A History of Korea (101 page)

On 25 February 2003 Roh was sworn in as president with an ambitious agenda to reform South Korean society. From the beginning, however, he lacked the political skills and wisdom to carry out the reforms. He also exposed his incompetence in conducting state affairs, as his inefficient administration brought about a sharp polarization of South Korean society, irreparably dividing the country into “conservatives” and “progressives.” As social conflicts increasingly arose in the form of frequent strikes and organized protests, political forces became ever more fragmented. Corruption and scandal also raged within Roh’s inner circle and dominated the political arena. His casual, even reckless remarks on a range of sensitive issues weakened legitimate state authority by causing unnecessary controversies. His ruling party split, eroding his political base. As discussed later, his approval rating declined to such an extent that only a few months into his presidency he had to ask for a national referendum to restore public confidence in his reputation as a champion against corruption.

The Roh Moo-hyun administration defined itself as the “participatory government” in that it would expand opportunities for participation by voiceless and weaker members of society and also meet the needs of socially disadvantaged groups. As Roh raised the expectations of various social groups for their
share of the economic pie, an explosion of demands led to labor unrest, disputes, strikes, and social conflicts that erupted uncontrollably throughout the country.

From the outset Roh had difficulties dealing with the National Assembly. Although defeated in the presidential election, the opposition
GNP
still held a majority in the legislature. Moreover, although he had been elected as the ruling New Millennium Democratic Party’s official nominee, the maverick-style Roh could not forge cordial relations with Kim Dae-jung’s followers. Relations with Kim were also strained when Roh refused to veto a
GNP
-supported bill to appoint an independent counsel to investigate illegal funding channeled to North Korea just before Kim’s June 2000 visit to Pyongyang. Many leading
NMDP
members viewed Roh’s action as a betrayal of Kim’s trust.

Following the conventional South Korean political custom where every president tries to create his own party, Roh and his supporters left the New Millennium Democratic Party to establish a new party. On 1 November 2003, 36 lawmakers from the party, along with 5 dissident lawmakers from the
GNP
, formed a new ruling party called Our Open Party (
OOP
). Roh’s followers justified their action as a historical necessity to create a new type of political party that would be managed democratically and would be based on nationwide, rather than regional, programs. Those remaining in the
NMDP
, however, felt that Roh had betrayed their party. With the creation of the
OOP
, the
NMDP
was transformed into an opposition party that stood against Roh.

The moral foundation of Roh’s administration was suddenly undermined by revelations that the president’s personal confidants, known as “Roh’s left and right hands,” received illegal money from various businesses, including the Samsung, Lotte, T’aegwang, and Sun&Moon groups. Against this background, Roh shocked the nation by announcing, in mid-October 2003, that he would seek a vote of confidence from the populace, either in a national referendum or by some other means. Although deeply disappointed with Roh, the majority of South Koreans did not want him to leave office, as they feared a possible power vacuum followed by even greater chaos in state affairs. Eventually the opposition parties objected to the referendum proposal as possibly unconstitutional, but basically they believed that Roh’s offer was a political trick to preempt his responsibility for a political scandal not yet fully investigated. Encouraged by the public’s insecurity when he requested a vote of confidence, Roh, relying on similar intimidation, occasionally announced that he was stepping down from the presidency and retiring from politics.

On 12 March 2004, a month before the National Assembly elections, the Assembly voted to impeach Roh for illegal electioneering and general incompetence. The vote was 193 to 2, with Roh’s supporters abstaining. Roh used the impeachment as a last resort to break the political deadlock he faced. After the Assembly successfully impeached him, as expected, the South Korean public greatly sympathized with the ousted president and gave a landslide victory for the
OOP
in the National Assembly elections of 15 April 2004. The elections resulted in a left-of-center parliamentary majority over the conservative camp. In the elections each voter cast two ballots—one for a candidate and the other for a party. The Our Open Party obtained 152 of 299 seats, and the Grand National Party won 121 seats. The Democratic Labor Party, a wing of the radical Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, elected 10 candidates for the first time in Korean history. On the other hand, the New Millennium Democratic Party suffered a crushing defeat, electing only 9 legislators. Roh’s electoral victory was followed, on 14 May, by the Constitutional Court’s decision to reinstate the impeached president, ending his two-month period out of office.

While the ruling party enjoyed its highest approval rating in the spring of 2004, Roh’s approval rating soon plummeted and the
OOP
also rapidly lost popularity. The ruling party came under a barrage of criticism in 2005, and in the 30 April and 26 October by-elections, it was resoundingly defeated by taking none of the seats available and lost its majority in the National Assembly. Scandals involving Roh’s associates played an important role in the results. On the other hand, the
GNP
won almost all the by-elections. Suffering defeats in both the by-elections and local elections, the ruling party eventually sought to regroup politically and considered merging with the New Millennium Democratic Party or forming a new party.

Roh’s fourth year in office, 2006, signaled the beginning of a lame-duck year as he battled record-low approval ratings and an increasingly hostile party. As popular support dwindled for Roh’s policies, the
GNP
won a sweeping victory in the local elections on 31 May 2006, winning 12 of the nation’s 16 metropolitan city and provincial contests. The local elections, which determined 7 mayors of the largest cities and 9 provincial governors, 230 chiefs of smaller administrative districts, and 3,621 members of local councils, had been widely seen as a barometer for the 2007 presidential election. The
GNP
captured 6 metropolitan city mayoral posts, including that in Seoul, and 6 provincial governorships. The main opposition party also won at least 160, or 70 percent, of 230 seats for smaller city mayors, county magistrates, and district chiefs. The ruling
OOP
suffered a humiliating defeat, winning only one gubernatorial post in its traditional political stronghold of North Ch
ŏ
lla province. The minor Democratic Party grabbed two major posts in its traditional power turf, Kwangju and South Ch
ŏ
lla province, and an independent won the gubernatorial post in Cheju province. In June 2005 the New Millennium Democratic Party was renamed the Democratic Party.

