Following up on reporting by my fellow MNN correspondent @darkdeity.
It was a standoff that lasted 6 hours that everyone watched on TV there, probably like OJ Simpson's slow speed car chase. Except OJ Simpson didn't think he had mystical psychic powers and consult with shamans all the time who told him he could get away with it.
Background: To put this into American terms. Basically the FBI has an arrest warrant for the President. The Secret Service says "we don't care, we protect the President". They tried on Jan 3 and then gave up because, really, wtf do you do in that situation? It's something nobody is prepared for. So they went back and regrouped.
They come back today in overwhelming force. If I'm understanding various reports correctly, they sent in 3,000 cops this time. They forced some kind of Mexican standoff situation where they dared the President's bodyguard to stop them and stared them down. There was real fear that this would end up with shooting. But the bodyguards eventually backed down. I want to imagine somebody doubted the cops' resolve and then one pulled out a .44 Magnum and pointed it at his head and asked "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
It has been reported that veteran personnel of the police's Mobile Detective Unit, Narcotics Investigation Unit and Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit have been dispatched for the warrant execution
Gives you an idea of who this is. It's not a bunch of commies, it's Steve McGarret, Joe Friday, Elliot Ness, Kojak, [insert some morally upright cop from your millenial/zoomer shows, if there are any these days]. They're just trying to enforce the law.
The police are also reportedly considering measures to arrest any individuals who obstruct the team's investigation, including the deputy chief of the PSS Kim Seong-hoon and the head of the Bodyguard Division Lee Kwang-woo who had warrants for their detention issued against them Tuesday night.
Please do.
a bunch of stuff about the 55th Security Brigade
This is the military unit that is the garrison for the capital. Nobody likes to talk about it, but this is what really matters when it comes down to it. They could have easily stopped it but they didn't. Probably because they don't want this insane guy running the country any more than everyone else does. Remember that through the 1980s (I swear it wasn't that long ago, I'm not that old) all power in the country was ultimately based on who could get military units to fight for them. So them sitting this one out is a relief to everyone involved except Yun and his partisans.
Further Reading
I've reported extensively on these topics but if you want some more background:
55th Security Brigade's response to Yun's orders to arrest his political opponents
From 2 years ago during the election why people think that him and his wife are total fricking weirdos.
Why the rightoids are so afraid of communism - because it's real
My last post about this lamenting that the left is apparently just as bad
Seriously tho, just search for "author:redactor0 korea". A variety of material and all of it is gold.
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Will the commies take power
now?
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The communists will have a brief, delusional moment of triumph before the limp-wristed soyboy liberals push them back into their cucksheds.
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I don't think so in any dramatic way. They've got a lot of limitations:
Many people hate both sides. There's probably more in the middle than on either side right now.
When I say that the basis of what is right or left is about North Korea, I don't mean that everyone who votes for them is into this 100%. Like most of the people who voted for Trump probably are not rolling coal and blasting Ted Nugent all the time and think that he's the reincarnation of Cyrus the Great. And most of the people who voted for
Hillarywhat did they call it this round? Oh yeah, Kamala. Most Kamala voters don't want to grab your kid, cut his peepee off, and force him to perform in drag queen story hour. I think most of the DP's voters are nowhere near as extreme as the politicians. You can't take over the country with only a fraction of the population supporting you.There is a fairly strong democratic and national tradition there. We've lost ours with hordes of trashy r-slurs and ivory tower midwits plotting against each other, trying to destroy the country because somebody wants to wear a dress. But in Korea they still love their country and they value democracy. They just got it recently (early 1990s) and it's a heck of a lot better than what they had before so they'll fight to keep it.
Despite the polarization in the country, Koreans can come together to hate someone. When the president really fricks up, everyone comes down on them, either left or right. They can admit when the person on "their side" did something wrong. (A quality completely lacking in America.) Just in the last decade or two they've had two rightoids put in prison and a leftoid jumped off a cliff to avoid prison.
The thing you're never supposed to talk about in a democracy: If they tried to do anything really extreme the military could stop them. Just like Yun's coup plot failed because the military told him to go frick himself. The military officers and NCOs are the embodiment of Korean rightoidism. And I strongly suspect that the rank and file are disproportionately made up of rightoids because they didn't dodge the draft.
But the DP is probably gonna win another election or something.
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You didn't have to include blatant transphobia in this comment, I know you're too old for this shit to understand, but by supporting trans rights we just want everyone's human rights to be respected, and we don't want to destroy democracy like that orange buffoon.
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I support trans rights because they make lots of drama
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Thank you for your support.
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@Salvadore_Ally support trans rights because they replace black people.
@Salvadore_Ally stand with Israel. Jewish claws.
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Wait, you mean the Kamala voters thing? Oh. You must mean:
Yeah, I guess you're right. I was intentionally being flippant because I was trying to indicate that whatever squabbles we have about culture war issues like minor differences over trans stuff is nothing worth destroying the country over. But I can see how that could be offensive.
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dont give an inch bb
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Thank you.
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I downmarsey trans because they make bad posts.
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No, but they should because it would be dramatic, this is what I mean when I'm forced to say trans lives matter. Trans drama have been very mild lately, we need some acceleration like with jeets for highly concentrated drama and seethe
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Will South Korea decline in the next decade? Samsung already appears too be in decline.
@Salvadore_Ally stand with Israel. Jewish claws.
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The Koreans are all right. I will officially renounce my gripe with Koreans, and exclusively hate Chico from now on.
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No. Theres an unironic crypto-christofascist element of the military that wouldn't allow that to happen.
The farthest left will be Yuropoor-tier who will do crazy long-term economic damage to South Korea and stagnate it harder than Japland.
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Protestants I assume? How long does this go back?
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Well now I just have to ask more questions.
Were these people who would have supported the Chun Doo-hwan regime? Please, rumor, speculation and making shit up is good enough for me.
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One military dictator or another.
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