S Koreans vote in historic election
SOUTH Koreans went to the polls yesterday to choose a new president after Park Geun-Hye was ousted and indicted for corruption against a backdrop of high tensions with the nucleararmed North.
Voters have been galvanised by anger over the sprawling bribery and abuse-of-power scandal that brought down Park, which catalysed frustrations over jobs and slowing growth.
Left-leaning Moon Jae-In, a former human rights lawyer, has held a commanding lead in opinion polls for months.
The final Gallup Korea survey of the campaign gave him 38% support, followed by former tech mogul Ahn Cheol-Soo with 20%.
Hong Joon-Pyo of Park’s Liberty Korea party, who according to the last poll was languishing in third place in the 13-strong field at 16%, urged voters to support him and branded Moon a “proPyongyang leftist”.
A record turnout was expected, and 63.7% of voters had cast their ballots four hours before the polls closed compared with 59.3% at the same point five years ago.
Kim Sun-Chul, 59, said he voted for Moon because “this country needs to restore democracy, which has been so undermined by the Park government”.
The campaign has focused largely on the economy, with North Korea less prominent, but after a decade of conservative rule a Moon victory could mean a sea of change in Seoul’s approach towards both Pyongyang and key ally Washington.
The 64-year-old – accused by his critics of being soft on the North – has advocated dialogue to ease tensions and to bring it to negotiations.
He is seen as favouring more independence in relations with the US, Seoul’s security guarantor with 28 500 troops in the country.
Their presence, he said during the campaign, was “important not only to our own security but also to the global strategy of the US”.
The North has carried out two nuclear tests and a series of missile launches since the start of last year in its quest to develop a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland.
Washington has said military action is an option, sending fears of conflict spiraling.
More recently, US President Donald Trump has softened his message, even saying he would be “honoured” to meet the North’s leader, Kim JongUn.
Moon also said he would be willing to visit Pyongyang to meet Kim, and he advocates resumption of some of the inter-Korean projects shuttered by his predecessors, Kaesong joint industrial zone.
In Seoul’s prosperous Seocho district, 72-yearold doctor Chung Tae-Wan backed Moon’s conservative opponent Hong, saying “security is the most important thing”.
But for many South Korean voters, corruption, slowing growth, unemployment and even air pollution from China top the list of concerns.
South Korea’s rapid growth from the ’70s to the ’90s pulled a war-ravaged nation out of poverty but growth slowed as the economy matured, and unemployment among under-30s is now at a record 10%.
Frustration over widening inequality in wealth and opportunities fuelled anger over Park’s scandal, which exposed the cosy and corrupt ties between regulators and powerful family-oriented conglomerates, known as chaebols, that have endured for decades.
Park is awaiting a corruption trial for offering governmental favours to top businessmen, including Samsung heir Lee Jae-Yong, who allegedly bribed her secret confidante, Choi SoonSil.
Moon, Ahn and other candidates have promised to reform the chaebols, which dominate the economy and have long been criticised for operating with little scrutiny.
Another issue is relations with Beijing, which imposed a series of measures seen as economic retaliation over the deployment of a US antimissile system, THAAD, in the South.
In an election day editorial, the JoongAng daily said South Korea had been left “adrift” by the “acute division and lack of national leadership” stemming from the corruption scandal and Park’s impeachment.
The vote, it said, was a “great opportunity to put the troubled nation back on track”. — AFP including the