Pictures from the 2007 Korean Presidential Election Day

These are some pictures I took today as Koreans go to the polls to elect a new president:

Upcoming Korean Presidential Election

With the Korean Presidential Election now a week away, I happened to see a good article in The Korea Times profiling each of the major candidates.

Quick Look at Presidential Hopefuls

By Andy Jackson

With the official presidential campaign period upon us, neighborhoods all over Korea have suddenly become inundated with posters, signs and sound trucks touting the virtues of the various candidates. In particular, you cannot walk far in any direction without seeing a group of twelve posters that have been put up by election officials, one for each of the official candidates.

The natural reaction of many foreign residents in Korea upon seeing those posters is: ``Who are these guys?" One or two might look familiar but the rest will draw a blank.

So I will offer this short review of the candidates as a service to my fellow foreigners, listed in the order they appear on the posters.

#1 Chung Dong-young is the candidate for the United New Democratic Party, which is the Uri party in all but name. He is a former television newsreader (with the hair to prove it) and more recently has served as both Uri Party chairman and Minister of Unification under President Roh Moo-hyun.

Chung is a strong supporter of engagement with North Korea and has pushed for more investment in North Korea's Gaeseong Industrial Complex. He also wants to expand social welfare programs and sees defenses spending cuts, made possible by what he believes are lessening tensions with North Korea, as a possible means for paying for them.

He has had his share of ups and downs. He was long considered the leading candidate to succeed President Roh but saw his stock fall after Uri lost in local elections in 2006. Chung also lost support during National Assembly elections in 2004 when he said that seniors should ``stay home and rest" rather than vote. Despite these set backs, Chung was able to defeat a more popular candidate to secure the UNDP nomination and may yet be the unified progressive candidate.

He has so far failed to garner enough support to pose a serious challenge to the frontrunner but he could gain support in the next two weeks as progressives settle on a single candidate to support.

#2 Lee Myung-bak, a former business executive and mayor of Seoul, is certainly the most scandal-plagued candidate in the field. Since he started preparing for his presidential last year Lee has been hit with scandals involving free use of tennis courts, having fake addresses to get his children into the right schools, real estate speculation, using proxies to hide his wealth, fake jobs for his children and investment fraud.

So, naturally, the Grand National Party standard bearer is the leading candidate.

After nearly five years being governed by a president seen as being moral but incompetent, voters are willing to support someone who they believe can get results, even if he has a little dirt on his hands.

Lee has been the leading candidate for over a year and, with prosecutors clearing him of wrongdoing in the BBK investment fraud scandal, he is likely to win the election by a comfortable margin.

Lee has pledged to reduce unemployment by boosting the economy through tax cuts, deregulation and attracting foreign investment. The centerpiece of his economic revitalization program is a proposal for a 550-kilometer canal connecting Seoul and Busan. He also favors engagement with Pyongyang but wants a more reciprocal relationship and insists that North Korean denuclearization precede further economic aid.

#3 Kwon Young-ghil is three-time candidate of the Democratic Labor Party. The socialist DLP favors closer ties with North Korea and many more regulations on business. Kwon won only 1.2 percent of the vote in 1997 but tripled that to 3.9 percent in 2002. His party then went on to win 13 percent of the vote in the 2004 National Assembly elections.

While Kwon has no realistic chance of winning the election he could gain significant support among labor and farmer groups unhappy with the proposed free trade agreement with the United States.

#4 Rhee In-jae is probably the most hated man in Korean politics today. Conservatives blame him for leaving the predecessor of the Grand National Party during the 1997 presidential election, splitting the conservative vote and allowing Kim Dae-jung to narrowly defeat Lee Hoi-chang. He got 19 percent of the vote then but has little chance of repeating that performance this year as he has been stuck at around 2% in the polls.

#5 Shim Dae-pyong of the People First Party recently dropped out of the race and endorsed Lee Hoi-Chang (see #12).

#6 Moon Kook-hyun touts himself as a successful businessman who cares for average people. He has emerged as a serious candidate on the left over the past several months as his polls numbers have slowly risen. However, the former executive CEO of Yuhan Kimberly is still well behind the leading candidates in the polls and he is facing increasing pressure to agree to an alliance with Chung, which would likely force him to step aside.

#7-11 Don't worry about the 7-11 candidates. They will not have a significant impact on the election.

#12 Lee Hoi-chang, a former Supreme Court judge, has twice been nominated by the main conservative party as its presidential candidate. He was ahead in the polls both times only to eventually lose on election day. This time he is running as an independent candidate and has emerged as the single biggest threat to Lee Myung-bak.

He is the most conservative of the major candidates. He is pro-business and supports a harder line in dealing with North Korea. Pyongyang takes Lee's candidacy seriously enough for the North Korean state news agency to assail him on an almost daily basis.

Lee's hard-line North Korea policies, along with worries about Lee Myung-bak's alleged ethical lapses, propelled the independent candidate into second place in the polls as soon as he announced his candidacy on November 7.

Lee will likely stay in the race as long has he enjoys significant support. However, conservatives fear that a split between supporters of the two Lees might allow Chung Dong-young to slip past them to win the election. That factor will pressure Lee Hoi-chang to step aside if he cannot close the current 20-point gap with Lee Myung-bak in the polls.

With such a large and politically diverse field, Koreans certainly cannot complain of a lack of choices.

Measure 50 goes down in flames, now will the so called progressives listen

Will the so called progressives listen now, or will the name calling and propaganda war continue?

Over at Blue Oregon, one commenter calling himself Bill R. stated:

Everyone loses since we will all continue to pick up the tab for all those emergency room visits with sick children who should have been able to see a doctor sooner. But this is Oregon and Oregon voters are used to being negligent (not voting for important issues) or scammed by big corporate money.

Translation: If you don't vote for this, then you hate children and will make them suffer.

John Calhoun stated:

Unfortunately it is the kids, not the campaign that will pay the price if it loses. I have heard a lot of reasons to vote no that didn't wash in my opinion, but yours is at the top of my list for least justified, most 'superficial'. Kids will suffer, maybe die, because they don't get proper medical care and you complain about the 'campaign'? Remember, perfection is the enemy of the possible.

So according to John, because we hate kids and voted no on Measure 50 children will die. What a terrible way to frame a debate.

I also have a problem with pro-Measure 50 supporters comments like, "If you don't like it come up with something better" line. No one likes a bully. The Pro-Measure 50 crowd have showed how well they bully those who dare disagree with them.

Sure there are lots of ways to fix this, but the problem is there is only ONE way being put before us. We have two choices, up or down. I'd personally rather see the corporate kicker repealed and part of it be used for health care and the other part for higher education.

The name calling over and accusations over at BO got so bad that I stopped commenting in the Measure 50 threads. More so after this post referring to people who post anti-measure 50 comments as trolls. That and other mob mentality comments on BO make me laugh.

The fact that BO will try to frame the loss as a big tobacco buy off in the next few days will also be pretty funny. Contributors and those who comment on Blue Oregon will try to make it look like everyone who voted against Measure 50 was "bought" by big tobacco and their ads. Nothing could be further from the truth in my case. I did not pay attention to the ads (in fact I was only inside the US for four months this year) and didn't read the Oregon Voter's Pamphlet (again because I voted absentee).

Nope, I'm not gloating. It's more like vindication.