Page 7 - Election Fraud in Korea-ENG-KOR

Challenges Facing the South Korean Electoral System - 2024

Col Grant Newsham, USMC (ret.), President of KCPAC
Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC
Senior Research Fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies

Introduction: What’s at Stake

On December 4th, 2024, Republic of Korea (ROK) President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial
law. It seemed to come out of nowhere and took many by surprise – apart from those who
have been following what’s happening to the Korean electoral system.
As a result of years of unusual election results and a lack of transparency about the
mechanics of the electoral system itself, there has been persistent degradation of trust in free
and fair elections in the country. Those trying to investigate are targeted. The judiciary won’t
preside over cases. Governance has become difficult. The result is a country on the edge, with
malign actors - including North Korea and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) - gaining
influence. What’s going on in Korea can happen in any democratic country where elections
are not secure.

An electoral system in a free country needs to be carefully watched and tended. Failure to do
so will eventually shake the underpinnings of even the strongest nations – even those with
seemingly solid democratic institutions, processes and traditions.
Once public trust in the democratic process for transferring power and selecting and
changing a government – i.e. the electoral process – erodes, so does the cohesion of the
nation itself. This disintegration is even worse when a political group subverts the electoral
process in order to gain political power for itself.
This dynamic has played out over the last seven years in the Republic of Korea.

Background
President Yoon Suk-yeol warned of North Korean supporters in the opposition in his
statement announcing and justifying martial law on December 4 , 2024.
th
He is right. There is a sizable chunk of South Korea's Democratic Party (DP) and leftist
political world that is openly pro-North Korea - and also pro-China. They are also anti-
American.

South Korean leftists have long wanted a one-party state that they control. They have sought
to dominate the levers of power beyond the government – to include labor unions, academia,
media, the judiciary, among others.
But the main target has been the government, and in particular the National Assembly.
Unlike in the United States, where a president has considerable power even if the opposition
holds both houses, in the South Korean system the National Assembly can make life nearly
impossible for a president. Given its power vis-a-vis the executive branch, the National
Assembly is arguably a more attractive target than even the presidency in South Korea.

Over the past several years, the Democratic Party (DP) has been allegedly manipulating the
electoral system to obtain power and establish a one-party state. A key part of the strategy
has been taking dominant control of the National Assembly which would allow them to
support a sympathetic president (creating an effective one-party state) or handcuff an
opposition President – blocking his ability to govern and causing chaos in the country.

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