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[Shanks D Zoro]

Doesn't surprise me at all.

I doubt anyone here will really care.

Also just found out this morning that my local government in Seoul hired a gang armed with baseball bats to destroy local street food vendor tents. They are illegal, but they are very popular. If any of you watch K shows you will often see them with people drinking soju in them.

There was a protest planned and only 15 people showed up.

 

[EVOL 100%]

works better than the current stalemate/coldwar situation

Exactly. But instead of building up on what Roh and Kim did Lee and Park decided to burn it all down to the ground because of those sweet sweet angry old men votes

I still can't believe that calling other people communists as a political insult unironically has actually came back in use.

This place is fucked

 

[travisbickle]

Doesn't surprise me at all.

I doubt anyone here will really care.

Also just found out this morning that my local government in Seoul hired a gang armed with baseball bats to destroy local street food vendor tents. They are illegal, but they are very popular. If any of you watch K shows you will often see them with people drinking soju in them.

There was a protest planned and only 15 people showed up.

Where was this?

This doesn't sound believable, why would the local council use thugs to remove illegal activity instead of you know the law.

In Insadong the council have been consistently increasing the costs for rental space to street vendors and that's led to protests. Your example sounds like rival street vendor owners fighting.

 

[Fixed2BeBroken]

I'm convinced that this country is fucked beyond all saving. Seriously, I hate this fucking country so much

what the hell

 

[Peru]

what the hell

Expat, probably. My advise to anyone going to SK - stay away from grumpy expats. Mostly Americans. I met a fair few insufferable whiners.

The current SK government is dogshit and anti-democratic but unlike, say, Japan, the political interest in the general public is there, students are actively political and there's a youth uprising against Park and her cronies. Old conservative voters are an issue but not insurmontable. The only thing that needs to come together for a major positive shift is that the opposition puts together a halfway decent candidate and campaign. They've been very bad at that, but the conservative party crashed bad at the last local elections so there's hope.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I don't think it's that, I think it's just the first page that always ends up how you described. Serious conversations usually happen multiple pages into a thread.

What? That's not true at all.

I suppose to get meta and not talk about the original topic in a serious manner.

If someone wants a serious conversation, start one.

Some of us can do serious and facetious simultaneously.

That's one neat defense for shitposting I guess.

This was a huge incident for many reasons, but the President did not make a public statement on it for quite a number of hours, which was seen as quite bizarre at the time. There is now speculation that she did not address the nation immediately after the incident because her confidant was in Germany at the time and was probably sleeping, thus unable to advise the President on what to do or say.

Holy shit... that's beyond being a puppet.

How are elections in SK? Are they typically fair, or sketchy "elected by getting 97% of the vote" shit? Just wondering how this woman got elected...

It'd be cool if we could get some more discussion in here from people who read the article and less shitposting about Kpop groups, thanks.

Thank you.

Maybe if the thread title wasn't clickbait conspiracy meme crap piggybacking on a more serious actual political fallout, people would je less facetious? Maybe? Just a thought!

Oh, was the title edited? I guess that must be what the 8 goddesses referred to 'cause I can't find any mention of that in the linked articles in the OP...

 

[ibyea]

How are elections in SK? Are they typically fair, or sketchy "elected by getting 97% of the vote" shit? Just wondering how this woman got elected...

No, S. Korean election is not shady like that. She got elected on regionalism (East vs West) and the back of old people. The other aspect was the opposition's glaring incompetence. In the end, she received 52% of the votes. I can't believe she got double digit in the Jeolla provinces. And her party did very well even after the Eeh Myung Bak administration, which was upsetting to me.

The one shady aspect of that election was the country's intelligence organization trying to help her win by posting stuff on the internet. It was woefully silly and incompetent though.

 

[Peru]

No, S. Korean election is not shady like that. She got elected on regionalism (East vs West) and the back of old people. In the end, she received 52% of the votes. I can't believe she got double digit in the Jeolla provinces. And her party did very well even after the Eeh Myung Bak administration, which was upsetting to me.

