South Korea’s ruling Grand National Party (GNP) chief quit yesterday to take responsibility for the poor showing in local elections, trying to contain the impact on President Lee Myung-bak’s pro-business reforms.
Lee said he would push through with his agenda, including cleaning up bureaucracy and cutting taxes, which analysts said was unlikely to be derailed by the unexpected strong performance by the opposition Democratic Party.
“The government needs to go back to the work of economic recovery and sustained growth,” Lee told a meeting yesterday.
The Democratic Party won seven of 16 major races for the country’s largest cities and the provinces in an upset that surprised GNP and analysts who had been expecting a large win for the conservative ruling party.
Lee’s uncompromising stand against North Korea after blaming it for sinking one of its navy ships had seen him and the GNP bounce back in opinion polls from a backlash after a decision to scrap a plan to shift a large part of the government from Seoul and rows over US beef imports and a river project.
The GNP candidate narrowly defeated a Democrat in the race for Seoul mayor but the incumbent conservative lost in the city of Incheon.
The current GNP governor of the Gyeonggi Province surrounding Seoul that is home to more than 11 million kept his office but the party was shut out in the rest of the country except in its traditional stronghold of the southeast in what analysts saw as sign of voter disillusionment with some of Lee’s policies.
“We humbly accept the voice of the Korean people of rebuke,” GNP chief Chung Mong-joon told a leadership meeting. “I want to take this chance to express my wish to resign.”
Chung has been considered a leading candidate to succeed Lee and was expected to run again as party chief this month.
Voting for nearly 4,000 offices around the country had been overshadowed by the March sinking of the South Korean naval corvette Cheonan, fuelling shrill rhetoric from North and South Korea, including threats of war.
At the UN, South Korea’s vice foreign minister said Seoul was ready to ask the Security Council to take up the incident for censure and was looking for the best time to do it.
US President Barack Obama said the North would be held accountable for the attack, including at the Security Council.
South Korea and the US are to hold a naval military exercise next week, about a month ahead of schedule, to “demonstrate the strong willingness by both Seoul and Washington to deter North Korea” from further provocations, the JoongAng Daily said yesterday, quoting military officials.
North Korea denies responsibility for the ship attack and has accused Seoul of staging the incident to help Lee in the local elections.
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