Candidate Profiles

Geun-hye Park

Geun-hye Park is a member of the National Assembly in the Saenuri Party. She is famous for being the daughter of President Chung-hee Park, whose legacy is controversial. Currently, she is the candidate of the Saenuri Party for the 18th Presidential Election.

On Februrary 2, 1952, Park was born in Gumi-si, Gyeongbuk. She graduated from Sogang University, getting a Bachelor’s degree in the Department of Electronic Engineering. She also received an Honorary Doctorate Degree at KAIST, Pukyong National University, and Sogang University. From August 16 to October 26, 1979, after the death of First Lady Yuk Young-soo during her father’s reign, she served as the Acting First Lady of South Korea. She has been a senator since the 15th National Assembly of 1998. Park ran for president back in 2007 for the Grand National Party, but former Mayer of Seoul, Lee Myung-bak (the current president of South Korea) was chosen as the candidate for the party. Senator Park’s camp slogan is “A country where my dreams come true.” The pledges are divided into three sections:

Today’s Happiness
Park states that she will help the middle class citizens by lowering taxes and helping them recover their credit grade. To create and maintain jobs, Park plans to implement an employment welfare model suited for Korea, focusing on helping the elderly, the disabled, and unemployed workers seeking for jobs. She also hopes to increase the percentage of permanent employees. However, Park is opposed to free health care by increasing welfare finance. For a safer Korea, she pledges to increase the police force, their salary, and the level of punishment for anti-social crimes, while separating the investigation powers between the police and prosecutor. For citizens living in rent houses, Park will work with financial institutes to let house seekers loan money at low interest rates, without having to come up with a high amount of deposit money. She also promises to build more low-rent houses in Seoul and its vicinity.

Tomorrow’s Dream
Park plans to increase the happiness of females living in Korea by abolishing female discriminations, widening welfare policies for families with children, multi-cultural houses, single-parents, and divorced parents. In the science and technology section, she promotes fusion and industrialization for a creative Korea. Specifically, more jobs will be created in related fields, more investments and research grants will be given, and the governance will be orientated towards science and technology. For education, the public schools will focus on dreams and talents of the children and decrease extra-curricular fees. Park, however, is partly opposed to abolishing the national academic assessment. For a better government, Park introduced Government 3.0 with better transparency, communication, cooperation, and sharing to become a more citizen-orientated service. She also pledges to reform politics by reforming the party system and the National Assembly, while also implementing more democratic governance, clean government, and modified constitution. On modifying the constitution for allowing a two-term presidency, Park stated that the government should first acquire the support of the citizens. On nuclear issues, she is partly opposed to increasing the number of nuclear power plants, stating that if more nuclear plants are to be built, the government should acquire the trust of the citizens.

Korea in the World
Park pledges faith diplomacy for a new Korea. She pledged that policies for North Korea will evolve as time passes by and balance itself to become acceptable to the citizens. She plans to increase the humanitarian aid for North Korea. For foreign diplomacies, she wishes to run a more active diplomacy to protect national interests and participate more in solving global problems. On decreasing the dependence on the United States for foreign diplomacy, Park agrees only partially, stating that while the Korea-U.S. bond is very important and should be maintained, widening the diplomacy channels will be better for Korea. For unification, Park pledges that instead of waiting for unification, she will ready South Korea for the unification by working together with both domestic and foreign societies.

Jae-in Moon

Jae-in Moon, the former Chief of Staff to the late President Mu-hyun Roh, was elected this year as a member of the National Assembly, representing Sasang-gu, Busan. He has since been elected as the presidential candidate for the Democratic United Party. Moon played a key role in uniting the disparate liberal parties late last year. Having capitalized on the decline in popularity of the conservatives amid a series of corruption scandals, Moon has – according to Jung-yeop Woo of the Asan Institute of Policy Studies – “portrayed himself as a moderate and rational leader who has the backing of the younger generation.” Putting forth the slogan “People First,” Moon’s political platform consists of five key points.

Job Revolution
Through what he calls a “Job Revolution,” Moon promises to create an environment where companies will be able to offer a larger number of employment opportunities, as well as have the government employ more civil servants. Along with reduced working hours, Moon states that he will attempt to have more part time jobs turned into full time jobs. He also promises to impose stricter regulations regarding when companies can lay off workers and postpone retirement age, and that the government will help companies maintain its current workforce while also hiring new people.

