Technology and democracy are a potent mix in S. Korea

Polls showed that the victory of Mr. Roh - who claims to be the world's first president to understand HTML website coding - came from a huge surge of support from the Internet generation of twenty- and thirty-somethings. In South Korea, where elections, are usually decided by regional rather than generational loyalties, this was a dramatic development. It was not the last.

A report in OhmyNews on an accident in which two schoolgirls were crushed to death by a US Army tractor prompted one reader to call for demonstrations. The editors supported the idea and within a week, South Korea was witnessing the biggest anti-American protests in the country's history.

"We are becoming very powerful," says Bae Eul-sun, one of Ohmy's online journalists. Slouched in front of a computer in a scruffy Seoul office, she looks more like a grad-school student than an increasingly important player in national politics.

"The pay is lousy, but it is very satisfying to work here because I really feel like I can change the world little by little," she says.

When the new administration takes over Feb. 25, its external priorities will essentially mark a continuation of the "Sunshine Policy" of the outgoing Kim, who focussed on maintaining a strong alliance with the US, while engaging with North Korea.

But Yoon Yong-kwan, head of foreign policy formulation in Roh's transitional team, says policy toward North Korea would be developed to better reflect public opinion.

This is likely to give more influence to domestic media, such as OhmyNews, and less to Washington. Compared to the last North Korean nuclear crisis in 1993-94, Seoul has taken a far more active role in trying to head off a confrontation - even at the expense of infuriating its ally. With online polls showing most Koreans are more frightened by Washington than by Pyongyang, Roh has been outspoken in criticizing US plans for sanctions. Earlier this month, South Korea dispatched envoys to Beijing and Moscow on what was effectively a mission to build a coalition against the tough stance taken by America.

Kim and Roh - both former civil rights activists - have their own agendas. Yet even though they are not acting merely on the whims of Internet polls, the articles, comments, and feedback in OhmyNews and other smaller online sites provide them at the very least with a justification for taking a softer line with the North.

"The development of Internet technology has changed the whole political dynamic in South Korea to an extent that the outside world has not yet grasped," Mr. Yoon says. "The emergence of the online press has balanced the political debate between progressives and conservatives. It will affect foreign policy."

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