South Korea’s 2002 Presidential Election

South Korea had its 16th presidential election in December, 2002. The ruling Millenium Democratic Party’s candidate was Roh Moo-hyun and candidate of the largest opposition party—the Grand National Party—was Lee Hoi-chang. Roh won this election as a result of the hard-fought campaign by receiving 48.96% of votes over Lee with 46.54%. This election was very important for South Korean people because of the sharp divides in national opinion.

This presidential election was termed the “war of the generations” or “generational revolution.” The supporters of conservatism and liberalism were divided into “20s and 30s” and “over 40s” age groups. According to a Korea Gallup survey of 1,636 people on Election Day, 60.6 percent of those in their 20s and 60.5 percent in their 30s said they voted for Roh, while the Grand National Party's Lee Hoi-chang, his major opponent, garnered just 28.5 and 33.5 percent of the young voting generations, respectively. In addition 43.9 percent of people in their 40s and 28.4 percent of 50-year-olds voted for the eventual winner, while a respective 46.6 and 63 percent cast their ballots in favor of Lee. Clearly, there was a notable generational split.

The other important issue was how to deal with threatening neighbor, North Korea. In addition, South Korea’s relationship with America was also big issue. While Roh advocated for a negotiated solution to disarm North Korea, Lee supported President George W. Bush’s plan to isolate the communist state and its economy. The young generation of South Koreans has strong anti- America attitudes. They disagree with Lee’s idea of cooperating with America and risking conflict with North Korea.

One lesson from this election is that South Korean younger generation’s opinion is very different from her older generations. As they are the ones who are leading South Korea into the 21st century, however, we must pay attention to the change of South Korean new generations as well as its new president, Roh Moo-hyun.