The Hindu : North's n-plan has a bearing on S. Korean polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 19, 2002

International

International

North's n-plan has a bearing on S. Korean polls

By P. S. Suryanarayana

Lee Hol-Chang

SINGAPORE Dec. 18. Rarely has a presidential election in South Korea attracted as much international attention as the one scheduled to take place tomorrow.

The contest itself is clouded by some unprecedented anti-U.S. sentiments in a country known to have been America's satellite in regional politics.

North Korea's sabre-rattlings over its suspected nuclear weaponisation overdrive have also reverberated across the South.

However, the prime reason for the enormous external interest in South Korea is the `constitutional' departure of the incumbent Head of State, Kim Dae-jung, sometime after this poll.

In a sense, Mr. Kim, Nobel Peace Prize winner for his "sunshine policy'' of rapprochement with North Korea, has certainly not had the kind of success that was seen possible at one stage during his five-year tenure, especially in mid-2000 when he sought to blaze a trail through his summit with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang.

However, he is widely believed to make a quintessential "presidential difference'' (if South Korea is seen through the prism of such an idea that has been applied to U.S.' presidencies from that of Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton's).

Roh Moo-hyun

The presidential candidates have had to reckon with Mr. Kim's towering personality which has not been dimmed by his own incomplete legacy and the scandals involving his family members. Nonetheless, the new challenges — North's "nuclear brinkmanship'' and the qualitative popular anger against the U.S. — have given the two main candidates something very important to think about and promise policies accordingly.

For both the front-running candidates, this opportunity of striking statesman-like postures has added a new dimension to the campaign itself which, otherwise, was marked by the usual concerns over normal issues such as the state of the economy.

The current economic downturn in the wider region is an issue lurking in the background of the race.

Of the two front-runners, Roh Moo-hyun of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party is seen to be more of a liberal who might be expected to persevere with Mr. Kim's policy of building links with the North.

In Mr. Roh's reckoning, the South could indeed hope to have some leverage with the North by engaging it on matters of war and peace as also the promise of a shared prosperity at some stage in the future.

Mr. Kim's recent admonition of his compatriots over their anti-U.S. emotions is not lost on Mr. Roh's campaign.

The other prime candidate, Lee Hoi-chang of the Grand National Party, is generally seen to be a hawk on North Korea, at least so by the standards of the campaign rhetoric on all sides. Whether or not he would like the sun to set on the "sunshine policy'', the style and substance of Mr. Lee's campaign have placed him nearer America's extreme hard line towards Pyonyang on several key issues, such as its proliferation-programmes of producing and deploying weapons of mass destruction, more especially nuclear arms, according to regional observers.

Nonetheless, Mr. Lee has not placed all his cards on the table as regards the anti-U.S. feelings among the South Koreans at this point in time, in spite of the chill "North wind'' or Pyongyang's militarist posture.

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North's n-plan has a bearing on S. Korean polls