South Korea’s opposition leader to continue hunger strike from hospital

(Note that Hankyoreh is a liberal paper with a generally center-left view)

After being rushed to a hospital on Monday due to his deteriorating health, Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, has decided to continue his hunger strike from his hospital bed.

Lee has already been fasting for 19 days to demand that the government of President Yoon Suk-yeol completely overhaul its administration of state affairs.

Since being admitted to the hospital, Lee is reportedly out of the woods, but has not yet regained his strength. Despite this, Lee has refused to take any food or drink other than fluids administered by a drip.

The most prominent Korean politician to continue a hunger strike in the hospital is former President Kim Young-sam. Kim began fasting in 1983 to protest the dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan after Chun banned Kim from participating in political activities and placed him under house arrest.

Kim demanded five measures for democratization, including the release of detainees and the reinstatement of fired professors and workers. On the eighth day of his hunger strike, the government forcibly hospitalized Kim in a special room at Seoul National University Hospital, but Kim continued his hunger strike for a total of 23 days while being treated with an intravenous line.

Kim’s house arrest was eventually lifted, and his hunger strike was an important catalyst in bringing about reforms to Korea’s Constitution that instituted a direct democratic system.

Former President Kim Dae-jung was also sent to Severance Hospital for dehydration on the eighth day of his hunger strike in 1990, when he was leader of the New United Democratic Party, but continued his strike from the hospital. Kim was on strike for the full implementation of local self-government, and he broke his fast on the 13th day only after receiving a promise from the government and ruling party that his demands would be implemented.

The hunger strikes by the two former presidents, widely considered “eternal rivals,” were well-received by the public and are credited as achieving meaningful results.