Election Review: A New Direction for South Korea

Another recent election on the international scene occurred on December 19, 2007, when South Korea elected former Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak as its new president. Mr. Lee won the election in dominating fashion, winning 49% of the vote. His closest rival, Chung Dong-young of the reigning liberals, finished a distant second with 26%.

South Korean presidents are limited to serving one 5-year terms and thus this election was an open race battle. But Mr. Lee was able to overwhelm the field due to party divisions and a lack of quality challengers. The election of the conservative Mr. Lee also marks a new era in South Korean politics, ending 10 years of liberal rule in the presidency.

Mr. Lee is a former Hyundai executive and he has a reputation for being pragmatic and working well with others. But Mr. Lee is also plagued by ethics questions, an issue which could seriously affect his ability to govern once he is sworn into office next month.

And unfortunately the election lacked enthusiastic attention from South Korea's populace. Voter turnout hit a record low of 63% (which in the United States would be very high!) and some believe this can be attributed to the fact that Mr. Lee held the lead in the polls for such a long period and to the heavy amount of negative campaigning which occurred among the candidates. But whatever the reason, it is disappointing to watch this election pass without the usual display of enthusiasm that South Koreans display for their elections.

Mr. Lee made several boastful claims throughout the campaign and so it will be interesting to see if he can follow through on them. The main thing Mr. Lee claims he will do is bring back life into the economy, which was the most important issue during the election. Economic growth has been lackluster in South Korea the past few years and the people are hoping that Mr. Lee can turn things around. His experience in business and revitalizing the capital city of Seoul should help, but of course it will take sound economic policies to get the job done.

And it will be interesting to watch how Mr. Lee handles relations with North Korea. Will he maintain the liberals use of "Sunshine" policies or will he take a harder line? Of course this issue has been the defining feature of South Korea's foreign policy for decades and it remains to be seen what the final outcome will be. Mr. Lee is known to have pro-American leanings and this should be a boon for the United States when it comes to future negotiations among the "Six Parties" (the United States, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Russia, and China) in relation to North Korea's nuclear arsenal.

I'll be rooting for success in South Korea, seeing how it's relatively new at this thing called democracy. It restored multi-party rule in 1987 following years of authoritarian military rule, and the country's first president after independence, Syngman Rhee, wasn't so keen on democracy either. But the country was able to endure and its example of economic development is one that all states should follow. Unfortunately, its economic miracle came at the behest of repressive authoritarian rule. But the 1990s proved it can thrive economically under democracy and so hopefully sound democratic governance under Mr. Lee will bring the country back on track.

South Korea Presidential Election Final Results

Lee Myung-bak (Grand National Party) - 49%
Chung Dong-young (United New Democratic Party) - 26%
Lee Hoi-chang (Independent) - 15%
Moon Kook-hyun (Creative Korea Party) - 6%
Kwon Young-ghil (Democratic Labour Party) - 3%