The Grand National Party’s landslide victory pushed Roh into deeper political trouble caused by political wrangling and a prolonged economic slump. The poor performance of the ruling party was attributed to the Roh administration’s policy failures, economic hardship among the populace, and antipathy against the new ruling elite. People had also been fed up with the government’s “arrogant” and “intransient” decision-making process, which critics claimed stirred up tension and confrontation among groups with conflicting interests. Public confidence in Roh and his party also dwindled because of the public perception that the president mismanaged foreign affairs. Roh actively took an accommodating approach to North Korea and once said that he would make “many concessions” and provide “unconditional assistance” to the North. The
GNP
, in contrast, took a much harder line against the Stalinist neighbor. Following its defeat in the local election, the
OOP
was on the verge of collapse, and the Roh administration faced mounting challenges to its rule from the opposition parties.

The Grand National Party romped to another strong showing in the legislative by-elections held on 27 July 2006, adding three more seats in the National Assembly to their tally. Four seats were contested, and the splinter Democratic Party obtained one additional seat. The ruling party had already lost 6 seats in by-elections in April 2005 and 4 seats in October 2005. After the July victory, the
GNP
controlled 126 seats in the legislature to the
OOP
’s 142. Neither party had a majority in the National Assembly. In the May local elections and July by-elections in 2006, voters expressed a fervent hope that the
GNP
could be a real alternative to the Roh government and the ruling
OOP
, which had nothing more to offer them.

On 13 October 2006 Roh’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, Pan Kimun, was chosen by the
U.N.
General Assembly to succeed Kofi Annan as the eighth secretary-general of the international forum, which was good news for South Koreans, coming 15 years after South Korea joined the world body.In late October 2006 the South Korean government investigated an espionage team called the Ilsimhoe, or One Mind Society, and revealed that North Korea
had extended its influence to South Korea’s pro-North Korean and anti-U.S. movement in a bid to bring communism to South Korea. The espionage group included former and incumbent officials of the left-wing Democratic Labor Party. Ilsimhoe members, mostly student activists from the 1980s, were suspected of having ties with some members of Roh’s administration and with the
OOP
. Following the inter-Korean summit, in June 2000, and throughout the Roh administration, South Korea had loosened the structure of the state and its alliance with the United States. North Korea, meanwhile, had never stopped working to unify South Korea on its own terms.

North Korea had found an opening in a legally established political party, whereas in the past it had concentrated on underground political parties or operations. After the leftist Democratic Labor Party made inroads into politics in the 2004 National Assembly elections, North Korea now tended to use the party as its means of infiltration. Despite the uproar over the Ilsimhoe, key Democratic Labor Party members flew to North Korea for discussions with top North Korean officials on the impact of North Korea’s nuclear test conducted in early October 2006. The Unification Ministry gave the green light to the trip despite objections from the National Intelligence Service, the successor to the National Security Planning Agency, and the Justice Ministry.

In late November 2006, with his authority as president declining, Roh declared that it had become increasingly difficult for him to serve as president in the existing climate of stiff political opposition. He made the remark one day after he withdrew his nomination of a female judge as head of the Constitutional Court in the face of the
GNP
’s objections to the nominee. The nomination of the judge, widely regarded as a progressive figure, had been a major contentious issue between the Roh administration and opposition parties for several months. The public reaction to Roh’s cave-in was reflected by his December 2006 approval rating, which, according to an opinion poll, had plunged to an all-time low of 5.7 percent.

Roh’s low approval ratings took a toll on his ties with the ruling party. His relationship with the
OOP
deteriorated to the extent that a growing number of party members wanted to sever all ties with the unpopular president and join forces with the Democratic Party. Despite Roh’s fierce protests, talks of cooperation with the splinter group were expected to produce a new party. In early February 2007, 23
OOP
lawmakers quit the faltering party en masse, demoting the beleaguered party to second place in the National Assembly with 110 seats, and the following May they formed another party, the United New Party for
Centrist Reform. Other lawmakers from the
OOP
followed suit, and finally, in late July, the ruling party held only 58 legislative seats.

While the
OOP
was embroiled in internal disputes over its future course, the
GNP
was witnessing fierce intraparty competition among its presidential candidates. Rifts were evident between Lee Myung-bak, the former mayor of Seoul, and Park Geun-hye, the daughter of former president Park Chung-hee and the former
GNP
leader. From early 2007 the fight between them escalated. Yi held commanding leads in all opinion polls, and Park trailed in second place. Then, on 19 March 2007, former Ky
ŏ
nggi governor Son Hak-kyu, ranking a distant third in the polls and aware of his meager chance of winning the
GNP
ticket for the presidential race, announced his defection from the main opposition party.

In June 2007 the United New Party for Centrist Reform, led by former
OOP
lawmakers, and the splinter Democratic Party, united to form the Centrist United Democratic Party (
CUDP
). Then, on 20 August, the progressive political bloc established the Grand United New Democratic Party (GUNDP), a coalition consisting of four factions: an
OOP
splinter group, a CUDP breakaway group, progressive-oriented civic leaders, and a group led by Son Hak-kyu, who had left the Grand National Party. Critics said that the new party, which had 143 seats in the 299-member National Assembly, would be no different from the
OOP
.

After a bitter primary campaign, Lee Myung-bak defeated Park Geun-hye by a narrow margin and was elected, on 20 August, as the
GNP
presidential candidate. During the primary campaign Lee had been accused of profiting from estate speculations, and Park Geun-hye, often called the “Yushin princess,” failed to show anything of substance other than being Park Chung-hee’s daughter.