Welfare State
Moon plans to introduce various social welfare policies to support the citizens, especially those from low income brackets, and expand public services and infrastructures as part of his effort to create a “people first” society. Moon states that the improved social welfare will allow people to cut basic living costs by as much as 50%. The medical care policies will also be overhauled so that hospitals and clinics will prioritize saving lives over making profits.

Economic Democracy
Moon hopes to revive the Korean economy through what he calls economic democracy. It will essentially curb the power of major corporations and protect small, independent stores in order to create a “fair” playing ground for economic competition. Also, Moon states that while corporations have continued to profit, the people have suffered losses. Moon argues that it is essential for laborers to participate in the making of major economic decisions, thereby “democratizing” the economy.

New Politics
Corruption and the abuse of power by politicians and government officials, Moon points out, is a major problem with the current government. The Prosecutors’ Office has been abused often to further political goals. Moon promises to root out such corruption and hand down severe punishments to those who engage in such practices. He also says that he will crack down on the rich attempting to use their wealth to bribe government officials for political favors.

Peace and Coexistence
Dealing with the current situation between North and South Korea is the last major issue. Moon plans to relieve tensions and move towards more friendly ties between the two nations. Moon hopes that the international community will help invest in North Korea to strengthen economic ties. This supposedly will benefit the Korean peninsula economically as well as contribute to fostering further diplomacy regarding issues such as North Korea’s nuclear program. On the other hand, Moon stresses that taking on a more open approach to North Korea does not mean a neglect in national defense. He will make sure that enough resources are allocated to make sure that South Korea is capable of defending itself.

Cheol-soo Ahn

Cheol-soo Ahn holds a Bachelor’s, a Master’s and a Doctoral degree at the College of Medical Sciences in Seoul National University. In 1995, he founded AhnLab Inc., Korea’s representative security solution provider with global technology, which he managed until 2005. In 1997, he earned a Master of Science in Engineering degree at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2005, he became an outside director of POSCO and a chairman in 2010. In 2008, he received a Master of Business Administration degree at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. From 2008 to 2011, he was a chair professor at KAIST’s Graduate School of Innovation and Technology. He also worked in several governmental advisory organizations, such as the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning, the Presidential Council for Future and Vision, and the President’s Council on National ICT Strategies.

He has been widely respected by the people as a scholar and CEO for about 20 years. Ahn’s political endorsement soared right before last year’s by-election for the mayor of Seoul. Many people did not have any faith in politics at the time and yearned for new politics. On April 11, parliamentary election confirmed this longing. Ahn described his thoughts about various issues in our society through his book Thought of Ahn Cheol-soo and TV show Healing Camp. Finally, on September 19 of this year, he announced his candidacy for president. On November 11, he issued a brochure titled “The Promise of Ahn Cheol-soo,” consisting of four sections of noteworthy pledges.

Welfare, Living, and Medical Services
Ahn is an advocate of universal welfare. He pledged to exempt 5% of the lowest income from health insurance fees and provide public kindergarten service to 30% of children. He also promised that the government would cover childcare expense for kids under five. Meanwhile, for the sake of fair taxation, he promised to increase property taxes for high-priced lands not used for residence.

Education
Ahn pointed out that problems in education do not lie solely in its system. For example, if the social structure is reformed and there are more job opportunities in non-capital areas, the outrageous zeal for education would be relieved to some degree. He also pledged to support public education by enacting laws.

Labor, Jobs, Economy
Ahn largely focuses on economic democratization and job creation. To accomplish economic democratization, he pledged to inhibit cross-shareholding, reinforce regulation on holding companies, enhance the separation of industrial and financial capital, et cetera. As a means to increase quality job opportunities, he proposed to protect and nurture small and medium enterprises. In addition, he promised to promote the service industry and arouse entrepreneurial spirit for economic growth.

Politics, Administration Innovation
To improve the morality of the government, Ahn pledged to enact the law by which bureaucrats must place their real estate in blind trust if they cannot prove that they are the “actual demands” of the estate. Another important pledge is an adoption of a jury system for trials on incidents of political importance.
His supporters believe that he is not affected by the old atmosphere of established politicians and expect him to end the divided politics and its lies and deceit. Moreover, he has shown that he was open to communication with the public unlike the current government, in which the lack of communication was repeatedly pointed out as its biggest problem.

However, the fact that he is “new” to politics is simultaneously his biggest weakness. His opponents argue that he is not capable of administering the country’s affairs. In response, Ahn claims that to bring about changes in the nation, a leader must handle the affairs with the help of others with various experiences. Another criticism towards him is that he does not have any personal ties to political circles. He defends that, different from the closed and vertical presidential camps, he is collecting extensive opinions and support from experts of various fields who have real-world experiences.