The opposition should've won that election but I can't blame people for not enthusiastically rallying to vote for their candidate.. hell, no one knew who would be the opposition candidate until the final stretch after an election where they seemed to care more about fighting with each other. So the old voters showed up in force and more or less secured the election with little fight-back.

That's why I'm positive that if a solid liberal campaign is run they will run away with the win next time.

 

[EVOL 100%]

what the hell

I'm sorry, watching this country go down the shitter during the last past decade is getting me a wee bit emotional

The opposition should've won that election but I can't blame people for not enthusiastically rallying to vote for their candidate.. hell, no one knew who would be the opposition candidate until the final stretch after an election where they seemed to care more about fighting with each other. So the old voters showed up in force and more or less secured the election with little fight-back.

That's why I'm positive that if a solid liberal campaign is run they will run away with the win next time.

Not to get dramatic and all, but if the people here haven't learned their lesson and fuck this election as well I'm seriously thinking about going to the States.

I have US citizenship anyway, might be a good time to finally use it

 

[ibyea]

The opposition should've won that election but I can't blame people for not enthusiastically rallying to vote for their candidate.. hell, no one knew who would be the opposition candidate until the final stretch after an election where they seemed to care more about fighting with each other. So the old voters showed up in force and more or less secured the election with little fight-back.

That's why I'm positive that if a solid liberal campaign is run they will run away with the win next time.

Dang it, my edit came too late. ^_^ Yeah the sheer incompetence was a sight to behold. The two candidates should have worked things out way earlier. It was ridiculous. At the beginning I was worried about the split vote, but the worry didn't matter since the dropping out of Anh Cheol Su was too late anyways.

 

[GoutPatrol]

Where was this?

This doesn't sound believable, why would the local council use thugs to remove illegal activity instead of you know the law.

In Insadong the council have been consistently increasing the costs for rental space to street vendors and that's led to protests. Your example sounds like rival street vendor owners fighting.

That's more common than you think. Look at the Sunflower movement in Taiwan. The KMT used gangsters to try and kick the protesters out because the officials use the mafia to Gotv. They literally let a mob boss out of prison to do it.

http://fareasternpotato.blogspot.tw/2014/03/chinas-gangster-proxy-threatens.html?m=1

The same thing happened in Hong Kong with the umbrella movement.

 

[duckroll]

Oh, was the title edited? I guess that must be what the 8 goddesses referred to 'cause I can't find any mention of that in the linked articles in the OP...

Yes originally it was - South Korea being run by Secret Society "8 Goddesses" - roflmao.

 

[dommynick]

Where was this?

This doesn't sound believable, why would the local council use thugs to remove illegal activity instead of you know the law.

In Insadong the council have been consistently increasing the costs for rental space to street vendors and that's led to protests. Your example sounds like rival street vendor owners fighting.

If he's accurately describing what he saw, then it was probably in a lesser developed area of Seoul, where turf that street vendors use is still under the control of criminal organizations and they were being shaken down. In developed areas like Insadong, street vendors are administered by the local districts, but areas that have street vendors in setups like plastic huts is more of a gray area.

How are elections in SK? Are they typically fair, or sketchy "elected by getting 97% of the vote" shit? Just wondering how this woman got elected...

In addition to the previously mentioned disorganization of the opposition party at the time of the election, the current President is the daughter of a controversial, former dictatorial president of South Korea. She garnered a lot of sentiment from portions of the population because her father was also hugely responsible from transforming South Korea from a poor, underdeveloped country that was worse off than North Korea, into its current status today.

 

[poppabk]

Reminds me of Cherie Blair.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/the-mystical-friendship-of-cherie-and-carol-1-858307

 

[Peru]

Protests tonight

bonus

 

[jwhit28]

I've heard people talk about how corrupt S. Korea's government is but I always thought that was because of bending to US influence. I guess the kickbacks are what most people are mad about? She certainly isn't the only politician to take her faith too far. Look at how many creationist we have elected across our local and national government.

