[Choice Times=Sungmin Kim, Political Columnist]

On the day Rep. Jang Kyung-tae’s alleged sexual harassment case dominated headlines, young Koreans were engrossed in a very different story.

They were watching Samsung family member Lee Ji-ho’s naval commissioning ceremony—and feeling proud. Yes, proud. After reading through comments in youth communities to understand their sentiment, that was the conclusion I reached.

There were various emotions—admiration, envy, resentment, identification—but the prevailing sentiment was pride. They saw him the way one might see a diligent older cousin, a reliable junior, or a younger brother doing well.

For the past 20 years, Samsung has dominated since the IMF crisis, and numerous controversies emerged during the third-generation succession. Having lived through this era, many developed psychological resistance to the chaebol. The word “chaebol” evokes negative images: wheelchairs, abuse of power, privilege, nouveau riche arrogance. The media often compared Korea’s conglomerates unfavorably to Sweden’s Wallenberg family, calling Korean chaebol crude and unsophisticated.

Politicians were no different. Lee Jae-myung repeatedly called for dismantling the chaebol system:

“The economy won’t collapse even if we dismantle the chaebol structure.”

“I stake my political life on dismantling the chaebol system.”

There was a time when merely insisting on “breaking up the chaebol” won votes.

On October 30, with public anxiety rising over U.S.–Korea tariff negotiations, people felt reassured watching Jensen Huang meeting Samsung’s Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai’s Chung Eui-sun for beer. The public trusted Lee and Chung more than politicians or bureaucrats.

In 20 years, the world has changed. The public no longer believes politics should keep the chaebol in check. They believe the chaebol will fix what politics has ruined. And I think that belief has merit.

While Lt. Lee Ji-ho is serving on a naval vessel, where is Rep. Choo Mi-ae’s son, Mr. Seo? After being notified to appear for violating the Military Criminal Act, he flew to Türkiye and has not returned.

Rep. Choo claims he left in March 2024 to study sports marketing abroad. Even scholar Han Seok-bong, who left home to practice calligraphy, at least returned once. How great a calligrapher will Choo’s son become? Apparently he still hasn’t come home. A determined student indeed.

Young people are not disappointed by Jang Kyung-tae’s behavior. With the “Democratic Party” label attached, isn’t it expected that someone would use power to dominate women? The mayors of Seoul and Busan, and the governor of South Chungcheong Province, all fell for the same reason. Half of the country's leadership collapsed. Calling it an “individual deviation” is absurd.

If someone is from the Democratic Party—the same crowd that threw Molotov cocktails and set fires—of course they would have exploited women at drinking parties. Their top representative is the current prime minister.

If someone came from the student activist movement, they either committed Jang’s acts themselves or watched others commit them and looked away. Those who now pretend to be ethical intellectuals—smiling proudly when called “scholars”—clearly turned a blind eye to behavior like Jang’s.

That’s how poet Ko Un managed to get away with his antics for decades. Don’t tell me they didn’t know about his wandering hands.

Among themselves, they agreed that Jang-like behavior is nothing to be ashamed of. “I never did anything like that,” you say? Don’t be ridiculous. You expect people to believe student activists never harassed female classmates? You simply forgot. Perhaps, in your mind, it wasn’t a big deal. Think of it as a law of physics: the “law of activist–female-student harassment." Just memorize it.

Now that the activist generation has become Korea’s mainstream and stands at the forefront, the moral uprightness of the chaebol—previously obscured in the shadows—has become visible. Young Koreans find hope there. They desperately want Samsung to keep its promise not to pursue a fourth-generation family management system. It is a relief, they feel, that at least somewhere in this society a group of elites still believes in fulfilling its responsibilities.

But even with that comfort, one wonders: with the country in this state, is everything really okay?

#KoreanPolitics #ChaebolCulture #Samsung