The Marmot’s Hole

Park Keun-hye has been elected to head the opposition Grand National Party.

Pic taken from the Chosun Ilbo.

Park, as you know, is the daughter of later dictator Park Chung-hee, father of modern South Korea. Park also served as First Lady after her mother, Yuk Yeong-su, was shot and killed during an assassination attempt on Park in 1974. She has been the recipient of much popular sympathy, first after the death of her very popular mother, and then following the successful assassination of her dad in 1979. Her base of support can be found in her home region of Daegu, where many still have fond feelings toward late President Park, and like her dad, she possesses a squeaky clean image as far as corruption is concerned, although like her dad, I’m not quite sure if that’s deserved.

Hard to make heads or tails out of this pick. She certainly seems popular, and she kicked Hong Sa-duk’s ass in the voting. Her speeches before and after the voting were solid, and she seemed to say all the right things in the press interviews that followed (I watched her on YTN, though, and I have to say she looked a little shell-shocked). With the impeachment backlash in affect, her party’s in the hole with 25 days left before the general election, so she’s got a whole lot of work ahead of her. I’m sure the GNP’s base of support in North Gyeongsang Province appreciate her, but I’m not sure what affect her selection as party head will have on Seoul voters. Yeah, she said the party needs to change its corruption-prone image, but this is easier said than done in the case of the GNP, where structural corruption has been elevated to an art form. She has indicated she will sell the party’s headquarters in Yoido and possibly conduct party business from a tent pitched up near Yoido Park as a way of paying back the GNP’s ill-begotten funds, but this strikes me as kinda like the head-shaving — makes for a good photo-op, and people appreciate it, but the voters aren’t stupid (even if they did elect Roh Moo-hyun). And frankly, I’m not sure what kind of base she has within the party, or if she has one at all. She’s pissed quite a few people off within the GNP during her short political career, that’s for sure, and she seems more popular with the citizens than she does with her coworkers, and that won’t last if she can’t get the later to stop taking Samsung’s money. She’s also got a major problem to deal with as younger members of the party demand the withdrawal of the impeachment against Roh, something she made very clear she will not do.

Anyway, watching her and spokeswoman Jun Yeo-ok together should provide for oodles of entertainment, regardless of how well she performs.

The Korea Times ran some pieces on her selection today; I’ll let you read them on your own:

Park Elected GNP Leader
Park to Go on Offensive to Upset Status Quo
Park Prevails With Her Mother’s Image

The Oranckay posted a very good write up on her today.

Of course, if you read Korean, OhMyNews is the place to go for news on all the day’s events.