Women Writing a New History of Korean Politics

Women are writing a new history of party politics in Korea. Ms Han Myung-sook, Former Prime Minister of Korea won the election on 15^th for party chairperson of the Democratic United Party, the biggest opposition party in Korea. She was the Prime Minister under the Roh Moo-hyun administration and received the most votes of the 770 thousand votes cast. Once civil rights movement activist, she will spearhead a general election in April and a presidential election in December together with the 5 newly elected Supreme Council Members.  

The election of chairperson and supreme council members of the Democratic United Party was held with on-site voting of a caucus of 21,000 council members (30%) plus an electoral college of ordinary people and ordinary party members (70%). The electoral college of ordinary people and members was a record-breaking scale in Korean party history that 120,000 party members and 650,000 ordinary people participated. For the electoral college of ordinary people, mobile application rating and mobile voting rating using smartphones and feature phones were reported 88.4% and 82.9% respectively suggesting active participation from people in the 20s to 40s.

Therefore, all the main parties of Korea now have women leaders, including Park Geun-hye of the Grand National Party, the current ruling party and Lee Jung-hee and Shim Sang-jung, co-leaders of the United Progressive Party.Ms Han was the first woman Prime Minister and also the first woman candidate for an election of Seoul Mayor in 2010.

Ms Park Geun-hye was Former Party Chairperson of the Grand National Party and she returned as a chairperson again in 5 years on 27 December last year as the Party faced a crisis. She is one of the leading candidates for a presidential election in December this year.

She is a daughter of the late President Park Jung-hee and lost the previous election of a presidential candidate by a narrow majority to the current President Lee Myung-bak. At the moment, she has a hold in several opinion polls.

Meanwhile, the United Progressive Party, the most liberal party in Korea, announced Chairpersons of Lee Jung-hee and Shim Sang-jung on 11December. They are also women who have led the feminist movement and the civil rights movement in Korea.

These women chairpersons will spearhead a general election campaign in April and will play a key role in a presidential election in December. They are offered the leading role in party and politics of Korea. Currently in Korea, women MPs are 40 out of 299, about 13%.

Park So-hye fristar@theasian.asia