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Gearing up for 2020 general elections
By Kim Ji-soo
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Yoon, who famously proclaimed that he has no loyalty to any person, has led his prosecution to search the justice minister's home and is expected to summon the minister's wife concerning whether there was fraud committed in getting their children admitted to college or graduate school.
Justice Minister Cho, who experienced a challenging National Assembly confirmation hearing, during the 11th hour of which his wife was indicted, is determinedly going about his work, meeting with frontline prosecutors as he pursues reform.
With much confusion over just where the clash will end, the public has been struggling to understand why President Moon Jae-in took the risk of appointing Cho as justice minister.
"It will leave a bad precedent not to appoint someone with the proper qualifications, when there is no clear violation of the law," the President said. Moon also reiterated his campaign pledge to reform powerful institutions such as the judiciary, and Minister Cho was the right man for it.
The public has responded with one of the lowest approval ratings for the President (the 40 percent range) since he took office.
But the timing of the appointment, the presidential determination and the resolve political parties are demonstrating, however, may well illustrate much of the Cho Kuk factor may have to do more with the 2020 general election than anything else.
The April 2020 elections will take place midway through President Moon's five-year single term. It will be an election that casts a review of the administration's first-half achievements while laying the stones for either success or early lame duck status of Moon. The party that wins in the 2020 general election gets a head start in the next presidential election.
The nature of the Korean electoral system, which essentially is winner-take-all, has raised the stakes in elections.
And that means the stakes for the general election preceding a presidential election get even higher. The pending revised Election Law includes proposals to change the number of contested and proportional representation seats that may alter the election dynamics, but there is no guarantee the revision will go through as currently proposed.
Within the larger framework of political history, government power has transferred between both ends of the ideological spectrum to date. It translates into a ripe time for any administration that follows that of President Moon to implement strong reforms from within to proactively weave a new social and political fabric for a richer if ailing Korea.
Ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Lee Hae-chan has exhorted his party and its members on the importance of the 21st general election, adding that "Our national fate lies in it." The DPK, to that extent, has decided on a new set of candidacy nomination rules within the party including bottom-up nominations, and the strengthening of ethics reviews. The DPK has also said it will have veteran members not compete in the coming election, to inject a new line of politicians.
The embattled main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), whose members have shaved their heads to protest Cho's appointment, hurriedly announced a new economic vision dubbed "The Wealth of the Public," Monday. The LKP wants to refute Moon's income-led growth policy and enrich the public with pro-market, pro-enterprise policies.
The stakes seem high, and perhaps the moves entail higher risk-taking.
