Democratic Party Official in South Korea: “If We Gather Every Opposition Voter and Bury Them in One Day, Democracy Will Advance”

A shocking development in South Korea took place recently: a senior official of the ruling Democratic Party, a former lawyer who now leads the Party’s Education and Training Institute, openly advocated for the elimination of opposition voters during a public book talk.

He referred to conservative voters as “No. 2 voters” (a derogatory label for supporters of the People Power Party, South Korea’s main opposition), and stated that if they were “all gathered in one day and buried, democracy would advance.” He also targeted the Yeongnam region (Daegu, Busan, Gyeongbuk, etc.), South Korea’s traditional conservative stronghold and home to strong support for opposition parties and President Yoon Suk-yeol, claiming residents there “lack thought and cannot judge right from wrong.”

This is not a mere slip of the tongue. It represents a disturbing call for the political elimination of South Korea’s pro-freedom electorate, undermining democratic norms and dehumanizing millions of citizens.

From The New Daily on September 4, 2025.

Full Article Translation below:

Title: Exclusive: In 2nd-victimization scandal, Choi Kang-wook — “If we gather the ‘No. 2 voters’ in one day and bury them, democracy will advance”

Choi Kang-wook, head of the Democratic Party’s Education and Training Institute—who is embroiled in a second-victimization controversy over sexual harassment—was confirmed to have made derogatory remarks about opposition voters and regional residents in a recent lecture. In a book talk format, he referred to supporters of the opposition party as “No. 2 voters,” suggesting they avoid thinking and cannot weigh right and wrong.

On September 4, political circles confirmed that Choi held a book talk for his work “Beneficial Conservatism, Righteous Progressivism” on August 30 in Naju, Jeollanam-do.

There, he said: “Lately people use the term ‘No. 2 voters’,” adding, “It’s used as a pejorative, ‘they voted #2,’ so why complain or jump down on them for it?”

(“No. 2 voters” refers to supporters of the People Power Party, the main opposition. Former DP head Lee Jae-myung once used the term in a 2024 campaign and later apologized.)

Choi continued: “When I go to Gyeongsang or the southeast, the atmosphere is intense. In Daegu and Gyeongbuk, or even Busan, Democratic Party citizens live like independence fighters. Every day is too painful—it’s maddening.”

He then mocked why people supported Park Geun-hye: “Because ‘she’s pretty.’ Or Yoon Suk-yeol—people say, ‘he speaks well, drinks well—real men are like that.’ In Naju, people can’t say that; they’d be called fools. But in Yeongnam, these people are the mainstream.”

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Silenced Voices and Sealed Coffins in Nicaragua

Mauricio Alonso Prieto once championed Sandinista socialism, but like many of his fellow countrymen, he became part of the opposition and came to “question the authoritarian direction of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) under the leadership of Daniel Ortega” and Rosario Murillo.  

This week, that cost him his life. 

On July 18, authorities in Nicaragua arrested — or kidnapped — Alonso, his wife, and his adult son, who is a worship leader at the evangelical Christian La Roca de Nicaragua Church. A group of “uniformed police officers and ‘volunteer’ officers wearing masks and dressed in black or blue” conducted a raid at the home of Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas, the founder of La Roca de Nicaragua Church Association. These “officers” detained others in the home as well, including the pastor and various family members. Alonso and his family just happened to be there for a visit and were not part of the warrant. 

Authorities released Alonso’s wife the same day, but held him and his son “incommunicado” at the 3rd Police District. On July 28, a Nicaraguan digital news outlet reported that the two men, along with the pastor and his relatives, were now housed at “La Granja,” an overcrowded Nicaraguan prison notorious for abuse and mistreatment of prisoners. The men apparently went through a “fast-tracked” virtual hearing during which they were charged with treason and conspiracy.   

After weeks of no communication, Alonso’s wife got a call on August 25 stating that her husband had died, though there were no other details. His family learned that the Ortega-Murillo regime would not allow them the options families traditionally want when they lose a loved one. There would be no wake, no final goodbyes, no autopsy. The family received Alonso’s body in a sealed casket, and they were forced to have a funeral immediately under police observation. Despite his wife’s pleas, they would not allow her imprisoned son to attend the funeral either. 

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Victims of Communism Day—2023

NOTE: This post largely reprints last year’s Victims of Communism Day post, with some modifications.