 

[Peru]

ed

 

[The Pope]

Reminds me of SA president Jacob Zuma, just on a much smaller scale...Glad the S. Korean public are voicing their concerns.

 

[capitalCORN]

Reminds me of SA president Jacob Zuma, just on a much smaller scale...Glad the S. Korean public are voicing their concerns.

I'm glad people showed up in mass. Korea used to be a place where you could set your calendar based on protests. Korean culture in particular has too much respect for authority and status. The younger generation are making a effort to revel against conformist culture, and I hope I can see a day when Korea serves as a beacon in the world.

 

[Oersted]

I've heard people talk about how corrupt S. Korea's government is but I always thought that was because of bending to US influence. I guess the kickbacks are what most people are mad about? She certainly isn't the only politician to take her faith too far. Look at how many creationist we have elected across our local and national government.

We are talking about Scientology being Obama's ghostwriters level of wakko.

 

[SteveO409]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP7E_PQ6jGc

protest

 

[jwhit28]

We are talking about Scientology being Obama's ghostwriters level of wakko.

I don't want to belittle anyone's faith but we had a regional leader of the Mormon faith as a presidential candidate last election. A small religion that already politically rules a whole state.

No matter what your beliefs when you get elected to public office that stuff should get checked at the door and you should defer to policy built around scientific fact.

 

[HStallion]

We are talking about Scientology being Obama's ghostwriters level of wakko.

Cue Trumps latest speech.

 

[Oersted]

I don't want to belittle anyone's faith but we had a regional leader of the Mormon faith as a presidential candidate last election. A small religion that already politically rules a whole state.

No matter what your beliefs when you get elected to public office that stuff should get checked at the door and you should defer to policy built around scientific fact.

You are still not getting it.

We are not only talking about wakko beliefs or someone wakko up for election.

We are talking about wakkos controlling trough the backdoor.

It undermines sanity and democracy. On the highest level.

 

[jwhit28]

You are still not getting it.

We are not only talking about wakko beliefs or someone wakko up for election.

We are talking about wakkos controlling trough the backdoor.

It undermines sanity and democracy. On the highest level.

I guess not. From what I read about it it seemed like people knew about her association with this cult or whatever before she was elected.

 

[inky]

What is it? Looks very 80s-ish.

I think it is from an 80s ish VHS tape on how to "pick up women" i.e. assault women with hypnosis that the Red Letter Media crew saw on their Best of the Worst show. Not 100% sure tho.

 

[Plywood]

Goddesses was probably not the best translation and I fully admit ignorance on the subject matter, but I thought it was worth seeing discussion from people more informed on political situation in South Korea and one of the articles supporting the theory was translated on reddit.:
http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2016/10/27/2016102700246.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/59u36r/translation_chosun_ilbo_opposition_leader_miae/

Hello everyone. This news article was linked in Google translation elsewhere on Reddit as support for the "8 goddesses" or "8 faeries" theory of the Choi Sunsil conspiracy. I decided to translate it quickly as an exercise. Make of it as you would like. I also appreciate translation improvements and corrections. The original was published by Chosun Ilbo here.

Title: Miae Chu: "8 daoist fairies at Choi's secret meetings"
Written: 2016.10.27 3:00 / Edited 2016.10.27 07:56

Tag: [Choi Sunsil's monopoly on state affairs]
Subtitle: Female business leaders, professors, CEO's wives, etc. become topic of discussion ... Behind-the-scenes influence on business and state affairs

Chu MiAe (Opposition party DDP) leader
/Written by Nam Kang-ho / Translated GameDori3

Choi Sunsil, who is being accused of running secret meetings of (political) heavyweights, is now being accused in political circles of running secret meetings of a group known as the "8 (daoist) faeries" to intervene in state policy. Chu MiAe (shown in photo), representative of the DDP (main Korean opposition party) on the 26th, said "Strange reports are being received that (Choi) used the '8 faeries' meetings to wield strong influence in financial circles, as well as intervening behind the scenes in state affairs," and "it is incredible that anywhere in the world a jobless person like her would have a free hand over the state affairs of any country, with influence over diplomacy, security, administration, and even personnel decisions." Representative Chu reported that "while in daylight the President was Park Geunhye, at night the President was Choi Sunsil."