Appeal to Students

There is a confluence of agreements and disagreements among the presidential candidates regarding various aspects of Korea’s education system.

University Entrance Exams
All of the presidential candidates are interested in giving equal opportunities to all applicants who are interested in particular universities. However, the method of doing so varies to an extent. Park wishes to change the weight of the sections in the entrance exams by making nonscheduled admissions, concentrating on the students’ behavioral assessment at school, and emphasizing regular admissions, focusing more on the national scholastic ability test. In the case of Moon, he insists that the categories for which the students can apply for should be divided into four parts: scholastic ability tests, aptitude tests, high school grades, and general admissions. In addition, he believes that English achievement documents should not be compulsory for university applications. In the case of Ahn, his policies are similar to Moon in terms of subcategorizing the admission system into four parts: scholastic ability tests, essay writings, high school grades, and general admissions. Furthermore he wishes to increase the portion of general admissions up to 20% and is against submission of non-required achievement documents.

Elementary to High School Education
The general opinion of the candidates is to abolish the academic achievement evaluation and to remove the currently inbuilt exam systems. In addition, the candidates are keen on reducing the influence of private education on students by placing legal restrictions. However, when it comes to specific legal restrictions, all three leaders are eager to support it only to a certain extent. Furthermore, when it comes to tuition, all three candidates are supportive of free education. Therefore in essence, we can state that the policies of all three candidates are focused on giving everyone equal opportunities to enter the universities of their choice.

Special Purpose High Schools
Park and Moon, they believe that special purpose high schools should be abolished and amalgamated with other public high schools. On the other hand, Ahn believes that as long as the schools can serve the purposes for which they were established for, it is not necessary to bring about significant changes. In the case of universities such as Seoul National University, Moon wishes to distribute their influence to other national universities, as the influence held by educational institutes seems to be turning into a monopolistic system. However in the case of Park, she believes that doing so may negatively affect the Korean political and economic system as a whole, and thus, is against the idea. For Ahn, this is a neutral matter for which he is currently sitting on the fence.

Tuition of Universities
In general, there is agreement, but the specifics are clearly divided between the candidates. Moon believes that under any circumstances, the amount of tuition fees paid should be numerically reduced to half for the students. On the other hand, Park believes that tuition should be reduced, but the standards for receiving the scholarships should not be altered. Unlike the two candidates, Ahn is simply supportive of the idea but has not specified how he will carry it out.

Responses
Overall, Ahn is the most ideologically and realistically promising candidate in the eyes of most students and young voters. On the contrary, Park’s method of approach is more realistic, so she attracts more of the older demographic. If the educational systems place too much in government spending, it will inevitably hurt the other areas in need of government attention: so for some, reality is preferred over idealism. This can be seen in the case of Moon, where the public has mixed feelings due to policies that are more ideologically promising but lacking in realistic establishment.

Efforts in Science

As the 2012 election draws near, the candidates are putting in significant efforts to win over the remaining undecided minds. Among them is the science community. The community has been expressing growing discontent towards the government for its negligence, improper measurement of accomplishments, and combining of education and science into a single ministry. Each candidate’s promises are similar at first glance yet very different at the core and have been clarified particularly within the last month.

Geun-hye Park
As an electrical engineering graduate, Geun-hye Park aims to create a science-centered government management. On October 8, she held a press conference with young scientists at KAIST where she stated, “Science and technology is our solution and our future for job creation. It must be adjusted to meet our standards of life and advance the welfare.” More specifically, she stated that there is a need to increase the pride of the people within this field by valuing quality over quantity, motivating more free-willing and challenging research, and providing more support and less pressure. On October 18, she announced her “Creative Economy” plan, in which science and technology will be the basis for job creation, industrial growth, and a new ministry. In particular, it perceives job creation as a succession of events: with a creative idea, progress can be made through research and development. If successful, it will lead to industrialization and thus, job creation. Moreover, the temporarily titled Ministry of Future Creative Science will be allotted the combined authority of the old IT and science ministry.

Jae-in Moon
Though not from a science background unlike the other two candidates (and perhaps more so because), Jae-In Moon actively promoted himself as a strong advocate of science. On October 10, he toured Daejeon, the “science Mecca” of Korea, starting with a visit to the Science Belt Area, continuing on to a private meeting with the heads of affiliated institutions in the Korea Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, and ending with a Science and Technology Town Hall Meeting at Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science. His policies include the extension of retirement age to 65, a support system for gifted individuals from employment to retirement, and resurrection of the science ministry with the authority to adjust policies, allocate budget, and manage research. Moon said that the new science ministry would not be a mere continuation of the old and believes in maximum support and minimum involvement of the government. Regarding the International Science Business Belt, he stated, “It is a national project that establishes the basic scientific infrastructure. Each year of delay will mean 10 years of falling behind,” calling for a proper reflection of the set budget and government responsibility.

