Word: lee
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...Lee's rivals are hoping that the BBK scandal could help swing undecided voters away from him; according to the Korea Times, as of last week one-quarter of voters still hadn't made up their minds. Still, many observers are skeptical that the National Assembly investigation, even with such bombshell timing, will have much of an effect on the vote. "I don't think it will change the outcome of the election," says Paik Haksoon, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, a Seoul-based think tank. However, he adds, "it could lower support for Lee significantly." Assuming Lee...
...famous for dramatic events in the eleventh hour, and this presidential election is proving to be no different. On Monday, just two days before the Dec. 19 polls, Korea's parliament, the National Assembly, approved a plan to open an investigation into allegations of fraud against presidential front-runner Lee Myung Bak. The Assembly greenlighted the probe after a video surfaced over the weekend of a lecture Lee gave in 2000, in which he claimed that he set up Korean investment firm BBK, a connection he had previously denied. Kim Kyung Joon, the head of the company and Lee...
...sharp blow for a candidate who the latest polls say is set for an easy victory. Lee's camp responded by saying their candidate had "exaggerated" his involvement with the company in the video, and reiterated that Lee did not found BBK. But despite renewed questions over his possible involvement in the stock scandal, most observers believe a Lee victory is still all but certain. With outgoing President Roh Moo Hyun deeply unpopular because of his perceived failures to create more job opportunities or to combat rising housing prices, Korea's electorate seems more eager for a leader...
...Indeed many Koreans admire Lee, a can-do former Seoul mayor and rags-to-riches industry tycoon with a personal fortune estimated at $38 million (making him the wealthiest among the presidential candidates). Lee grew up in a poor family in the east coast town of Pohang, became a senior executive at the conglomerate Hyundai at age 36 and played a role in the nation's rapid economic development in the 1970s and '80s. As mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2006, Lee won praise for his management of the city, putting an end to recurring subway strikes and creating...
...Japan is getting little help from its neighbors. While Lee Myung Bak, the conservative-leaning Seoul mayor widely tipped to win South Korea's Presidential elections on Dec. 19, is expected to take a harder line with the North generally, Japan's single-minded focus on the abductions makes South Korean observers squirm. Kim Hyun Ho, director of the Chosun Ilbo Research Institute for Korea, notes that while Seoul claims more than 480 abducted citizens of its own, it worries that such a "very political" issue could cloud ongoing nuclear negotiations. "South Korea doesn't want this...