My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and I am now a writer who has published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.
There are two ways to come to power. One way is to seize it outright when the opportunity arises, and the other is to slowly consolidate it. This seems to be the way the political left is doing it in South Korea. They seized control of the National Assembly by eventually having their constituents elect left wing or left of center candidates in various provinces. Now they are making laws to prevent the conservatives from pushing for change. Last time, I mentioned the textbook controversy whereby former South Korean President Park Geun-hye tried to change the middle and high school textbooks to government-approved textbooks to replace the privately-published textbooks that were put into the schools by then President Kim Dae-jung that mirrored a pro-North Korea tone. Those books remain in the classrooms. Recently the National Assembly, dominated by leftists and liberals, have made it law that the presidential office cannot change the textbooks. We have to remember that this same National Assembly that would not let former President Park resign so they could impeach her are also now responsible for trying to prevent acting President Hwang Gyo-an from exercising his role as president. They are being especially critical of trying to have the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) anti-missile system installed in key locations throughout South Korea to help defend the country against North Korean attack. Many of the leftist and liberal lawmakers in the National Assembly are working hand in hand with those in the news media, especially JTBC TV cable news program, to try to make the conservatives and those who are in opposition to the liberal-leftist bloc, from having any influence among the Korean public. They are looking at the possible presidential election (if Park is not reinstated) to help Moon Jae-in to be elected. With his liberal-leftist views (and the fact he once worked under Roh Myoo-huhn), he is the ideal candidate that the Democratic United Party and the Minjoo Party would want.