S. Korean conservative eyes upset in presidential vote
South Korean opinion polls suggest that the fall of Park Geun-hye, the country’s ousted, jailed president now awaiting a corruption trial, has doomed conservatives in next week’s presidential election.
An outspoken former governor, who touts himself as a « strongman, » looks to win an upset in next Tuesday’s election — and lift conservatives from a freefall.
The emergence of Hong Joon-pyo, 62, who represents Park’s Liberty Korea Party, is perhaps the most surprising development of the two-month presidential race following Park’s removal in March.
His rise shows that despite the street protests by millions that triggered Park’s ouster, South Korea remains deeply split over its future, something that will likely hamper whoever becomes its next leader.
Hong, formerly the governor of South Gyeongsang Province, has been trying to ride the public’s growing fear over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles. He also says he can hold his own against other « nationalist » leaders in Washington, Tokyo and Beijing.
Hong calls for the United States to bring back tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea after withdrawing such weapons in the 1990s, and also promises to create a marine special operations force capable of infiltrating North Korea and removing its leadership in the event of war.
He talks about holding a summit with President Donald Trump on the USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier the U.
