S. Korea Election Stirred by Luxury Bags, Coffee, Salons

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    In South Korea, the presidential race has been overshadowed by fierce personal insults and trivial disputes, pushing substantial policy conversations to the sidelines. This tumultuous electoral environment follows former conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s removal due to a martial law crisis.

    The discord between liberal leader Lee Jae-myung and conservative contender Kim Moon Soo intensified during last week’s presidential debate. Lee labeled Kim as “Yoon Suk Yeol’s puppet,” while Kim accused Lee of being a “proponent of authoritarian politics.”

    An incident involving coffee beans put Lee in the spotlight. Trailing in the polls, Kim has underscored Lee’s legal issues, portraying the Democratic Party candidate as an extreme populist disconnected from reality. Kim’s team seized an offhand comment by Lee during a campaign event, where Lee mentioned the profitability of running coffee shops. He highlighted a policy initiative from when he was Gyeonggi governor, attempting to shift unlicensed vendors to legitimate businesses. Lee suggested coffee was more profitable than traditional foods, a statement that hit a sore spot in a country with a saturated café market. The People Power Party criticized Lee for being dismissive of small business hardships, to which Lee responded by saying his remarks were misrepresented.

    Meanwhile, Kim has managed to avoid direct involvement in scandals related to Yoon’s martial law declaration. While Yoon attended a film promoting the decree and questionable fraud allegations, Kim, who served as Yoon’s labor minister, remained largely silent, vowing instead to address fraud suspicions as president.

    Attention has also turned towards Kim’s avoidance of controversies involving Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee. She is under investigation over alleged luxury gifts from a business-laden church official, alongside previous allegations involving high-end gifts and alleged market manipulation. During a debate, Lee suggested Yoon could control Kim from behind the scenes, yet Kim sidestepped queries about potential pardons for Yoon.

    Lee’s party spotlighted an issue involving judge Jee Kui-youn, who allegedly frequented a high-end karaoke bar with unnamed patrons during Yoon’s rebellion trial. The judge, linked to Yoon’s release, denied conflicts of interest. Conservatives countered, accusing the Democratic Party of judicial manipulation amid Lee’s ongoing legal battles.

    Campaign chaos continued as conservatives struggled to unify their candidacies under South Korea’s single-round voting system. Despite attempts to replace Kim with Han Duck-soo, Yoon’s former prime minister, party infighting led to the plan’s rejection. Kim criticized these moves as a “political coup,” but his efforts to align with smaller party leader Lee Joon-seok were unsuccessful.