. Organizers estimated the crowd at 300,000.

The event, organized by the evangelical group Save Korea, was part of a national emergency prayer gathering. Demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Nullify the impeachment” and “Arrest Lee Jae-Myung.”

Protesters held signs with messages such as “Eradicate Pro-North Judge,” “Lee Jae-Myung Is the Insurrection Leader,” and “Verify Election Fraud.”

A notable number of participants were in their 20s and 30s, the report said.

Voice of America in a Feb. 18 report, cited analysts in Washington as saying that if Yoon is removed from office China will conduct full-fledged malign operations in South Korea.

“I would expect Beijing to increase its efforts, as it sees South Korea’s political upheaval as ripe for Chinese malicious intervention,” said Dennis Wilder, a senior fellow at the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University.

“China’s goal will be to weaken the democracy and to support those in favor of better ties with Beijing at the expense of the U.S. alliance,” said Wilder, who served as the CIA’s deputy assistant director for East Asia and the Pacific from 2015 to 2016.

“The key to defeating China’s ambition is intense and sustained counterintelligence programs. The United States has a great deal to teach South Korea in this area, and the CIA and the FBI should work with the South Koreans to improve their ability to spot and deter Chinese covert operations,” Wilder added.

“Everything on the Korean Peninsula affects U.S. security,” said David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy. “President Yoon is right to call attention to what China is doing. Ideally, it would be wonderful to have a coordinated [U.S.] response with South Korea.”

Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said, “Statements by party chief Lee Jae-Myung indicate the party will pursue a more conciliatory policy toward China and North Korea, more antagonistic toward Japan, and place less emphasis on strengthening the alliance with the United States.”

Klingner, formerly the CIA’s deputy division chief, told VOA on Thursday: “The Trump administration will look for South Korea and other Indo-Pacific democracies to pursue stronger policies against the multifaceted China threat, including supporting roles in Taiwan contingencies. The [main] Democratic Party of Korea would resist such entreaties, which will cause strains with Washington.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a news conference after meeting with NATO defense ministers in Belgium on Thursday that working with Pacific allies South Korea, Japan, and Australia will be “critical” in dealing with the Chinese threat.

The Chosun Daily noted: “While countries scramble to adjust to this new reality, South Korea, mired in political turmoil following President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s martial law incident, is ill-equipped to respond to Trump’s disruptive policies.”

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