In political circles it is becoming a subject of much discussion (tr. speculation?) the names and identities of those female executives, women of means, female professors, etc. we know as the '8 faeries.' The presently discussed list of names includes executives at large companies, the wife of one large company's owner, and others. Other people who have been evaluated as possible members of the "8 faeries" are wives of high-ranking government officials whose husbands are known to be friends of Choi or who have been singled out for promotion in the present government. In particular, suspicion is growing that Lee SeongHan, who was a close aid to Ms. Choi and is the former president of the Mir Foundation, is included in the "8 faeries," following proof that Ms. Choi ran several different secret meetings separated by subject. Currently all the persons whose names have been brought up are denying the accusations.

[Publisher] The article you are viewing was published at Chosun dot com.

[–]gamedori3 5 points 1 day ago
Put it in the title to emphasize that we're not talking about Western fairies, goddesses, or other common translations of the word 선녀. In the context of President Park, "princess" would be an overly loaded translation. But thank you for your feedback.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Washington Post: South Korea’s presidency ‘on the brink of collapse’ as scandal grows

TOKYO — South Korea’s president is engulfed in a political scandal with plotlines straight out of a soap opera: rumors of secret advisers, nepotism and ill-gotten gains, plus a whiff of sex. There’s even a Korean Rasputin and talk of a mysterious clique called the “eight fairies.”

Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s first female president and daughter of the military dictator who turned the country into an industrial powerhouse, is facing the biggest challenge of her turbulent tenure.

The essence of the scandal is this: It has emerged that Park, notoriously aloof even to her top aides, has been taking private counsel from Choi Soon-sil, a woman she’s known for four decades. Despite having no official position and no security clearance, Choi seems to have advised Park on everything from her wardrobe to speeches about the dream of reunification with North Korea.

Calls for her resignation — and even impeachment — are resonating from across the political spectrum, and her approval ratings have dropped to a record low of 17 percent, according to two polls released Friday.

On Friday, Park directed all of her top advisers to resign en masse, with her spokesman saying a reshuffle would take place, the Yonhap news agency reported. Kim Jae-won, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, told a parliamentary session that Park’s chief of staff had already stepped down.

It’s not clear, however, whether it will be enough.

“Park Geun-hye’s leadership is on the brink of collapse,” said Yoo Chang-sun, a left-leaning political analyst. Shin Yool, a right-leaning professor at Myongji University, called it the “biggest crisis” since South Korea was founded 70 years ago. “The president has lost her ability to function as leader.”

more at link

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

Another good summary from Reddit about how the daughter is what triggered this whole investigation

So I'll try going step-by-step from memory how this all turned about.
-A young high school girl fails to get into a prestigious university.
-The girl's mother uses her influence to pay the girl's way into prestigious university. They package it as the girl receiving a scholarship for her equestrian skills.
-Girl doesn't do so well in school and later turns out she had a child during her high school years which was no-no for this school's policies.
-Girl decides to take some time off but still demands her grades to be given to her as if she had completed her semester.
-Professor says no. This incurs the wrath of the girl's mother who successfully convinces the professor to give her the grades.
-This leads to a massive 80 day protest from students of that university for unfair treatment and etc.
-This leads into investigation that eventually reveals the girl's mother had a personal relation with President Park.

Oh shit it's about to get real funky now.
-The girl's mother turned out to be one of like 15 known children of a famous cult leader. -Each children were known to have extreme assets from estimated 10s of millions to upwards of billions.
-President Park had a scandal in the past (that many dismissed as they deemed highly improbable and a likely attack from opposing political parties) that said apparently she had a child with this cult leader while she was in her teens.

