South Korea's foreign ministry: We cherish the support that China has provided to South Korea under the current situation

On December 30, China's new ambassador to the Republic of Korea (RoK) Dai Bing presented a copy of his credential to RoK's Protocol Chief Kim Tae-jin at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and met the First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-gil.

After arriving at RoK, China's new ambassador presents a copy of his credential to the government

Dai said that he was honored to be nominated by President Xi to serve as the envoy in Korea and felt the heavy responsibility for this important mission. China and South Korea are near neighbors and close partners that can never be separated. China-South Korea relations are also at a critical moment of carrying the past into the future and stabilizing and boosting development. The ambassador hopes to increase communication with the Korean government and various circles and promote the China-South Korea strategic cooperative partnership in the direction of healthy and steady growth and greater strength.

The South Korean side welcomed Dai's arrival and said that both sides attach importance to Sino-South Korean relations, and also cherish the support given by China to South Korea. We hope that both sides will communicate closely and work together to promote the development of bilateral relations and jointly respond to challenges.

Dai also expressed condolences to Kim's family again, after the aircraft of Jeju Air crashed in waters south of Jindo, western South Korea, on December 16, killing 129 people. The RoK side expressed gratitude for this.

This is a terrible December, especially for Korea.

Not only did a bloody plane crash shock the world and throw many more Korean families into their worst nightmare, but Korea's political drama still continues. Within the month, the country had three different presidents. The problems of the new interim president continue unabated!

A little ridiculous fact is that a wave of world leaders' message of sympathy in the past few days has been sent to Korean Interim President Choi Chang-moo; However, Choi Chang-moo has only been the Interim President for 3 days, but on December 30, he was also investigated by Korea police for criminal liability.

What kind of crime?

The prosecution and investigation of Choi involve suspected planning and participation and assistance in acts of internal rebellion, abuse of authority, negligence, and violations of the National Intelligence Service Act and other criminal acts

The origin of all these is still the self-coup-like national emergency crackdown that Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol imposed in the middle of that terrible December night (late on December 3, 2022) .

After the Korean plane crashed, the relatives were weeping as they looked for the remains of their loved ones

In a time of national disasters and a national emergency when the country needed a stable and strong government, the Korean government was in constant turmoil.

The president Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and put aside because of the "December 3th national emergency crackdown incident"

He can't accompany Trump to play golf, instead, now he can only stay inside the presidential office and dare not to come out. He is out of business already.

Then, Korea's Prime Minister Kim Deo-sue stepped in and acted as the president

But in Korea's political scene, the lines of political infighting, impeachment and removal of politicians are one thing, and the lines of police investigation and arrests are another. The former may be very noisy, but the latter may be lethal!

The action of the Korean police is very strong. Don't even mention that you are an impeached former president, and you are now the highest-ranking security service officer (as Police Minister) in the Korean government. If you have any criminal involvement, the Korean police will prosecute and sentence to the most severe extent possible by the law.

Kim was also the National Police Agency head and Minister of the interior in South Korea under president Moon Jae-in's administration (2017 - 2022), before serving as prime minister from January 2018 to February 2018.

On the same day (Dec.30) that interim President Choi was investigated for criminal liability, the Korea Public Prosecutor's Office Special Prosecutor's Office asked the court to issue a warrant for Yoon Suk Yeol's arrest.

The Korea Public Prosecutor's Office and the Special Prosecutor Special Prosecutor office (the former public prosecutor is assigned to the special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute criminal liability) were established by order of the RoK cabinet in response to Yoon's "national security crackdown." In other words, it was established specifically for this case on December 7, 2022 (a few days after the crisis) .

The special prosecutor's office of South Korea's Public Prosecutor's Office has requested the arrest warrant for Yoon (picture from South Korea's newspaper)

The request by the Public Prosecutor's Office Special Prosecutor's Office is the first time in South Korea's constitutional history that a prosecution investigation agency has applied for the enforcement of a public security action against a sitting President (in this case, of course a impeached and deposed).

The Public Prosecutor special prosecutor of course does not work for free. In recent months, three orders from the Korean National Police Agency to Yoon Suk have already been rejected by the Impeached Korean President!

The first attempt on December 8, 2022 was to send the investigation notice directly by hand to the Korean presidential office; The presidential office rejected the order (not accepting the letter).

Secondly, on December 20, 2022, the Korean national police used the electronic official document system to send the inspection notice to Yoon; However, Yoon also ignored this request, resulting in the public document unread for weeks!

