Both SKorean presidential hopefuls promise change

Both SKorean presidential hopefuls promise change

South Koreans wrapped in mufflers and parkas bravedfrigid weather Wednesday to vote in a presidential election heading for a closefinish between the two top candidates — the liberal son of North Koreanrefugees and the conservative daughter of a late dictator.

For all their differences, the candidates hold similar viewson the need to engage with Pyongyang and other issues.

One big reason: Many voters are dissatisfied with currentPresident Lee Myung-bak, including with his hard-line stance on the country'sauthoritarian rival to the north. Park Geun-hye, who belongs to Lee's party,has had to tack to the center in her bid to become South Korea's first womanpresident.

Earlier polls showed Park and liberal candidate Moon Jae-inin a dead heat in the race to lead Asia's fourth-largest economy and animportant U.S. security bulwark in the region.

"Everything's now at heaven's disposal," Moon toldreporters at a polling station in the southeastern port city of Busan. "Ihave put forward every bit of my energy."

Park, a five-term lawmaker, voted in Seoul and said shewould wait for the "people's choice with a humble mind," calling onvoters to "open a new era" for their nation.

South Koreans express deepening worry about the economy anddisgust over the alleged involvement of aides close to Lee in corruptionscandals.

Many voters blame Lee's hardline views for encouraging NorthKorea to conduct nuclear and missile tests — including a rocket launch byPyongyang last week that outsiders call a cover for a banned long-range missiletest. Some also say ragged North-South relations led to two attacks blamed onPyongyang that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.

"I skipped breakfast to vote. I've been waiting to votefor five years. I think it's time to change the government," said37-year-old Kim Young-jin, who voted for Moon at a polling station inside anapartment complex.

At one polling station in Seoul, young and old voters alikestood in line, despite a bitter cold snap. Wednesday is a national holiday inSouth Korea. Electric stoves inside the polling station warmed the line ofvoters that stretched longer as the sun rose. Polls opened at 6 a.m. localtime. Some voters blew on their freezing hands as they hurried into the pollingstation.

"I believe in Park," Choi Yong-ja, a 59-year-oldhousekeeper, said as she left a polling station at a Seoul school. "Shehas abundant political experience."

The effort to create distance with incumbent Lee has beenmore difficult for Park, whose popularity rests on a staunchly conservative,anti-North Korea base of mostly older voters.

Both candidates propose pulling back from Lee's insistencethat engagement with North Korea be linked to so-far-nonexistent nucleardisarmament progress by Pyongyang. Park, however, insists on more conditionsthan Moon.

Moon is a former chief of staff to Lee's predecessor, latePresident Roh Moo-hyun, who championed the so-called "sunshinepolicy" of no-strings-attached aid for Pyongyang.

Moon wants an early summit with North Korean leader Kim JongUn. Park has also held out the possibility of such a meeting, but only if it's"an honest dialogue on issues of mutual concern."

Whoever wins the presidential Blue House will set theinitial tone for new North Korea policy not just in Seoul but in Washington,Beijing and Tokyo. All those governments have recently undergone an election, achange of leadership or both.

A Moon election could lead to friction with Washington ifnew engagement with Pyongyang comes without any of the reciprocal nucleardisarmament progress that Washington demands from the North.

Moon and Park also agree on the need to fight widespreadgovernment corruption, strengthen social welfare, help small companies, closegrowing gaps between rich and poor, ease heavy household debt and rein in big corporationsthat have grown so powerful they threaten to eclipse national laws. They differmainly in how far they want to go.

Moon wants to drastically expand welfare, while Park seeksmore cautious improvement in the system, out of concern that expanding too muchcould hurt the economy, according to Chung Jin-young, a political scientist atKyung Hee University in South Korea.

Both candidates also have promised to strengthen thealliance with the United States while boosting economic ties with China.

Park is aiming to make history as the first female leader inSouth Korea — and modern Northeast Asia. But she also works under the shadow ofher father, Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea as dictator for 18 yearsuntil his intelligence chief killed him during a drinking party in 1979.

Park's father is both an asset and a soft spot. Many olderSouth Koreans revere his strict economic policies and tough line against NorthKorea. But he's also loathed for his odious treatment of opponents, includingclaims of torture and snap executions.

"Nostalgia for Park Chung-hee still runs deep in oursociety, particularly in the older generation," Chung said.

A Park win would mean that South Korean voters believe shewould evoke her father's strong charisma as president and settle the country'seconomic and security woes, Chung said.

Moon, on the other hand, was a young opponent of ParkChung-hee. Before working for Roh, whom Lee replaced in 2008, Moon was a humanrights lawyer. He also spent time in jail for challenging Park's government.

Moon's parents lived in the North Korean port city ofHungnam before fleeing to South Korea aboard a U.S. military ship in daringevacuation operations in December 1950, six months after the Korean War brokeout.

Moon's parents lived in an interim shelter on South Korea'ssoutheastern Geoje Island and later moved to a nearby village where Moon wasborn in 1953. Moon's father did manual labor at the camp while his motherpeddled eggs.

A Moon win would be a clear judgment against the Lee government,said Hahm Sung Deuk, a political scientist at Korea University in Seoul. Moon'sappeal is that he "appears to be nice, honest and clean."

Moon has been aided by Ahn Cheol-soo, a medicaldoctor-turned-software mogul who led Park in hypothetical two-way polls beforehe dropped out of the race last month. Ahn, who does not belong to any party,has thrown his support behind Moon since withdrawal.

With South Korea's economy facing a 2 to 3 percent annualgrowth rate for this year and the next, the presidential candidates havefocused on welfare and equality and fairness issues. Both candidates promise tocrack down on wrongdoings of family-controlled industrial conglomerates, knownas chaebols. Neither, however, has matched Lee's campaign promise to boostSouth Korea's economy by an ambitious 7 percent growth annually, apparentlyaware of the global economic challenges that beset the country's export-driveneconomy.

Economic worries may be the focus of many voters, but NorthKorea forced itself as an issue in the closing days of campaigning with itsrocket launch last week, which put a satellite into orbit.

The launch won't be a major election influence, but it willconsolidate conservative votes in favor of Park, said Hahm. He said the launchwill remind South Korean voters that "the North Koreans are unpredictableand belligerent."

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