So how does this relate directly to the Korean people?
-As investigations ensued it turned out that the President Park had been exchanging emails regarding her speeches and other national policies and events with the girl's mother. Even going as far as asking her for edits and such.
-Journalists, during the investigation, received a tablet from President Park? Girls mother? side that for some reason contained all the exchange between them. This is thought to be an unfortunate mistake by them and a fortunate mistake for the Korean people to know the truth.
-The investigative journalists are doing this via wikileak style and slowly releasing information. More and more information have been coming out each day.
-Latest news is what you've guys read. It seems the relationship between President Park and the cult leader's daughter (girl's mother) have been more intimate and influential than people thought. Even going far as President Park, after a hard day, going to their residence to sleep over and discuss the problems and getting advice and what not. All national secrets out on the table for the cult family.

It's still a developing story. Koreans are wondering why the President haven't stepped down yet. It's either that or impeachment and jail for her.

 

[msdstc]

I don't want to belittle anyone's faith but we had a regional leader of the Mormon faith as a presidential candidate last election. A small religion that already politically rules a whole state.

No matter what your beliefs when you get elected to public office that stuff should get checked at the door and you should defer to policy built around scientific fact.

It is dramatically different though. Imagine Romney was running as a stand in for his priest, and basically refused to act on anything unless he got spiritual guidance and the ok from that priest. Oh and here are 2 different twists tossed in.

1. Romney believed this priest was actually just a vessel for a dead relatives spirit.

And

2. Apparently this is a local celeb "psychic" of sorts, so now imagine Romneys secret advisor as Uri gellar.

 

[The Silver]

Another good summary from Reddit about how the daughter is what triggered this whole investigation

"-The girl's mother turned out to be one of like 15 known children of a famous cult leader. -Each children were known to have extreme assets from estimated 10s of millions to upwards of billions."


this, i want to know more about this, who is this cult leader, what is this cult about? and billions? really?

 

[Dancing Queen]

This is the most comprehensive explanation/summary of the issue (in English). All the details you need are in there. It really shows how crazy the whole situation is.

The Irrational Downfall of Park Geun-hye

Expat, probably. My advise to anyone going to SK - stay away from grumpy expats. Mostly Americans. I met a fair few insufferable whiners.

The current SK government is dogshit and anti-democratic but unlike, say, Japan, the political interest in the general public is there, students are actively political and there's a youth uprising against Park and her cronies. Old conservative voters are an issue but not insurmontable. The only thing that needs to come together for a major positive shift is that the opposition puts together a halfway decent candidate and campaign. They've been very bad at that, but the conservative party crashed bad at the last local elections so there's hope.

My love for you will never die <3

 

[Tristam]

Expat, probably. My advise to anyone going to SK - stay away from grumpy expats. Mostly Americans. I met a fair few insufferable whiners.

Fairly certain that EVOL is in fact Korean. Koreans have more reason to be furious about this administration than any expat, so your presumption comes off pretty poorly.

 

[Laieon]

More protest pictures.

Here's a video of police dealing with protesters.

 

[msdstc]

Yes originally it was - South Korea being run by Secret Society "8 Goddesses" - roflmao.

edit- I gues saying exact goes too far, however the ties here are directly to a cult leader, which is pretty damn crazy.

 

[Laieon]

Expat, probably. My advise to anyone going to SK - stay away from grumpy expats. Mostly Americans. I met a fair few insufferable whiners.

I would say the opposite. Plenty of Koreans despise Korea. My girlfriend can't wait until she can leave, it's her number one goal in life. I've found expats usually like Korea though.

 

[EVOL 100%]

Expat, probably. My advise to anyone going to SK - stay away from grumpy expats. Mostly Americans. I met a fair few insufferable whiners.

The current SK government is dogshit and anti-democratic but unlike, say, Japan, the political interest in the general public is there, students are actively political and there's a youth uprising against Park and her cronies. Old conservative voters are an issue but not insurmontable. The only thing that needs to come together for a major positive shift is that the opposition puts together a halfway decent candidate and campaign. They've been very bad at that, but the conservative party crashed bad at the last local elections so there's hope.

Huh, I missed this.