Chul-soo Ahn
Most known among the candidates in the science community, Chul-soo Ahn utilized his familiarity with the field as his primary campaign strategy. On October 10, he gave his lecture “Opening the Next Generation by Communicating with Science and Technology” at his old home, KAIST. Though not intended to be a political move, the lecture nonetheless reflected his views: the importance of science and its convergence with the humanities for interdisciplinary advancement. On the following day, he encouraged researchers at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. He said, “We need to create a foundation in which research is not limited to certain subjects and can be explored in many diverse interdisciplinary fields.” Though no specific plans were given, Ahn made it clear that there was a necessity for a science ministry where experts can create better policies.

Candidates Meet Face-to-Face
On October 13, all three candidates gathered together for the very first time since their candidacy under the name of science at the Science Technology Sharing Marathon Festival at Seoul World Cup Stadium. Park stated, “The development of our country was made possible by the devotion of researchers to the expansion of the industrial frontier.” Similarly, Moon commented, “Science and technology is the source of the country’s growth and competence.” “While all of you run this marathon, I will be running alongside you for a better Korea,” added Ahn.

Responses form the Science Community
The science community is hopeful yet wary at the same time, fearing that the promises were made in simply to gain more popularity and will turn extemporaneous. A member of the community voiced its general consensus: “People who don’t have expertise in the field are currently managing as a result of the coalition between the education and science division. We need to escape from an accomplishment-based research and focus on basic research, and only then will a proper policy arise.”

On the Watch

Controversial Issues
The union of the two leading liberal candidates Jae-in Moon and Cheol-soo Ahn has been the biggest issue since the rise of Cheol-soo Ahn as a presidential candidate. Popular opinion has been that to challenge the front-runner Geun-hye Park, they need to join forces, which could be a “game-changer” for the upcoming election. On November 6, candidates Moon and Ahn agreed to unify their candidacy. Although they failed to come up with a detailed roadmap for the decision on who will run, they at least reached a seven-point agreement including a joint declaration for new politics. The governing Saenuri Party severely criticized their move as a “show meant to confuse voters.” However on November 14, Ahn’s campaign unilaterally called off the negotiation. Ahn’s spokesman Min-young Yoo confirmed that all negotiation with Moon’s Democratic United Party (DUP) were put on hold for the time being, commenting that “Moon’s side systematically spread a rumor that Ahn should concede [. . .]. Now it is questionable whether Moon is seeing the bigger picture and focusing on the greater goal of changing the government.” Currently, Moon is winning against Ahn in the opinion poll as a single candidate, although at times the gap between them still fluctuates.

Effect of United States Presidential Election
On November 6, President Barack Obama, the first African American president, was elected to a second presidential term, defeating Republican candidate Mitt Romney. His election has a great impact on Korea’s presidential election since Korea’s politics and economy is closely related with that of the United States. Historically, there has been a trend of the conservative party taking leadership in Korea when the liberal party is in charge in the U.S. Many assume that there will not be any big changes in the U.S.’s overall policy toward Korea. A senior U.S. diplomat mentioned that South Korea and the U.S. will maintain the “closest possible” alliance and partnership “no matter who wins” South Korea’s presidential elections. However, policy toward North Korea can become an issue if President Obama takes a firm stance since all three candidates are pursuing a more conciliatory line compared to President Myung-bak Lee, who took an uncompromising approach.

Public Opinion
As of November 14, candidate Park is in the lead in the public opinion poll with an approval rating of 41.8% according to the research firm Realmeter. Although candidate Ahn is wining over Moon, the gap between them has been decreasing gradually over time. The public rated Ahn as the candidate most likely to succeed in political and social reform, and Park as the candidate most likely to boost the economy. Also, people considered job creation as the most critical factor in assessing the candidates’ economic policy and 52.4% answered that they might change their mind in the future.

What’s Left
On December 19, the 18th Republic of Korea presidential election will be held. After the official candidate registration starting on November 25, the booklets containing detailed policies will be distributed through mail, although Park decided to publish an abstract instead. One of her officials explained, “It is impossible to carry out the election pledge 100% for 5 years. The major policies will be implemented, of course, but details can change. In addition, 500 page booklets are a waste of money.”