Lee Jae Myong, the opposition leader of the left in Korea, had lost a bitterly close election and was facing political corruption charges when he was dramatically stabbed in the neck in January 2024.
Cynicism stems from Korean Nationalist belief in a North Korean fifth column acting within the country. It was this assertion that President Yoon used to justify a declaration of martial law in December last year, a decision he has yet to produce significant evidence for and now faces being deposed entirely.
Of all places, Lee was stabbed at a construction project on the site of Busans airport. Despite being the largest city outside of Seoul in the country, Lee decided to leave Busan andjump in a helicopter with a stab wound to the neck It is a more than hour long helicopter back to Seoul for treatment.
Korean nationalists cite the location, the odd choice of where to get treated, the convenient timing and the sheer illogic of surviving a knife wound to the neck as highly suspicious. Allied to their belief that the left is receiving support from North Korea - either wittingly or unwittingly - and tha take it or leave it approach of Trump the Korean status quo is at its most potentially explosive point in two decades.
I have been on the record all of my life that since statute law is unworkable in relation to abortion and euthanasia killing, the offenders should be brought to trial under Islamic Law which absolutely provides the death penalty for both crimes.
