The News
South Korean voters go to the polls Wednesday to choose the country’s parliament in a legislative contest seen as a referendum on the leadership of President Yoon Suk Yeol, two years into his five-year term.
Yoon has sought to boost the economy and the county’s birth rates, and pursued closer security ties with the United States and Japan. But he’s suffered low approval ratings, and the opposition party that currently holds a narrow majority in the 300-seat parliament has undercut some of his policy efforts. Recently, thousands of doctors went on strike over Yoon’s plan to drastically increase medical school admissions.
SIGNALS
K-pop stars have to tread lightly
South Korean pop stars are held to near-impossibly high standards that intensify around election season. In an effort to seem politically neutral, K-pop stars refrain from wearing bright colors associated with the main political parties — Yoon’s People Power Party uses red, for example, and the Democratic Party blue — according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. They also avoid making hand gestures in public, so they’re not interpreted as promoting the number of a specific candidate on the ballot. But they still vote, lest they be seen as not politically engaged: The K-pop groups often post staid photos of themselves outside polling places, usually wearing all black.
Yoon risks becoming early lame duck
If Yoon’s party suffers a large loss in parliament, he could become a lame-duck leader with still three years left in his presidency. The opposition is framing the election around the economy, an effort that has accelerated in recent weeks after Yoon visited a grocery store and underestimated the typical cost of a bunch of green onions. It became a viral gaffe, and social media was soon filled with green onion memes, while opposition politicians brought the vegetables to rallies to portray the Yoon administration as out of touch. Agricultural products have jumped 20% since last March. “I bought a green onion hairband and I’m determined to wear it on election day,” one voter said.
Far-right rises, could win seats
South Korea’s far-right is also surging ahead of the election, as evidenced through polling that suggests the anti-immigration Liberty Unification Party could be in line to win some seats in parliament. The rise of the far-right has accompanied a number of alarming incidents: Videos have shown a candidate questioning and harassing migrant workers in public, while a social media influencer was arrested for allegedly installing illegal spy cameras at about 40 polling stations in an effort to prove unfounded electoral fraud claims.