Today is May Day. Since 2007, I have advocated using this date as an international Victims of Communism Day. I outlined the rationale for this proposal (which was not my original idea) in my very first post on the subject:

May Day began as a holiday for socialists and labor union activists, not just communists. But over time, the date was taken over by the Soviet Union and other communist regimes and used as a propaganda tool to prop up their [authority]. I suggest that we instead use it as a day to commemorate those regimes’ millions of victims. The authoritative Black Book of Communism estimates the total at 80 to 100 million dead, greater than that caused by all other twentieth century tyrannies combined. We appropriately have a Holocaust Memorial Day. It is equally appropriate to commemorate the victims of the twentieth century’s other great totalitarian tyranny. And May Day is the most fitting day to do so….

Our comparative neglect of communist crimes has serious costs. Victims of Communism Day can serve the dual purpose of appropriately commemorating the millions of victims, and diminishing the likelihood that such atrocities will recur. Just as Holocaust Memorial Day and other similar events promote awareness of the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism, and radical nationalism, so Victims of Communism Day can increase awareness of the dangers of left-wing forms of totalitarianism, and government domination of the economy and civil society.

While communism is most closely associated with Russia, where the first communist regime was established, it had comparably horrendous effects in other nations around the world. The highest death toll for a communist regime was not in Russia, but in China. Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward was likely the biggest episode of mass murder in the entire history of the world.

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Setting The Record Straight – Stuff You Should Know About Ukraine

On February 16, 2022, a full week before Putin sent combat troops into Ukraine, the Ukrainian Army began the heavy bombardment of the area (in east Ukraine) occupied by mainly ethnic Russians

Officials from the Observer Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were located in the vicinity at the time and kept a record of the shelling as it took place. What the OSCE discovered was that the bombardment dramatically intensified as the week went on until it reached a peak on February 19, when a total of 2,026 artillery strikes were recorded. Keep in mind, the Ukrainian Army was, in fact, shelling civilian areas along the Line of Contact that were occupied by other Ukrainians.

We want to emphasize that the officials from the OSCE were operating in their professional capacity gathering first-hand evidence of shelling in the area. What their data shows is that Ukrainian Forces were bombing and killing their own people. This has all been documented and has not been challenged.

So, the question we must all ask ourselves is this: Is the bombardment and slaughter of one’s own people an ‘act of war’?

We think it is. And if we are right, then we must logically assume that the war began before the Russian invasion (which was launched a full week later) We must also assume that Russia’s alleged “unprovoked aggression” was not unprovoked at all but was the appropriate humanitarian response to the deliberate killing of civilians. In order to argue that the Russian invasion was ‘not provoked’, we would have to say that firing over 4,000 artillery shells into towns and neighborhoods where women and children live, is not a provocation? Who will defend that point of view?

No one, because it’s absurd. The killing of civilians in the Donbas was a clear provocation, a provocation that was aimed at goading Russia into a war. And –as we said earlier– the OSCE had monitors on the ground who provided full documentation of the shelling as it took place, which is as close to ironclad, eyewitness testimony as you’re going to get.

This, of course, is a major break with the “official narrative” which identifies Russia as the perpetrator of hostilities. But, as we’ve shown, that simply isn’t the case. The official narrative is wrong. Even so, it might not surprise you to know that most of the mainstream media completely omitted any coverage of the OSCE’s fact-finding activities in east Ukraine. The one exception to was Reuters that published a deliberately opaque account published on February 18 titled “Russia voices alarm over sharp increase of Donbass shelling”. Here’s an excerpt:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov voiced alarm on Friday over a sharp increase in shelling in eastern Ukraine and accused the OSCE special monitoring mission of glossing over what he said were Ukrainian violations of the peace process….

Washington and its allies have raised fears that the upsurge in violence in the Donbass could form part of a Russian pretext to invade Ukraine. Tensions are already high over a Russian military buildup to the north, east and south of Ukraine.

“We are very concerned by the reports of recent days – yesterday and the day before there was a sharp increase in shelling using weapons that are prohibited under the Minsk agreements,” Lavrov said, referring to peace accords aimed at ending the conflict. “So far we are seeing the special monitoring mission is doing its best to smooth over all questions that point to the blame of Ukraine’s armed forces,” he told a news conference.

Ukraine’s military on Friday denied violating the Minsk peace process and accused Moscow of waging an information war to say that Kyiv was shelling civilians, allegations it said were lies and designed to provoke it.” (Russia voices alarm over sharp increase of Donbass shelling, Reuters)

Notice the clever way that Reuters frames its coverage so that the claims of the Ukrainian military are given as much credibility as the claims of the Russian Foreign Minister. What Reuters fails to point out is that the OSCE’s report verifies Lavrov’s version of events while disproving the claims of the Ukrainians. It is the job of a journalist to make the distinction between fact and fiction but, once again, we see how agenda-driven news is not meant to inform but to mislead.

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