I'm a Korean-American who had the choice of going off to the US to dodge military service but I served anyway and go to protests when I can because I actually do have sincere affection for this place. I think I'm entitled to let out some steam about the state of this country, especially when taking recent events in account dude

I really hope that the sheer incompetence of everything about the current government and increasingly shit standards of living will finally be a wake up call, although tbh I'm not very hopeful

 

[Ampersands]

I wonder what North Korea thinks of this? They must be foaming at the mouth.

 

[Dancing Queen]

I wonder what North Korea thinks of this? They must be foaming at the mouth.

North Korea doesn't benefit from an politically unstable South Korea.

They are probably just watching, like United States and China. However we got admit Park will lose all respect in the international community.

You never know 'how far' Park went when sharing government documents. Perhaps deals and dialogue between Korea and other powers.

 

[Lois_Lane]

http://askakorean.blogspot.kr/2016/10/the-irrational-downfall-of-park-geun-hye.html
Goddamn this is amazing.

 

[Goodstyle]

Puppet implies that someone explicitly put her in power for their interests. This seems to be the case of her confiding in a cult leader and sharing valuable information with her voluntarily. I think the Rasputin analogies are more apt than Illuminati ones.

She dressed her like a gross, unwanted doll. The woman was a puppet, straight up.

 

[Tagyhag]

I wonder how the daughter feels in all of this. I'd be shitting bricks if I was her.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

(Creepy hypnosis VHS in BOTW)

Breath of the Wild has hypnosis??

 

[Ken K in the Fresh!!!]

http://askakorean.blogspot.kr/2016/10/the-irrational-downfall-of-park-geun-hye.html
Goddamn this is amazing.

I did not expect a bill Simmons reference but there it is

 

[Vibranium]

This is the most comprehensive explanation/summary of the issue (in English). All the details you need are in there. It really shows how crazy the whole situation is.

The Irrational Downfall of Park Geun-hye

Holy shit, I've read through this, what an incredible read. Probably one of the craziest cases of corruption I've ever heard of. The stuff about Choi giving the president crappy clothes that her cronies smoked near, and then embezzling the funds. And her dad "suddenly" seeing Park's dead mother....

 

[Chiggs]

This is the most comprehensive explanation/summary of the issue (in English). All the details you need are in there. It really shows how crazy the whole situation is.

The Irrational Downfall of Park Geun-hye

I'm at a loss for words. It's so strange and idiotic that...I don't even know what to make of it.

The major breakthrough occurred on October 24, when a cable TV network JTBC discovered a Galaxy Tab belonging to Choi Soon-sil in the office that she abandoned. The tablet was the Pandora's Box--it had the presidential speeches with Choi's markups, presidential briefs for cabinet meetings, appointment information for presidential aides, chat messages with presidential aides, the president's vacation schedule, draft designs for commemorative stamps featuring the president, and much, much more. The discovery of the tablet was worthy of "World's Dumbest Criminals"--the tablet was simply left behind in Choi's office with no encryption, and the files were available for anyone to open. And just in case Choi Soon-sil denied ownership of the tablet, its image gallery contained her selfie.

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

Choi Soon-sil leaves Europe and is back in Korea, says "Please forgive me. I&#8217;ve committed wrongs for which I deserve to die.&#8221;

I wasn't expecting this. Maybe she's being pressured into admitting guilt? Trying to take the heat for the president and protect her daughter?

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-korea-protests-20161031-story.html

 

[ThreePiMatt]

Reading through this all is just fascinating. Makes you really take a step back and wonder which really is Best Korea.

The fact that the smoking gun piece of evidence, the Galaxy Tab, can be linked to Choi because of a selfie is just like an icing on the cake for this whole crazy situation.

 

[BocoDragon]

Reading through this all is just fascinating. Makes you really take a step back and wonder which really is Best Korea.

My girlfriend (Korean) and I were laughing last night that this makes Kim Jong Un look like the rational leader

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

Choi Soon-sil mobbed by the media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZrBDi-3ZeQ