Korea's pragmatic new politics
South Korea's president, Roh Moo-hyun, has not had much of a honeymoon. Since taking office two months ago, he has had to navigate a nuclear crisis with North Korea. That has forced him to work closely with the United States - a difficult assignment at the best of times, but one that is even harder given the tide of anti-American sentiment that the president rode to office.
Yet, despite those handicaps, Mr Roh has made considerable progress. If the first few weeks are any indication, he may transform South Korean politics. If they are an anomaly, then his presidency will be a grim interlude, as South Korea slides into paralysis and decline in the face of mounting political and economic troubles.
Mr Roh took office with a lengthy list of handicaps. He is an inexperienced politician who has lost many more elections than he has won. His country is bitterly divided: he won the presidency with a mere 3 per cent margin; traditional regional cleavages persist; and generational differences have become increasingly sharp. His party, the Millennium Democratic Party, is a minority in the national assembly, and it, too, is deeply divided.
The US, South Korea's main ally for half a century, is suspicious of the new president. Mr Roh has called for the removal of US forces, criticised his predecessors for kowtowing to officials in Washington and appealed to anti-American sentiment during his election campaign. However, after winning the December ballot, Mr Roh set out to quiet concerns about his commitment to the US-South Korea alliance.
He visited the joint forces command and reaffirmed the importance of the bilateral relationship to South Korean and regional security. A stream of emissaries was dispatched to reinforce that message. Statements by Mr Roh and his foreign ministry have underscored his government's readiness to work with the US to ensure that the Korean peninsula remains nuclear-free, ending fears that the North might be able to divide the two allies. He also fought for, and won, a vote to dispatch South Korean noncombatant troops to Iraq.
Mr Roh has appointed a conservative prime minister in an effort to reach out to the centre and the opposition. He also agreed to establish a special prosecutor to investigate charges that the historic June 2000 summit between former president Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was essentially bought by the South.
The opposition Grand National Party, which controls the legislature, had demanded the investigation as the price for confirmation of the prime minister. Mr Roh's willingness to accommodate the opposition on this point is a positive indication of his pragmatism.
Mr Roh's readiness to compromise could herald a new phase in Korean politics. Traditionally, political competition in South Korea has been seen in zero-sum terms.
The creation of a centrist government will be particularly important if Mr Roh is to proceed with the economic reform agenda he promised in the campaign. Economic reform is becoming increasingly urgent; the last administration's efforts ran out of steam as Kim Dae-jung's popularity dwindled. That should be a lesson to Mr Roh.
Mr Roh has another good reason to play to the centre: National Assembly elections will be held next year, and a reform-minded president who claims the middle ground could have some lengthy coat-tails. Turning compromise into a virtue rather than a vice would truly mark the transformation of South Korean politics and the consolidation of South Korean democracy.
Brad Glosserman is director of research at Pacific Forum CSIS, a Honolulu-based think-tank [email protected]