DPRK Forum

For those that do not know, Lee ha won the ROK elections by a wide margin:

South Korea’s presidential election was won by runaway favourite Lee Myung-bak by a landslide on Wednesday.

The former Hyundai chief executive received 50.3 per cent of the vote, according to exit polls. His nearest rival, liberal Chung Dong-young, had 26 per cent.

That’s a pretty commanding lead.

Conservative Mr Lee, a former Seoul mayor who was 66 on election day, has led the race for months.

His victory ends a decade of liberal rule in the South, during which the country embarked on unprecedented reconciliation with rival North Korea that has restored trade and travel across the heavily armed frontier dividing the peninsula.

Mr Lee has promised to take a more critical view of Seoul’s engagement with rival North Korea and seek closer US ties.

Now this is where it can get sticky. Once the U.S. elections are over (and I am sure a Democrat is going to win the next one), how is the six-party talks and the engagement policies going to work? I do not know, but the idea and tactics may change.

Just days before the vote, the parliament voted to authorise an independent counsel investigation into Mr Lee in a stock manipulation case where prosecutors had already cleared him of wrongdoing. The counsel is to complete the probe before his inauguration in February, and Mr Lee has said he would not accept the presidency if found at fault.

I heard a little about this, but do not know all the details about any past shady deals. Does anybody know the details of this?

“I want to thank the people who have defended me from numerous negative campaigns,” he said after voting in Seoul.

This is politics, and there is no escaping negative campaigns.

Unlike previous elections dominated by issues like security policy with rival North Korea or relations with the US, this year voters were focused on economic matters due to concern over high property prices, soaring unemployment and a widening gap between rich and poor.

Well, let’s hope things go better this time around.

Nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for his thrusting business acumen, Mr Lee’s support has been bolstered by unrest over the five-year term of liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, who was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.

Another thing I did not know. Was Roh’s tenure that bad? Looks like it. I am going to have to read up and see what he did to get barred from re-election. Was this because something he did wrong, or does the ROK have term limits and Roh reached it?

In 2002, Mr Roh was elected after pledging not to be in thrall to the US while also continuing the rapprochement with the North fostered by his predecessor and fellow liberal Kim Dae-jung, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his “sunshine” policy of engagement with Pyongyang.

That’s a serious sore spot for those watching Pyongyang to say the least. Whatever the case, I am very interested to see how new elected officials play the rest of this saga out. North Korea is still around after many elections in the ROK, US and elsewhere. Will this election finally turn the tide against Kim? We shall see.

More information on One Free Korea and ROK Drop