International

Who is Yoon Suk-yeol, the unpopular president of South Korea?

Pressures to remove South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol from power have not stopped since the president briefly and unexpectedly declared martial law, by accusing the opposition of “anti-state activities”, a decision that further erodes his low popularity and can cost him the position.

Embodying a presidency as unpopular as it was weakened to which it reached thanks to the narrow margin of less than 1% by which he imposed himself on liberal Lee Jae-myung in 2022, Yoon (born in Seoul in 1960) is the South Korean leader with the highest negative assessment in history (74%, according to the polling company Gallup Korea) and the first in the country’s democracy not to have control of the General Assembly (Parliament) at any time during his mandate.

The pressure for the president to resign is increasing and six formations, including the main opposition force, the liberal Democratic Party (PD), presented a parliamentary motion to dismiss him on Wednesday, after some of his main advisers, including his chief of staff and his National Security adviser, offered to resign en masse on the same day.

At the same time, the largest trade union group in the country, the Korean Trade Union Confederation (KCTU), called for protests and promised to start an indefinite strike until Yoon takes responsibility for what happened and leaves office, something that citizens also seem to ask out loud.

Orchestrator of his potential fall

A lawyer by training and with a dazzling career in the South Korean Prosecutor’s Office, Yoon could have orchestrated his own fall by assuming the risk of imposing emergency martial law, revoked six hours after Parliament voted in favor of lifting it.

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The decision to activate, with visible political eagerness, a measure designed to “guarantee law and order” in times of war or in case of national emergency and that allows to prohibit political activities, control the media or arrest people without a court order can put an end to a government that owes its low acceptance to factors such as the economic situation, the lack of communication by the president or the management of accusations directed against the first lady, Kim Keon-hee.

Accusations against the first lady

Last night’s surprise announcement came after the PD approved without the support of Yoon’s conservative People’s Power Party (PPP) general budgets for 2025 with multiple cuts.

There were also motions to dismiss the attorney general and the head of the Audit and Inspection Board, in charge of monitoring the accounts of public bodies.

These last two had become the target of the PD due to their refusal to continue investigating or to charge the first lady with different crimes for which she has been scrutinized, from interference in state affairs to manipulation of stock market assets or receiving a luxury bag as a bribe.

Yoon assured that the aforementioned budget cuts would undermine the “essential” functions of the Government, including the prevention of drug-related crimes and public security measures, and considered that the opposition, which he called pro-North Korean, was carrying out “anti-state” actions.

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From the prosecutor’s office to the presidential candidacy

Son of university professors and raised in a neighborhood of Seoul, Yeonhui – once considered prosperous -, Yoon graduated in Law from the prestigious National University of Seoul and made his debut as a prosecutor in 1994.

On the way to becoming attorney general in 2019, he left a trajectory in which he sat on the bench important liberal and conservative politicians, as well as leaders of large national companies such as Hyundai or Samsung.

In addition, he led the special investigation in 2016 against the only South Korean president who has been deposed in democracy, Park Geun-hye.

The ordeal he launched, already as attorney general, to the government of the liberal Moon Jae-in, who sought to reform the prosecutor’s office itself after the investigations opened against the Minister of Justice, Cho Kuk, turned him into a symbol of resistance for conservatives, especially for those who saw in the former president a figure too close to Pyongyang or Beijing.

Thus, without any political experience, he became the candidate of the conservative People’s Power Party (PPP) for the March 2022 presidential elections.

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Yoon managed to win by only 247,000 votes on Lee Jae-myung in elections – the most close that the country has experienced since the return of democracy in 1987 – characterized by the little attachment of the South Koreans to the two main candidates.

Punishment at the polls

Two years later, in April 2024, the polls tremendously punished the ruling formation in a legislative election in which the PPP not only failed to snatch the majority of the PD in Parliament, but was terribly weakened (108 seats against 192 of the opposition).

The elections made it clear that South Koreans consider Yoon someone disconnected – along with the first lady – and unable to solve the economic problems faced by citizens, while suspicions of corruption are piled up.

The leader has also shown absolute disdain for the inequality that affects South Koreans every day, in the country with the largest wage gap in the OECD.

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International

Paraguay summons Brazilian ambassador over Itaipú espionage scandal

Paraguay summoned the Brazilian ambassador in Asunción on Tuesday to demand “explanations” and called its own representative in Brasília for consultations following Brazil’s acknowledgment of an espionage operation. The Brazilian government, led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, attributed the operation to the previous administration.

The surveillance effort aimed to uncover Paraguay’s position in now-suspended negotiations with Brazil regarding the pricing of electricity from the binational Itaipú hydroelectric plant, according to reports in the Brazilian press.

The Brazilian government “categorically denied any involvement in the intelligence operation,” stating in a Foreign Ministry communiqué on Monday that the espionage was carried out under former President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration (2019-2023).

“The operation was authorized by the previous government in June 2022 and was annulled by the interim director of the (state intelligence agency) ABIN on March 27, 2023, as soon as the current administration became aware of it,” Brazil’s government asserted.

Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez announced that Brazilian Ambassador José Antonio Marcondes de Carvalho was summoned “to provide detailed explanations” regarding the operation. Additionally, Paraguay recalled its diplomatic representative in Brasília “to report on aspects related to the intelligence activity conducted by Brazil regarding Paraguay’s government affairs.”

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International

Elon Musk to step down as government advisor, per Trump insiders

President Donald Trump has informed his inner circle that Elon Musk will be stepping down from his role as a government advisor, according to a report by Politico today.

Citing three individuals close to Trump, Politico states that the president is pleased with Musk’s leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he has implemented significant budget cuts. However, both have agreed that it is time for Musk to return to his businesses and support Trump from a different position outside the government.

A senior administration official told Politico that Musk will likely maintain an informal advisory role and continue to be an occasional visitor to the White House. Another source warned that anyone thinking Musk will completely disappear from Trump’s circle is “deluding themselves.”

According to the sources, this transition is expected to coincide with the end of Musk’s tenure as a “special government employee,” a temporary status that exempts him from certain ethics and conflict-of-interest regulations. This 130-day period is set to expire in late May or early June.

International

Milei vows to make Argentina so strong that Falkland Islanders “choose” to join

Argentine President Javier Milei reaffirmed his country’s claim over the Falkland Islands (known as the Islas Malvinas in Argentina) and praised the role of the nation’s armed forces during a ceremony marking the “Veterans and Fallen Soldiers of the Malvinas War Day,” commemorating 43 years since the 1982 conflict with the United Kingdom.

Argentina continues to assert sovereignty over the islands, arguing that Britain unlawfully seized them in 1833.

“If sovereignty over the Malvinas is the issue, we have always made it clear that the most important vote is the one cast with one’s feet. We hope that one day, the Malvinas residents will choose to vote with their feet and join us,” Milei stated.

“That is why we aim to become a global power—so much so that they would prefer to be Argentine, making deterrence or persuasion unnecessary. This is why we have embarked on a path of liberation, working to make Argentina the freest country in the world and once again the nation with the highest GDP per capita on the planet,” he added.