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| To the victor: Lee Myung Bak (c.), celebrated his victory on Wednesday evening in South Korea’s presidential race. Junji Kurokawa/AP |
South Korea shifts right with new president Lee Myung Bak
The election Wednesday of former Hyundai executive may signal a review of South Korea's policy toward the North.
from the December 20, 2007 edition
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Kim Sung Han, professor at Seoul's Korea University, says Lee's "primary task is to upgrade the US relationship," predicting that "maybe the principle of reciprocity will be emphasized."
Yet even with the US focus on South Korea's relationship with its northern neighbor, no one here doubts that the economy far outweighs security concerns. The North and its nuclear program is almost a nonissue, especially for young Koreans, to whom a 20 percent unemployment rate among recent college graduates is far more worrisome.
"He will spend a lot of energy in restoring the Korean economy," says Professor Kim. "That will be his primary task."
But Lee's critics fear he will favor the chaebol – the backbone of Korea's economic ascendency since the Korean war – at the expense of small- and medium-sized enterprise, removing rules and regulations that Roh and his aides see as needed to level a field in which the chaebol are by far the biggest players. "Lee's whole thinking is that the chaebol should control the economy," says Peter Bartholomew, a business consultant here for the past 40 years. "He is too biased toward the chaebol."
In his hour of victory, however, Lee faces formidable opposition – and intense criticism – in a scandal that still threatens to derail his presidency before it begins.
The National Assembly, controlled by loyalists to Mr. Chung, voted on Monday to give a special prosecutor 40 days to investigate Lee's link to an investment fund named BBK after a six-year-old videotape surfaced that showed the president-elect boasting that he ran the fund. Lee has said he has no ties with the fund and knows nothing about the embezzlement and illegal stock trading for which his alleged former partner has been indicted.
Many observers believe Lee may count on his wide margin of victory in Wednesday's election to snuff out the investigation, especially since prosecutors refused to press charges well before revelation of the incriminating videotape.
"BBK will be a problem for a couple of months," says Mr. Kim, "but the new president takes over in a general atmosphere of triumph, and the investigation will be much influenced by that."
Lee's foes promise to pursue the case in hopes that he will eventually be indicted, forcing a leadership crisis and a new election.
"What do you think of a president who has been referred to a special prosecutor," asks Lee Chang Choon, a retired ambassador. "This country is in deep trouble."
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