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Uri Has Officially Lost Its Parliamentary Majority.

The Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Lee Chul-woo, who was fined W2.5 million for making false claims during his campaign in the last general election. It also upheld a conviction and W3 million fine for lawmaker Kim Maeng-gon for abusing an official from the National Election Commission. With the decision, both lawmakers lose their seats in the National Assembly.

In actual practice, it will continue to be able to count on enough support from the Millenium Democratic and Democratic Labor parties, plus left-leaning independents, to retain control.

The basis for both convictions seems just about as silly as the reason Roh was impeached. Making false claims in a campaign? Puh-lease. The voters are the ones who ought to be deciding that. If they can’t figure it out or don’t care, no court’s going to save their democracy. And I’m sure the circumstances of the “abuse” must be interesting, although I’m too tired to google around for the details.