Finally, the Korean prosecutor, on the orders of the National Police Agency, went directly to the presidential office on December 29 and wanted to pick up Yoon to take him to the police office for investigation; The president office's guards blocked them and did not allow them to enter!

Yoon knows very well that if he meets with them, there won't be any happy ending at all!

Because he is the prosecutor's spawn himself!

He wants to wait until the constitutional court removes him from power and sends him out of the presidential office before meeting this special prosecutor.

The Korean constitutional court initially had nine justices, but now it only has six, three appointed by the left and three by the right, tied at six to six.

According to South Korean law (Art. 112 of the Constitution Interpretation Act) , the approval of six justices on the nine-member Constitutional Court is needed to remove a president. In other words, all 6 judges on the current constitutional court can vote only yes votes and can never say no to Yoon Suk Yeol, or the impeachment won't succeed!

Because there are only 6 judges left, and one more vote against can make him not being removed from power!

Yoon has hope! But Korea's Opposition Party doesn't want to give him any hope of a pardon.

The Korean opposition party is now demanding that the president be expelled before the impeachment verdict. But the newly replaced interim presidential Kim already refused it. On December 26, the Korean National Assembly just passed three appointments to fill six seats for members for the Korean Constitutional Court. But Prime Minister of Korea Kim rejected the approval of the presidential appointment, citing disagreements among the ruling Democratic and opposition People Power parties.

But the left was too powerful! The next day (December 27), Prime Minister Kim Deo-sue was also impeached (for failing to fill the seats in Korea's Constitutional Court with six justices) and became Korea's second acting president in a month!

The speed at which Korea impeached its second president in just two weeks is also astonishing! But more bad news for Korea is that Kim Deosu's days in office may not be long!

Because he also faces police investigation and prosecution.

The Korean police national investigation task force announced on December 30, 2022, that Kim Deo-Sue must be investigated a second time.

Previously, Kim DeoSue had been very cooperative. In order not to cause a national crisis, he even stepped in as the interim president. He also cooperated with the national police investigation on December 8.

However, the police investigation of Kim is far from finished. In fact, Kim Deosu's situation may look even more worrying and worse than Yoon himself.

Because more clues about the December 3 national security emergency crackdown have been uncovered. Especially that concerning former Korean defense minister Kim Ryo-ha (also imprisoned).

Kim Ryo-ha's lawyer said that he had evidence that Kim told Prime Minister Kim DeoSue (Kim Ryo-ha and Kim DeoSue have two different family names despite having the same names) about his idea to order a national security crackdown before President Yoon made his motion at a government meeting on December 3, but Kim's office denied this!

The national police also believes there is much evidence that Kim DeoSue is not as clean as what Kim said. Therefore, they demanded another appearance from him to investigate.

The investigation record of Kim DeoSue (Prime Minister of South Korea) conducted by investigators in Seoul on Thursday. Picture credit: Reuters

It seems that Kim DeoSue will face a serious dilemma. He can continue to refuse to fill two more vacancies in the Korean Constitutional Court or choose to be investigated and perhaps even criminally prosecuted?

This will be Kim DeoSue's real nightmare soon!

After Kim DeoSue was removed by an impeachment resolution in South Korea's congress (December 27), Choi Chang-moo, vice minister and minister of the Planning Finance Ministry, became the third acting Korean president. After succeeding for 3 days (a record of world shortest tenured head of government), Choi has also been investigated and is at risk of being indicted (impeached soon)!

South Korea really looks like the new sick man of Asia. Just one week into this terrible December, the Korea's plane crashed. The next week, Korea's government started its impeachment marathon!

It is only the end of the same terrible December, the new South Korean president (for the third time) has also been investigated and at risks.

What is the future of Korea?

Who will become Korea's fourth chief executive in Korea's recent political crisis?

All former South Korean presidents except Moon Jae-in have neither lived happily ever after (imprisoned, exiled, and even committed suicide) after leaving office. Some died in jail! This has been dubbed the "Blue House Curse" (a bad ending for all ex- Korean presidents).

Now Korea's curse has been extended from the president's post to include the prime minister and the new interim president.

Obviously, the former Korean Prime Minister Kim DeoSue and former Korean Interim President Choi Changmoo are regretting now. Why should they have chosen to accept to act as the president in the country's political chaos?

Maybe they will join the group of ex-presidents being prosecuted in jail soon?