[A Sip of a Book] The Time of Jo Guk and the Time of Yoon Seok-yeol Seen by a Cheongwadae Reporter

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. Here, we excerpt and introduce such meaningful sentences from the book. - Editor's note

This book is written by a reporter who covered the Blue House during the Moon Jae-in administration and describes the series of events and behind-the-scenes background that unfolded when Cho Kuk was nominated as Minister of Justice and Yoon Seok-youl as Prosecutor General. Its distinctive feature is presenting potentially difficult content in an engaging way using familiar movies and songs. The author, having covered the political beat for nearly 15 years, introduces various political situations and expectations from the political world through familiar materials such as movies, songs, novels, and poetry.

In the movie Evan Almighty, there is a scene where God (Morgan Freeman), appearing as a restaurant waiter, gives advice to a woman (Lauren Graham) troubled by her husband’s issues. He says the following:

“Let me ask you something. If someone prays to God to give them patience, will God give them patience, or will He give them opportunities to be patient? If they pray for courage, will God give them courage, or will He give them opportunities to be courageous? If they pray for their family to be closer, will God immediately gift them love, or will He provide opportunities to love one another?”

Politicians are not gods. If even God acts this way, what role can politicians realistically play? First and foremost, it is to honestly explain the limits of their abilities and the maximum scope of their policies.

From page 104, Dreaming of Power Harassment by Non-Regular Workers and the Underprivileged

“Rudolf von Jhering once defined, ‘A sword without scales is violence.’ If power holding the scales and the sword arbitrarily sets the scales and selectively wields the sword, that sword becomes mere violence.”

Cho Kuk’s Time, page 178

The reorganization of the opposition aiming for regime change is likely ongoing even as we speak. For a successful return to power, rather than continuously dividing into ‘my side’ and ‘your side’ and disintegrating, it is essential first to cleanly excise the parts that are festering and rotten.

Only then can new growth flourish, and opportunities arise, like Ambassador Hwang, who successfully revived his career and was appointed as the permanent representative to the UN after regime change.

From page 141 - Excerpts on the ‘power game’ aspect of the ruling party at the time, as glimpsed from Yoo Jae-soo’s remarks

Cho Kuk’s Time, Yoon Seok-youl’s Time by Baek Dae-woo | Geulmadang | 300 pages | 17,000 KRW