senior executive director of LU Center for Law and Government Morse Tan Speaks At CPAC 2025

Morse Tan, the senior executive director of Liberty University’s Center for Law and Government and former Ambassador at Large for the U.S. State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice, spoke on the recent changes in South Korean politics during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Feb. 22. 

Tan began his speech by discussing America’s history with South Korea. He focused specifically on North Korea’s historical attempt to overtake South Korea in 1950 and how the U.S. led 22 other countries to halt this effort. The price for the safety of South Korea, Tan said, was 50,000 American soldiers’ lives. 

“I honor the blood that was spilled by American soldiers to keep the whole peninsula from being one big North Korea, which is the most oppressive, darkest, most unjust place on planet Earth,” Tan said. 

He went on to talk about the potential impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and how Yeol — a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump — recently saw indications of possible election fraud in South Korea. Yeol, who Tan said has been nicknamed the “Donald Trump of Asia,” imposed martial law earlier this year to obtain evidence for his suspicions of election fraud by the liberal Democratic Party of Korea. 

“They (the Democratic Party of Korea) have used legislative tyranny to overrun the country, to give a haven to North Korean spies, to welcome the influence of the Chinese Communist Party,” Tan said. 

Tan went on to explain that Yeol’s political rival, Lee Jae-myung, has allegedly supported North Korea despite U.S. and U.N. sanctions, and also allied with China’s Communist Party. This, alongside other crimes, would disqualify him from his candidacy, should he be convicted. Tan argued that South Korea’s liberal party was attempting to unlawfully remove Yeol from his elected position before Jae-myung could be convicted and disqualified.   

Tan asked that “freedom-loving, democracy-loving Americans” not remain neutral on the political situation in South Korea, but instead stand by Yeol so that he can be cleared by the Constitutional Court of Korea and return to office. 

“This is a situation where our government and our people should stand with our allies in South Korea and with President Yeol,” Tan said. “Stand up and be counted and let the world know that the robbing of democracy and the destruction of democracy that we spilled blood to — the 50,000 casualties in the Korean War — will not be in vain.” 

McKinnon is the off-campus news editor for the Liberty Champion.