Page 2 of
2 Korean race pitting capitalism
against conscience By Donald
Kirk
is that the South is getting
very little in return for its investment.
Companies plunging into North Korea, including
Kaesong, are making very little money or none at
all while the North dawdles and bargains endlessly
on living up to agreements reached at six-nation
talks on giving up its nukes.
Much to the
delight of GNP tacticians, Roh fell into
controversy, as he has a talent for doing, by
saying that the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the
Yellow Sea was not a real border as such, just
something the United Nations
Command had drawn on maps after the Korean War. A
pivotal element of the joint statement is to
create "a zone of peace" in the Yellow Sea where
North Korean boats could troll crab-rich waters
now claimed by South Korea.
The uproar
over Roh's conciliatory words was deafening. First
the defense minister and then the unification
minister, both of whom accompanied him to
Pyongyang, had to issue statements saying the
South had no notion of abandoning the NLL, over
which North and South Korean boats have twice
engaged in bloody battles in mid-1999 and
mid-2002. Hundreds of former military officers
signed a statement, and the Korea Veterans
Association calls the NLL a "symbol of
sovereignty".
Voters, though, may be more
concerned about two other issues that often escape
the notice of foreign observers. The most
important is economic. There is a widespread view
that Roh, promoting leftist policies, has held
back the chaebol, that is, the 60 or so
conglomerates that form the backbone of the Korean
economy, by imposing high taxes and keeping the
chaebol from acquiring banks, from which
they are legally banned from holding controlling
interests.
Lee's economic advisor, Kang
Man-soo says Lee's pledge is to "ease regulations
and create a business-friendly environment to
encourage companies and investors to expand
investment and create more jobs." In response to
complaints that the chaebol, a decade after
the economic crisis threw them into turmoil, are
bigger than ever, Kang says Lee plans to
encouraging small and medium enterprise, most of
which depend on chaebol entities to buy or
market their products. The result, he says, will
be another half million jobs.
Many voters
tend to respect Lee's judgment on the economy. He
did, after all, shoot up to the post of Hyundai
Engineering and Construction in its heyday in the
1970s, making it by far the biggest construction
company in Korea and ramming through projects
around the world, notably in the Middle East. He
was the right-hand man during that period for
Hyundai chairman Chung Ju-yung but left for
politics after Chung, who died in 2001, had long
since left no doubt he would divvy real control
over his holdings to his seven surviving sons.
Chung comes back with arguments that any
egalitarian liberal should appreciate. He accuses
Lee of "jungle capitalism" in which the rich stand
to get richer while the middle-class stay the same
and the poor get poorer - a view heard in every
country in the world. Taking his peace program
into the domestic realm, he says he espouses a
"peace economy" for all Korea, North and South.
If elected, Chung will "save capitalism
from the capitalists by enforcing rules and
ensuring fair competition", says a senior aide. In
the end, says Chung himself, 40 million of the 48
million South Koreans will be able to count
themselves as members of a strong middle class.
The other issue that comes into play is
the regional one. Chung, like Kim Dae-jung, is
from the southwestern Cholla region. Koreans
believe Cholla people are clannish, stick to
themselves and conspire in business. Cholla people
say they've been the victims of centuries of
discrimination from other Koreans.
The
regional issue is subtle. Roh himself is from the
southeast, not a son of Cholla, but the support he
had from Kim Dae-jung guaranteed him well over 90%
of the Cholla vote in the last election. This time
around, though, Cholla people have not rallied
strongly around Chung as one of their own, and
their turnout in the primaries that gave him the
nomination over two rivals was disappointingly
low.
Voters elsewhere may be able to
sublimate the "Cholla factor". As a TV news
anchorman, Chung became adept at disguising his
native Cholla accent, and he doesn't play much on
his origins as a "son of Cholla". Political
observers note, however, that he's able to revert
to a Cholla accent when pressing the flesh in his
native haunts.
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