SEOUL – South Korea’s ruling Grand National Party (GNP) chief resigned yesterday to take responsibility for a poor showing in local elections, trying to contain the impact on President Lee Myung-bak’s pro-business reforms.
Mr Lee said he would push through with his agenda, including cleaning up bureaucracy and cutting taxes, which analysts said was unlikely to be derailed by the unexpected strong performance by the opposition Democratic Party.
“The government needs to go back to the work of economic recovery and sustained growth,” Mr Lee told a meeting.
The Democratic Party won seven of 16 major races for the country’s largest cities and the provinces in an upset that surprised the GNP and analysts who had been expecting a large win for the conservative ruling party.
Mr Lee’s uncompromising stand against North Korea, after blaming it for sinking one of its navy ships, had seen him and the GNP bounce back in opinion polls from a voter backlash after a decision to scrap a plan to shift a large part of the government from Seoul, rows over US beef imports and a river project.
The GNP candidate narrowly defeated a Democrat in the race for Seoul mayor but the incumbent conservative lost in the giant port city of Incheon, just west of the capital. The party was also shut out in the rest of the country, except in its tradition stronghold of the southeast.
“We humbly accept the voice of the Korean people of rebuke,” GNP chief Chung Mong-joon told a leadership meeting.
“I want to take this chance to express my wish to resign.” – (Reuters)