SEOUL — Conservatives swept to power in South Korea’s parliamentary elections today, handing a powerful mandate to strongly pro-American President Lee Myung-bak, who was elected last December.
Despite a record-low voter turnout on a rainy day, TV exit polls showed the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) taking between 154 and 178 seats in the 299-seat National Assembly, compared to its current 112.
The liberal United Democratic Party (UDP), which supported previous President Roh Moo-hyun, looks set to take a maximum of 89 seats; it currently holds 136. Neither of its standard bearers Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu and the partys presidential candidate, Chung Dong-young managed to win seats.
It is a major turnaround following a decade of liberal rule. With conservatives now securely ensconced in the presidential Blue House and the National Assembly, for, respectively, five years and four years, Mr. Sohn called the results “a crisis for democracy.”
The results grant Mr. Lee a strong hand to push through policies that he has been holding back on until the parliamentary elections were over.
Domestically, Mr. Lee, formerly a CEO of Hyundai Construction Co., plans to relax existing checks on Korea’s already-powerful conglomerates to spur investment, and cut corporate taxes. He has also vowed to dig a $16 billion inland waterway from Seoul to Busan in the far south, which he expects to improve logistics and revitalize moribund rural economies.
On the foreign policy front, he has repeatedly called for stronger ties with Washington and while he has promised massive economic aid to North Korea, he insists that it must first denuclearize a policy that has infuriated Pyongyang.
Mr. Lee is scheduled to meet with President Bush at Camp David on April 18-19. Their talks are expected to cover North Korea, the U.S.-Korea military alliance, the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement signed last year but awaiting ratification in both countries legislatures and the admission of South Koreans to the U.S. visa waiver program.
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