The Knives Are Out

Kim Moon-Soo on Park Geun-Hye: “Her leadership abilities are limited.”

For those not immersed in South Korean politics, the power struggle over the leadership of South Korea’s “conservative” opposition Grand National Party has reopened, in anticipation of the 2007 presidential elections. Park, the daughter of long-time dictator Park Chung-Hee, is the current GNP leader, with a reputation for being a coalition-builder and deal-maker with a reputation for elevating party unity over ideology and principle. It was the excesses of some GNP members that brought Park to the GNP leadership post–specifically, the ill-advised impeachment of President Roh for a hypertechnical election law violation. Park, who was perceived as more moderate and less enthused about the impeachment, took advantage of the weaking of those who had supported it to take control.

The problem with confusing a united platform for a set of principles is that people don’t vote for unity, particularly in a country where that’s so often led to cronyism, corruption, and worse. They vote for candidates and parties that can sell exciting, dynamic ideas. If Park Geun-Hye has any of those, someone please tell me what they are.

You can see two of my articles on Kim Moon-Soo here and here. Kim grabbed my attention because of his compelling background and strident advocacy for human rights in North Korea, and also based on my observation of him at the Freedom House Conference in July (see sidebar). Kim is known for his political shrewdness, so the fact that he’s biting Park’s ankles means that he’s already seeing the limp in her gait.

But if Kim Moon-Soo is the populist of Korean conservatism, then its jurist and diplomat is Hwang Woo-Yea, a former judge and protege of two-time (second place) presidential candidate Lee Hoi-Chang. I’m working on a piece about Assemblyman Hwang this weekend.