Here is a mighty interesting (at least to me) quote I saw in the KTimes:
“Once pro-government presidential hopefuls win the hearts of the Jeolla provinces, they can also receive support from Seoul and its vicinity,” a Uri official said. “For those runners, Jeolla’s support is essential to gain more than 10 percent support nationwide.”
Now I realize that Honam (the Jeolla provinces and Gwangju) has been the traditional base for the Korean left, but it is still remarkable that someone would so confidently say that the capital region with 22.5 million people will meekly wait for a region of five million people to give it a cue on whom to support.
On the other hand, since Honam folk tend to support “progressive” candidates at levels that would make Richard Daley blush, it is more like 5 million leading 10 million.
(BTW, I really want to use sudogwon as a proper noun but have been told by somebody who knows better that I can’t.)
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i weep as I watch Han Nara trash Lee Myung Bak lower and lower, as they raise Okamoto’s daughter up higher and higher.
Now, it is clear.
Lee Myung Bak will lose the nomination.
Park Geun Hye will face whoever the coalition faces.
This will be a Kyung Sang vs the Rest competition.
Park or Lee? Pakuri?
Park is more liable to lose than Lee. But, alas, people in Kyung Sang still believe in a god named Park Chung Hee. Takeki. Or Okamoto.
Ms Park has supernatural powers and she will use them to reward her men.
More and more, the coalition looks they will have the fight they have desired.
In case you didn’t know, there is speculation that Okamoto, Jun, and Roh have forced a population migration from Jeolla to Sudogwon, thus there is a substantial Jeolla population in Sudogwon and that is not reliably calculated, since many Jeolla people chose to hide their origins, due to persecution for decades.
That’s what the Uri guy is referring to.
Korea’s hope is on Lee Myung Bak. The correct choice.
The coalition has benefited from the luxury of not having had any mud on their faces, but I seriously doubt they are even a little bit cleaner.
There is no way in heck that the Park family doesn’t have a Swiss bank account.
I mean, his druggie son is now an executive officer of a Korean corp. Can you believe that?
the spin in the Korean newspapers is absolutely astonishing.
Lee is the evil real estate insider trader.
Park is apparently a very modest woman, from a very modest father, who had a mere US equivalent of $600k to pass on after having had his life abruptly ended as Emperor of South Korea. The amount seems too small to me. Way too small.
Because Park’s qualifications are dubious at best to serve as President, now the papers highlight that Park’s IQ is 126.
Ok, she must be a great President. She can out-think everyone !
The bullshit is depressing me. Half of Korea, east and west is still not even one step beyond blind regional political power struggles.
I don’t know about the rest of the sudogwon (Sudogwon?) but there is certainly a substantial Honam population in Ansan. During the 2004 elections, my wife’s folks (solid Gyeongsang people) did not openly voice their support of the GNP because of all the Jeolla folks in their area.
It didn’t need to be forced. Folks will move on their own for better economic opportunities and the sudogwon has lots of folks from all over the country.
What will be interesting is how their kids who were born and raised in the capital region vote. I suspect that we will see a whole new regionalism in the next decade or so.
What’s the deal with the dead priest/monk embezzler who ran Park’s foundation? I’m not following the news that closely.
I usually translate “sudogwan” as the common noun “capital region.”
The neighborhood I live in is also mostly made up of people from Honam, which in means in every local elections the GNP candidate goes down in flames.
The head of the local Mormon church, who was from Kyungsang-do, btw once ran for a seat in the local council on a GNP ticket. Of course our neighborhood, being predominantly Honam elected the Uri candidate.
It’s a shame, he is a decent guy and he did put in a lot of effort campaigning. Too bad that regionalism has to take its toll.
Robert appears to be right (of course). The Naver online Korean dictionary (based on the NAKL’s Pyojun Gugeo Daesajeon (Dictionary of Standard Korean)) says only this for sudogwon (pronounced sudokwon):
수도를 중심으로 이루어진 대도시권.
“The metropolitan region around a capital” (to paraphrase). No mention of Seoul specifically (even in the generic sense of “a capital”). Even the example sentences are arguably generic.
…But like you, Andy, I tend to think of it as a proper noun, even though, evidently, it isn’t.
“What will be interesting is how their kids who were born and raised in the capital region vote.”
Their kids won’t forget where their ancestors came from for a long long time, and align themselves with their ancestors’ regions, at least for the Kyongsangdo kids anyhow, although Jollado kids might wish to forget where their folks came from.
I believe that young koreans born in seoul would be willing to vote for a candidate that was from outside their parental home towns. However, its likely they will always vote against candidates from either cholla/kyungsan depending on their parental home towns.