A Good Election for Korea

Well, what can I add to what Andy and Robert have done here?  Let me start with this complete listing (in Korean) of the results and just add some notable points:

*   Defeated presidential candidate “Comrade” Chung Dong Young, originator of the die-in-place policy  toward North Korean refugees,  was trounced and failed in his bid to win a  seat in the National Assembly.  Chung was a superficial, anti-American demagogue.  I despise him so deeply  that I  hope he tries for a comeback … so that I can have the pleasure of seeing him lose  again.

*   Unlike certain other K-bloggers, I have no use for Sohn Hak-Kyu, a committed North Korea appeaser, but I am a fan of Park Jin, who, incidentally, would make a fine Foreign Minister.  Seeing Park beat Sohn was as good as  two victories to me, and it’s almost as good as seeing Sohn lose to all-time OFK favorite Kim Moon Soo. 

*   Sweetest of all for Andy will be that his local representative in Ansan, Im Jong In, has lost his seat.  Im was a venemous America-hater replete with curious associations.   Whenever radical groups that later turned out to be riddled with North Korean agents needed legal cover, Im always seemed to be  there for them.

*   I scrolled through the photos and did not see the lovely Lee Ae-Ran, a North Korean defector, among the winners.  Better luck next time, Ms. Lee.

*   Can someone tell me whether we have been rid of bat-shit crazy Kim Won Ung?

So on paper, the Grand Nationals now have an absolute majority, at 153 seats, but that narrow majority is riven by internal feuds.  Yet on the big ideological issues, it might be augmented by other “conservative” parties associated with Park Geun-Hye and Lee Hoi-Chang.   This  was  about as absolute a  repudiation of the Korean  nationalist left could be imagined just a year ago, completing a purge the voters began  last December.  There will be a  strong majority of generally conservative lawmakers, but Lee Myung Bak  won’t dominate all of them.  This is good.  I still don’t really trust Lee’s instincts, and I reckon the voters don’t, either.  It wasn’t so much that the voters were enthused about Lee;  Hideiki Tojo could probably have beaten Comrade Chung.  Some internal debate will do the Korean right much more good than harm.

Now that the election is over, we are about to get a much better idea of what Lee Myung Bak’s policies will be.  I’ve noted before that it’s probably a mistake to piss Lee off, and I’ll be interested in how he’ll deal with the North Koreans after they  made military threats in  what “analysts” called an attempt “to sway people against the GNP.”

I swear, there’s a word for that.