Zürcher Nachrichten - Anti-feminist political novice: South Korea's new president Yoon

EUR -
AED 3.977584
AFN 72.97331
ALL 98.471483
AMD 418.201653
ANG 1.947741
AOA 987.091608
ARS 1069.655368
AUD 1.646242
AWG 1.949276
AZN 1.840739
BAM 1.957212
BBD 2.182094
BDT 129.143152
BGN 1.954485
BHD 0.40824
BIF 3141.094707
BMD 1.082931
BND 1.432446
BOB 7.467386
BRL 6.240496
BSD 1.080689
BTN 90.843526
BWP 14.506732
BYN 3.536751
BYR 21225.450121
BZD 2.178391
CAD 1.507916
CDF 3151.329687
CHF 0.939378
CLF 0.037622
CLP 1038.09406
CNY 7.713394
CNH 7.709706
COP 4723.756412
CRC 554.797619
CUC 1.082931
CUP 28.697675
CVE 110.344593
CZK 25.387145
DJF 192.450594
DKK 7.461363
DOP 65.08785
DZD 144.589697
EGP 52.781738
ERN 16.243967
ETB 129.142344
FJD 2.469735
FKP 0.828625
GBP 0.834929
GEL 2.956749
GGP 0.828625
GHS 17.561667
GIP 0.828625
GMD 75.267848
GNF 9320.809259
GTQ 8.354026
GYD 226.10309
HKD 8.415793
HNL 27.261916
HRK 7.460345
HTG 142.424047
HUF 408.167823
IDR 16955.398534
ILS 4.018379
IMP 0.828625
INR 91.064166
IQD 1415.734256
IRR 45596.815328
ISK 148.535001
JEP 0.828625
JMD 170.972535
JOD 0.768122
JPY 165.738814
KES 139.697818
KGS 92.912751
KHR 4393.209432
KMF 493.221338
KPW 974.637772
KRW 1493.568127
KWD 0.331994
KYD 0.900658
KZT 529.777025
LAK 23692.089332
LBP 96831.145235
LKR 317.368921
LRD 207.503507
LSL 19.141684
LTL 3.197614
LVL 0.655054
LYD 5.216811
MAD 10.66149
MDL 19.371884
MGA 4995.695706
MKD 61.647512
MMK 3517.318063
MNT 3679.800005
MOP 8.648238
MRU 42.730822
MUR 49.934159
MVR 16.633359
MWK 1873.986334
MXN 21.805874
MYR 4.742197
MZN 69.210057
NAD 19.141684
NGN 1777.707392
NIO 39.769053
NOK 11.869548
NPR 145.351185
NZD 1.809573
OMR 0.416925
PAB 1.08068
PEN 4.067772
PGK 4.328162
PHP 63.051476
PKR 300.167099
PLN 4.342051
PYG 8603.285077
QAR 3.940242
RON 4.975657
RSD 117.071326
RUB 105.070444
RWF 1469.753361
SAR 4.06699
SBD 9.024652
SCR 14.734655
SDG 651.385063
SEK 11.556667
SGD 1.433535
SHP 0.828625
SLE 24.586475
SLL 22708.520838
SOS 617.64266
SRD 37.174834
STD 22414.487933
SVC 9.455908
SYP 2720.897239
SZL 19.146899
THB 36.570267
TJS 11.509502
TMT 3.790259
TND 3.347515
TOP 2.536337
TRY 37.11639
TTD 7.324283
TWD 34.63582
TZS 2945.573002
UAH 44.699568
UGX 3960.857004
USD 1.082931
UYU 44.972439
UZS 13816.96631
VEF 3922974.904603
VES 45.748164
VND 27392.742898
VUV 128.567792
WST 3.033489
XAF 656.427457
XAG 0.032104
XAU 0.000398
XCD 2.926675
XDR 0.812301
XOF 656.436556
XPF 119.331742
YER 271.08476
ZAR 19.111081
ZMK 9747.674879
ZMW 28.774021
ZWL 348.703382
  • CMSC

