South Korea’s ruling party lost two key contests in parliamentary by-elections, which could hamper President Lee Myung-bak’s efforts to win approval for his business-friendly reforms.
Analysts said the results for five parliamentary seats could embolden the left-leaning opposition to look for ways to derail Lee’s reform agenda.
The main opposition Democratic Party decisively won two crucial contests in districts around Seoul and a rural seat in Wednesday’s poll, but that did not dent the solid majority in the unicameral National Assembly for the Grand National Party (GNP), which won two races in stronghold areas.
“It would be excessive for the Democratic Party to try to turn the results into some kind of judgment against this administration,” the conservative Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial.
Hopes were high inside the GNP that it would pick up more than two seats, with voters saying this week that they were more upbeat about the economy than they had been in nearly eight years, a central bank survey found.
The president told top economic officials yesterday that voters had sent a message that the government should step up creating jobs.
In a move that could lead to fresh conflict in parliament, the Constitutional Court announced yesterday that a parliamentary vote in which the GNP approved a law that would ease media ownership rules was problematic, but the court did not strike it down.
Lee, a former construction boss, wants to change labor laws to allow employers to keep temporary workers longer to improve labor market flexibility and stop wage payments to workers who devote all their activities to union work.
The opposition party is gearing up for a tough fight in parliament, saying the election outcome was a mandate to check the GNP’s “unbridled arrogance.”
Meanwhile, North Korea’s short-range missile tests earlier this month were a failure with none of the five projectiles reaching its target, a report on Radio Free Asia said yesterday, quoting an intelligence source.
The North test-fired five KN-02 missiles with a range of 120km from mobile launchers off its east coast on Oct. 12.
Four of the five missed the mark and one did not even launch properly, a report in Korean on the US-funded radio’s Web site said.
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