Park Geun-hye, Han Myeong-sook and Lee Jung-hee. These three women dominate electioneering in the Republic of Korea, each leading a political party. Of them, Lee is the youngest and newest. This baby-faced, smiling woman is also probably most intelligent ― the highest female scorer in the 1987 SAT ― but she is dedicated to the toughest political cause. She wants to be Korea’s first woman president from the working class.
Lee Jung-hee, a co-leader of the United Progressive Party, left the parliamentary race with an apology last week for cheating by her supporters in an opinion survey, but few believe that her profile in the leftist movement has been hurt. Her withdrawal and the choice of Lee Sang-kyu, a former Seoul chapter head of the Democratic Labor Party, the predecessor of the UPP, as the new candidate for Gwanak-B district in Seoul brought to the fore a hitherto submerged group of leftist ideologues.
Lee said that her bowing out from the April 11 polls was her own decision, but many political analysts believe that the so-called Eastern Gyeonggi Solidarity was behind the move. The group is home to the core strategists of the leftist agenda, opposing free trade agreements with foreign countries, the U.S. military presence in Korea and hard-line policies toward the North.
Pollsters are reporting a seesawing between the ruling Saenuri Party and the Democratic United Party with a 30-odd percent support for each. But the DUP’s alliance with the UPP is now expected to produce an opposition surge in the parliamentary election, with the minor leftist party dramatically increasing its legislative presence. The UPP’s aim of 12 to 16 constituencies and 8 to 10 proportional representation seats sounds a little overambitious, but its forming a negotiating group in the next Assembly ― which requires 20 seats ― may not be entirely impossible.
With the outlook of the second left-wing party brightening after years of unproductive, strife-torn politics between the two larger parties, there are growing worries among not only conservative-leaning voters but the rest of the public about the ideological and behavioral extremism of the UPP prevailing in left-wing politics. People wonder what will happen to Gureombi Coast of Jeju Island, where a naval base project faces vehement opposition by leftists.
Lee Jung-hee joined politics in 2008 when she was recruited by the DLP to become its proportional representation lawmaker. With her background as a human rights lawyer, Rep. Lee earned a good reputation among ruling and opposition colleagues for her notable legislative work. The DLP elected Lee as its chairwoman late in 2010. When the DLP merged with two other leftist groups to create the UPP, she became its co-leader along with Ryu Shi-min and Shim Sang-jeong.
Voting is two weeks away and the radical minor opposition party is about to emerge as the biggest winner. After its loss in Seoul’s mayoral by-election five months ago, the conservative ruling party is struggling with defeatism, while the main opposition party, glowing in premature sense of triumph, is about to concede political initiatives to the minority partners as it tries to hold fast the “opposition alliance” as the key to the change of power later this year.
Members of the Democratic United Party, however, should be reminded that their alliance with the radical leftists needs to set ideological and strategic limits to differentiate them clearly from the radical orientation and identity of the UPP and other extremists who might want to join them in the future.
It is our understanding that DUP members share more values with those of the Saenuri Party than those of the UPP. This is unless the minor opposition group changes to respect the basic democratic order of the Republic of Korea, preserve its capitalist economic framework and condemn North Korea’s nuclear armament.
Lee Jung-hee and whoever leads the UPP after the elections should seek to pursue these changes and cut themselves loose from the influence of radical ideologues. And the party should ensure that there would be no replay of Kang Ki-gap’s flying kicks and Kim Sun-dong’s tear gas attack in the Assembly.