    -0.1600

    24.57

    -0.65%

  • RYCEF

    0.0400

    7.25

    +0.55%

  • SCS

    -0.3800

    12.21

    -3.11%

  • CMSD

    -0.0400

    24.84

    -0.16%

  • RBGPF

    62.3500

    62.35

    +100%

  • RIO

    0.4000

    66.58

    +0.6%

  • VOD

    -0.2600

    9.28

    -2.8%

  • NGG

    -0.8800

    65.12

    -1.35%

  • AZN

    -0.7900

    75.22

    -1.05%

  • GSK

    0.2900

    38.17

    +0.76%

  • BCC

    -6.9800

    131.64

    -5.3%

  • JRI

    -0.0900

    12.98

    -0.69%

  • RELX

    -0.2500

    47.91

    -0.52%

  • BCE

    -0.2300

    32.46

    -0.71%

  • BTI

    -0.4500

    34.46

    -1.31%

  • BP

    -1.6900

    29.36

    -5.76%

Anti-feminist political novice: South Korea's new president Yoon
Anti-feminist political novice: South Korea's new president Yoon

Anti-feminist political novice: South Korea's new president Yoon

South Korea's new president-elect is a political novice who shot to public attention as a prosecutor for his uncompromising investigations into some of the country's most high-profile corruption scandals.

Text size:

But conservative Yoon Suk-yeol's hawkish stance on North Korea has drawn some controversy, while his misogynistic pledges and his insensitive remarks on issues ranging from poverty and the Ukraine crisis have been widely criticised.

And his lack of legislative experience could prove costly as he faces a Democratic Party-controlled National Assembly that will likely scrutinise his policies.

Born in Seoul in 1960, Yoon studied law and went on to play a key role in convicting the former president Park Geun-hye for abuse of power.

As the country's top prosecutor in 2019, he also indicted a top aide of outgoing President Moon Jae-in over fraud and bribery, in a case that tarnished the Moon administration's upstanding image.

This prompted the attention of the conservative opposition People Power party, which began courting him. He eventually won the party's primary and became their presidential candidate.

Yoon "built his reputation as a fierce fighter against power abuse, not a conventional democratic leader who would value negotiation and comprise," Gi-Wook Shin, a sociology professor at Stanford, told AFP.

He became the conservatives' "icon" because he was "seen as the best person to beat the Democratic Party candidate, despite his lack of political leadership experience," Shin said.

"That does not bode well for Korean democracy as we may expect further polarisation," he added.

South Korea's politics is famously adversarial, analysts say, where presidents serve just a single term of five years.

Every living former leader has been jailed for corruption after leaving office.

Despite his role in Park's ousting, Yoon fired up support among disgruntled conservative voters by offering a chance at "revenge" against Moon -- even going so far as to threaten to investigate Moon for unspecified "irregularities".

Even Yoon's wife claimed his critics would be prosecuted if her husband won because that's "the nature of power", according to taped comments released after a court battle.

This suggests "he and his spouse are more than willing to engage in retaliatory legal investigations into political opponents," Keung Yoon Bae, a Korean studies professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, told AFP.

- Pre-emptive strike? -

Local media have reported that Yoon is particularly inspired by British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill.

As an avowed anti-feminist he has pledged to abolish the ministry for gender equality, claiming South Korean women do not suffer systemic discrimination -- despite voluminous evidence to the contrary.

On North Korea, Yoon has threatened a pre-emptive strike on the South's nuclear-armed neighbour if needed, a claim that analysts have pointed out is wildly unrealistic.

He has described Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong Un as a "rude boy", and said that once he wins, he will make Kim "snap out of it".

He wants to buy an additional THAAD US missile system to counter the North, despite risks that it could prompt new economic retaliation from China, Seoul's biggest trade partner.

Yoon's "lack of political skill will spill over to the foreign policy realm," Minseon Ku, a political science scholar at the Ohio State University, told AFP.

So far, Yoon's camp "looked as though they were simply copying and pasting foreign policy phrases from the US Republican presidents' speeches," she added.

He also made a string of gaffes on the campaign trail, from praising one of the country's former dictators, to belittling manual labour and Africans.

"The next presidency is coming at a time of transition for the world," especially following the Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Karl Friedhoff of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs told AFP.

"That will mean making tough challenges about trade-offs that South Korea hasn't had to make in the past. Is Yoon up to that task?"

F.E.Ackermann--NZN