U.S. relations seen unaffected by vote

SEOUL — The dramatic defeat of the long-ruling Grand National Party in legislative elections last week should not mean major changes in South Korea’s troop deployment in Iraq or its support for the U.S. approach to North Korea, analysts say.

The liberal Uri party, which backs President Roh Moo-hyun, more than tripled its representation to capture 152 seats in the 299-seat National Assembly, while the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) — the majority party for four decades — was reduced to 121 seats.

But on many fundamental issues, the two parties are drawing closer to one another, said Yonsei University political-science professor Lee Jung-Hoon.

“What we have seen is the right moving slightly left and the left moving slightly right,” he said.

Uri leaders repeatedly have said the nation must keep its promises to the international community regarding its dispatch of troops to Iraq — although it insists that South Korean troops must be engaged in reconstruction, not combat.

As South Korea’s de facto ruling party, Uri also backed the U.S. position at the six-party nuclear talks in Beijing in February, calling for the complete, irreversible and verifiable dismantling of the North’s nuclear weapons.

GNP leader Park Geun-hye, meanwhile, has called for a more flexible approach toward the North, suggesting a softening of the party’s previously hawkish stance, and has said she is willing to compromise with Uri in the assembly — a major break from the fierce partisan struggles of the recent past.

Although a relocation of some of the 37,000 U.S. troops on the peninsula is planned, there are no calls for them to quit the scene completely from within either the ruling camp or the main opposition.

The Uri party’s electoral success is being attributed mainly to a voter backlash against the recent impeachment of Mr. Roh, which passed with strong support from the GNP. The main sponsor of the impeachment, the Millennium Democratic Party, almost was annihilated at the polls, dropping from 62 seats to nine.

Uri Party leader Chung Dong-young called Friday for a lifting of the impeachment process, which could drag on for another five months. But Mrs. Park of the GNP refused to countenance an overturning of the bill, and it is uncertain whether there are constitutional grounds to do so.

Uri’s request implies that it fears that Mr. Roh still could be unseated by the Constitutional Court, which must issue a ruling on the case. Such an outcome would mean a new presidential election.

As it stands, South Korea’s executive and legislative branches are now in accord, which analysts call a plus for political stability. Bills that had been held up by assembly squabbling should be passed.