Landslide victory for Moon Jae-in
Print Edition
LIBERAL politician Moon Jae-in won South Korea’s presidential election by a landslide yesterday, according to an exit poll, sealing the momentum for change after a tumultuous scandal.
The ballot was called to choose a new president after Park Geun-hye was ousted and indicted for corruption, and took place against a backdrop of high tensions with nuclear-armed North Korea.
Voters were galvanized by anger over the sprawling bribery and abuse-of-power scandal that brought down Park, which catalyzed frustrations over jobs and slowing growth.
They gave Moon, of the Democratic Party, who backs engagement with North Korea, 41.4 percent support, according to the joint survey by three television stations.
Conservative Hong Joon-pyo —who dubs Moon a “pro-Pyongyang leftist” — was far behind on 23.3 percent, with centrist Ahn Cheol-soo third on 21.8.
Moon told staff at his party headquarters that his triumph was born of “the desperate longings of the people who wanted a government change,” before giving them his trademark double thumbs-up.
National elections are public holidays in South Korea and preliminary figures showed a turnout of 77.2 percent — the highest for 20 years in a presidential poll.
Moon pledged to represent all the country’s people. “I will be president for all South Koreans,” he told cheering supporters on Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, where vast crowds gathered over several months to demand the removal of his predecessor over a huge corruption scandal.
“This is a great victory of great people who stayed with me to create a country of justice ... where rules and common sense prevail,” he said.
Soon after the exit poll was released, Moon’s supporters gathered in the square in the center of the capital.
“I am so happy because now there is hope for some meaningful change,” said freelancer Koh Eun-byul, 28.
The campaign focused largely on the economy, with North Korea less prominent. But after a decade of conservative rule Moon’s victory could mean a sea change in Seoul’s approach toward both Pyongyang and key ally Washington.
The 64-year-old — accused by his critics of being soft on North Korea — advocates dialogue to ease tensions and to bring it to negotiations. He is seen as favoring more independence in relations with the US, Seoul’s security guarantor with 28,500 troops in the country.
Their presence, he told reporters during the campaign, was “important not only to our own security but also to the global strategy of the US.”
North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests and a series of missile launches since the start of last year in its quest to develop a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland.
Washington has said military action is an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.
More recently US President Donald Trump has softened his message, saying he would be “honored” to meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
Moon also says he would be willing to visit Pyongyang to meet Kim and advocates resumption of some inter-Korean projects shut by his predecessors.
These include the Kaesong joint industrial zone.
In Seoul’s prosperous Seocho district, 72-year-old doctor Chung Tae-wan backed Moon’s conservative opponent Hong, telling reporters he did so because “security is the most important thing”.
But for many South Korean voters, corruption, slowing growth, unemployment and even air pollution top the list of concerns.
South Korea’s rapid growth from the 1970s to 1990s pulled a war-ravaged nation out of poverty but slowed as the economy matured, and unemployment among under-30s is now at a record 10 percent.
Frustration over widening inequality in wealth and opportunities fueled anger over Park’s scandal, which exposed the cosy and corrupt ties between regulators and powerful family-oriented conglomerates, known as chaebols, that have endured for decades.
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