SOUTH KOREA: Landslide for Stone Face

SOUTH KOREA Landslide for Stone Face

South Korean President Chung Hee Park, 54, was so certain of victory in his bid for a third four-year term that while the vote was still being counted he journeyed to central Korea to give thanks at the shrine of the great 16th century Korean admiral, Yi Sun Sin. He was not being foolishly overconfident. When all the ballots had been tabulated, “Stone Face”—as the unsmiling Park is popularly known—had defeated his flamboyant opponent, Dae Jung Kim, 46, by 947,000 votes.

Corruption Charges. Despite the landslide, it was the hardest-fought election in South Korea’s postwar history. The challenger, a newspaper publisher turned politician who has been elected to the National Assembly three times, excited Korean voters with his flair for baby kissing, dramatic rhetoric, mudslinging, and boundless ability to concoct campaign promises. Kim zeroed in on the corruption that plagues the regime. “More than 300 of Park’s top men have made up to $100 million each under his rule!” he cried. “As long as President Park remains in power, corruption will not be rooted out of Korea.”

Park, a scrupulously honest man who has led an almost spartan existence while in office, has been unable to control corruption in his regime. At least one Cabinet minister and about two dozen top officials of his ruling Democratic Republican Party have been living in an exotic residential area that local newspapers called a “thieves’ town.” All Park could do was force them to give up their luxurious apartments. In his humorless campaign speeches, Park concentrated on the country’s security problems. He quashed the idea of dealing with the North in the foreseeable future. Instead, he insisted that North Korea was poised for another attack on the South. “The situation is reminiscent of the eve of the Korean War,” he said. Park also pointed to the great economic gains made during his regime. In the last ten years, South Korea’s per capita income has more than tripled (to $223), the G.N.P. has soared from $1.8 billion to $7.2 billion. He called for more hard work under a new five-year economic program. He promised: “By the end of the forthcoming economic plan, every straw-thatched home in Korea will have its roof replaced by shiny tiles.”

Changing Situation. As nearly 80% of the country’s 15.5 million eligible voters went to the polls, South Korea’s fear of the North probably proved the decisive factor. That fear has grown since the advent of the Nixon Doctrine, under which the U.S. has already withdrawn 20,000 of its 64,000 troops; South Korean soldiers now stand guard along the entire 155-mile Demilitarized Zone. To soften the impact of the U.S. withdrawals, Washington has promised the South Koreans $315 million annually over the next five years in aid and equipment to modernize the obsolete weaponry used by ROK (Republic of Korea) forces. South Korean pilots are already flying a new squadron of Phantoms, and a plant is being built to manufacture M-16 rifles. But the South Koreans, who have made anti-Communism into a state religion, have been further upset by the possibility of a diplomatic thaw between the U.S. and China. Most South Korean voters felt that Park was best prepared to cope with the changing situation.