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Lee's party wins slim majority

South Korea’s new president, who promises a softer approach to big business and a tougher line on North Korea, secured key support yesterday after his conservative party won a majority in parliament.

Final official results showed President Lee Myung-bak’s Grand National Party (GNP) won 153 of the 299 seats in Wednesday’s general election. Two smaller rightwing groups together took 32.

The liberal United Democratic Party (UDP), previously the largest group in parliament, took just 81 in a stunning setback.

The GNP hailed its victory as a mandate for a decisive shift toward the right, which began with Lee’s crushing presidential election win over his liberal rival in December.

Campaigning on an “Economy, First!” platform, Lee has touted wholesale deregulation, tax cuts and privatization to revitalize Asia’s fourth-largest economy after a decade of relatively modest growth under liberal presidents.

Lee and his party also pledge a firmer policy on North Korea following a 10-year “sunshine” engagement period under the liberals — a promise that has enraged Pyongyang.

“The public support for reviving the economy and creating more jobs has resulted in a majority,” Lee, a former business executive, was quoted by his spokesman as saying.

He said the result would ensure parliament’s cooperation “to achieve the national goal of making the country an advanced one.”

In a statement, the GNP called its election win “a judgment of history against the leftist government and the United Democratic Party which are held responsible for having caused political chaos over the past 10 years.”

“We will make efforts to completely remove the 10-year-old stain from the country and change this nation,” GNP leader Kang Jae-sup said separately.

The voters’ endorsement was not entirely whole-hearted with a turnout of just 46 percent of the 37.7 million-strong electorate, a record low for a parliamentary election.

But it was a huge blow for the liberal party, which in February had held 135 seats to the GNP’s 130.

“The liberal UDP has become a greatly weakened opposition force in parliament, while the ruling GNP won a simple majority — less successful than it may have expected,” said Chun In-young, a political science professor at Seoul National University. “The government will have no trouble pushing economic reforms in general, but it may have to seek more support from other conservatives to go ahead with controversial projects like building a grand canal.”

Lee’s election pledge to construct a pan-Korea canal has drawn strong protests from the UDP and environmentalists. GNP lawmakers are divided on the US$16 billion project.

The new parliament, due to start its four-year term on May 30, will handle a bill to ease decades-old restrictions on the ownership of banks by big conglomerates among other economic changes.

Lee also promises to work to make the North richer but only if it fully denuclearizes.

He wants to link economic aid to its progress on nuclear disarmament and says Seoul will no longer shy away from criticizing Pyongyang’s human-rights record. North Korea over the past two weeks has responded with threats and angry rhetoric.

In a renewed attack on Lee yesterday, its Communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun angrily rejected his pledge to help the North raise per capita income to US$3,000 over a decade in return for denuclearization.

Rodong said North Korea would never allow “the group of traitors to hurt its sovereignty and dignity with such clumsy sugar-coated words.”
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