The Woman Between the Snake and the Dinosaur - Park Geun-Hye
Patricia Shin-Ae Ko
November 09, 2007
The Korean presidential election is rather entertaining. The front runner, Lee Myung Bak, who had over 50% support in opinion polls until recently, had his lawyers try to trip up the extradition of his former business partner, Chris Kim, who allegedly had run to the US with $49 million of stolen money from stock fraud. At the same time, Lee charmed the voters with the claim that he did not oppose Kim returning to Korea for trial - and possibly to testify against Lee, who is suspected of benefiting from stock manipulation. For that double forked tongue, I'll call Lee Myung Bak the "snake".
The "dinosaur" is an unrelated Lee from the same party: Lee Hoi-Chang, who ran for president unsuccessfully twice, and is returning as an independent despite his age of 72 and a previous pledge to quit politics. Park Geun-Hye was the former chairman of the GNP party that the dinosaur originally founded. She quit to run in the primary, but lost to the snake by one and a half percentage points. After the primary, she promised to continue supporting the party and its nominee, but she kept a cool distance from the snake.
Then walks in the snake's first-hand man (another one) - Lee Jae-Oh. Let's call him the dragon, because he couldn't contain the heat that his mouth produced. The dragon made a public comment that was indirectly pointed at criticizing Park's lack of active involvement in the snake's campaign. She turned around and told everyone that his comment was the height of arrogance. In the meantime, the snake's support dropped about 20 points as the dinosaur entered the race as an independent. Shortly afterwards, the dragon resigned from his position in the GNP leadership - a move in Korea equivalent to career suicide.
Now all eyes are on Park. Her move will decide whether votes swing toward the snake or the dinosaur. What a choice. They're both hated by North Korea, and their monopoly-friendly economic policies will likely end up causing inflation, worker protests, and environmental damage. Park should be very careful about getting close to the snake. His right-hand men keep getting axed: before he became mayor, there was the problem with his corrupt business partner, Kim. While he was mayor of Seoul, the man closest in line to him was ousted for corruption. And, now, the dragon took the blow. Perhaps it's not the problem of the right-hand men, but the snake himself.
The "dinosaur" is an unrelated Lee from the same party: Lee Hoi-Chang, who ran for president unsuccessfully twice, and is returning as an independent despite his age of 72 and a previous pledge to quit politics. Park Geun-Hye was the former chairman of the GNP party that the dinosaur originally founded. She quit to run in the primary, but lost to the snake by one and a half percentage points. After the primary, she promised to continue supporting the party and its nominee, but she kept a cool distance from the snake.
Then walks in the snake's first-hand man (another one) - Lee Jae-Oh. Let's call him the dragon, because he couldn't contain the heat that his mouth produced. The dragon made a public comment that was indirectly pointed at criticizing Park's lack of active involvement in the snake's campaign. She turned around and told everyone that his comment was the height of arrogance. In the meantime, the snake's support dropped about 20 points as the dinosaur entered the race as an independent. Shortly afterwards, the dragon resigned from his position in the GNP leadership - a move in Korea equivalent to career suicide.
Now all eyes are on Park. Her move will decide whether votes swing toward the snake or the dinosaur. What a choice. They're both hated by North Korea, and their monopoly-friendly economic policies will likely end up causing inflation, worker protests, and environmental damage. Park should be very careful about getting close to the snake. His right-hand men keep getting axed: before he became mayor, there was the problem with his corrupt business partner, Kim. While he was mayor of Seoul, the man closest in line to him was ousted for corruption. And, now, the dragon took the blow. Perhaps it's not the problem of the right-hand men, but the snake himself.
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