The Liberty Korea Party (Korean: 자유한국당) was a conservative political party in South Korea that was described variously as right-wing,right-wing populist,or far-right. Until February 2017,it was known as the Saenuri Party,and before that as the Hannara Party from 1997 to 2012,both of which are still colloquially used to refer to the party. The party formerly held a plurality of seats in the 20th Assembly before its ruling status was transferred to the Democratic Party of Korea on 27 December 2016,following the creation of the splinter Bareun Party by former Saenuri members who distanced themselves from President Park Geun-hye in the 2016 South Korean political scandal.
The National Intelligence Service is the chief intelligence agency of South Korea. The agency was officially established in 1961 as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency,during the rule of general Park Chung Hee’s military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction,which displaced the Second Republic of Korea. The original duties of the KCIA were to supervise and coordinate both international and domestic intelligence activities and criminal investigations by all government intelligence agencies,including that of the military. The agency’s broad powers allowed it to actively intervene in politics. Agents undergo years of training and checks before they are officially inducted and receive their first assignments.
Park Geun-hye is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017.
Lee Myung-bak often referred to by his initials MB,is a South Korean businessman and politician who served as the 10th president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. Before his presidency,he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction,and the mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2006.
Yang Hyun-suk is a South Korean music executive,rapper,dancer,songwriter,and record producer. He rose to fame as a member of Seo Taiji and Boys during the 1990s. After the group disbanded,he founded and became the executive producer and chairman of YG Entertainment,the fourth-largest record company in South Korea.
Lotte Corporation is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation,and the fifth-largest chaebol in South Korea. Lotte was founded on June 28,1948,by Korean businessman Shin Kyuk-ho in Tokyo. Shin expanded Lotte to his ancestral country,South Korea,with the establishment of Lotte Confectionery in Seoul on April 3,1967.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2012. They were the sixth presidential elections since democratization and the establishment of the Sixth Republic,and were held under a first-past-the-post system,in which there was a single round of voting and the candidate receiving the highest number of votes was elected. Under the South Korean constitution,a president is restricted to a single five-year term in office. The term of the then incumbent president Lee Myung-bak ended on 24 February 2013. According to the Korea Times,30.7 million people voted with turnout at 75.8%. Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri party was elected the first female South Korean president with 51.6% of the vote opposed to 48.0% for her opponent Moon Jae-in. Park's share of the vote was the highest won by any candidate since the beginning of free and fair direct elections in 1987 and the first such election in which any candidate won a majority. Moreover,as of the 2022 election,this is the latest South Korean presidential election in which the winning candidate won an absolute majority of the vote.
The 2012 NIS public opinion manipulation scandal saw members of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea accused of interfering in the South Korean presidential election,2012. First,an agent of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) was alleged to have manipulated public opinion to help Park Geun-hye's presidential election under the command of the NIS. Second,the director of the agency commanded an NIS agent to manipulate public opinion. Suspicions were raised before the election,but were not verified until afterwards.
Lin Hsi-shan is a Taiwanese politician. He was the Secretary-General of Legislative Yuan from 1 March 1999 until 31 January 2016.
Lee Jae-yong,anglicized as Jay Y. Lee,is a South Korean business executive who has been serving as the executive chairperson of Samsung Electronics since October 2022. He is the only son of Lee Kun-hee and Hong Ra-hee. As of 17 April 2024,Lee has an estimated net worth of US$11.5 billion,making him the richest person in South Korea.
Lee Wan-koo was a South Korean politician who briefly served as Prime Minister in 2015.
Hwang Kyo-ahn is a South Korean politician and prosecutor who served as acting president of South Korea from 9 December 2016 to 10 May 2017 and the 44th prime minister of South Korea from 18 June 2015 to 11 May 2017.
The People Party was a centrist political party in South Korea established on 2 February 2016 by Ahn Cheol-soo. The party had a strong support base in the Honam region. The party dissolved on 13 February 2018. A later party of the same name was also founded by Ahn and was active from 2020 to 2022.
The 2016 South Korean political scandal,often called Park Geun-hye–Choi Soon-sil Gate in South Korea,was a scandal that emerged around October 2016 in relation to the unusual access that Choi Soon-sil,the daughter of shaman-esque cult leader Choi Tae-min,had to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea.
The impeachment of Park Geun-hye,President of South Korea,was the culmination of a political scandal involving interventions to the presidency from her aide,Choi Soon-sil. The impeachment vote took place on 9 December 2016,with 234 members of the 300-member National Assembly voting in favour of the impeachment and temporary suspension of Park Geun-hye's presidential powers and duties. This exceeded the required two-thirds threshold in the National Assembly and,although the vote was by secret ballot,the results indicated that more than half of the 128 lawmakers in Park's party Saenuri had supported her impeachment. Thus,Hwang Kyo-ahn,then Prime Minister of South Korea,became Acting President while the Constitutional Court of Korea was due to determine whether to accept the impeachment. The court upheld the impeachment in a unanimous 8–0 decision on 10 March 2017,removing Park from office. The regularly scheduled presidential election was advanced to 9 May 2017,and Moon Jae-in,former leader of the Democratic Party,was elected as Park's permanent successor.
Cho Yoon-sun is a South Korean lawyer,writer and politician. She formerly served as the South Korean Minister of Gender Equality and Family and later as its Minister of Culture,however she was later jailed after being convicted of abuse of power and coercion.
Lee Nak-yon,also known as Lee Nak-yeon,is a South Korean politician who served as the 45th prime minister of South Korea from 2017 to 2020. A member of the New Reform Party,he is the longest-serving prime minister since the Constitution of South Korea was last revised in 1987. Lee previously held the governorship of South Jeolla Province province from 2014 to 2017,a stronghold of his party. Before serving as governor,he worked as a journalist for over 20 years and served as a member of the National Assembly for four terms.
The Burning Sun scandal,also known as Burning Sun gate,was a 2019 entertainment and sex scandal in Seoul,South Korea,which involved several celebrities,including Korean idols of popular K-pop groups,and police officials. It began on January 28,2019,when MBC Newsdesk reported a November 2018 alleged assault of a male clubgoer at the Burning Sun,a prominent nightclub in Gangnam,by a staff member. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency investigation soon turned to one concerning the club's alleged involvement in prostitution,drug trafficking and police corruption.
Yoon Suk Yeol is a South Korean politician and attorney who has been the 13th and current president of South Korea since 2022. A member of the People Power Party,he previously served as the prosecutor general of South Korea from 2019 to 2021 under his presidential predecessor Moon Jae-In.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 9 March 2022. Under the South Korean constitution,presidents are restricted to a single five-year term,meaning that incumbent president Moon Jae-in was ineligible to run for a second term. Opposition candidate Yoon Suk Yeol of the People Power Party won the election,defeating candidate Lee Jae-myung of the incumbent Democratic Party.
