ROK elects first female president
Updated: 2012-12-20 07:48
By Zhao Shengnan (China Daily)
|
|||||||||
Park is different from most accomplished ROK women, who started from the ground level and have been victims of discrimination, because "she reached her current position thanks to her father's political glory", Kim Hyun-young, a professor of gender studies at Kookmin University in Seoul, told the London-based The Independent.
But her father's "glory" failed to help her defeat President Lee Myung-bak in the New Frontier Party's leadership running in 2007. Her father's push for industrialization and suppression of dissent became obstacles in the race.
Moon has refused to visit the grave of Park Chung-hee, who put him in prison, and criticized Park Geun-hye for enjoying a luxurious life in the presidential mansion and not understanding the difficulties of ordinary people.
Park, who has never married, recently apologized for her father's deeds, but she also described his coup as "unavoidable and the best possible choice".
Karl Friedhoff of Seoul's Asan Institute for Policy Studies said he believed Park's family ties will not be decisive in the election.
"She has introduced a bill into the National Assembly that victims of her father's rule deserve compensation. But the opposition continues to try to tie her to it," he told the UK Guardian newspaper. Park's 15 years in parliament has often been eclipsed by her background, the newspaper said.
Told of her father's death, she is said to have responded, "Is the border secure?" She has a faint scar on her right cheek from a box-cutter attack she survived while campaigning in 2006 for a seat in the National Assembly.
"We can't say she did this only because of her father," Kim Won-hong, a researcher at Korean Women's Development Institute, told the The Globe and Mail in Toronto.
A Park victory would also represent a major symbolic breakthrough in a region underpinned by Confucianism that says women should be obedient to their husbands, The Independent said.
According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum, the ROK ranks 108th among 135 countries in gender equality.
zhaoshengnan@chinadaily.com.cn
Related stories:
ROK presidential rivals make final election pitch
ROK's Park tries to make history
ROK election holds a lot of keys
ROK may see first female leader
Related pictures:
Polls open in ROK's presidential election
- Relief reaches isolated village
- Rainfall poses new threats to quake-hit region
- Funerals begin for Boston bombing victims
- Quake takeaway from China's Air Force
- Obama celebrates young inventors at science fair
- Earth Day marked around the world
- Volunteer team helping students find sense of normalcy
- Ethnic groups quick to join rescue efforts
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
Supplies pour into isolated villages |
All-out efforts to save lives |
American abroad |
Industry savior: Big boys' toys |
New commissioner
|
Liaoning: China's oceangoing giant |
Today's Top News
Health new priority for quake zone
Xi meets US top military officer
Japan's boats driven out of Diaoyu
China mulls online shopping legislation
Bird flu death toll rises to 22
Putin appoints new ambassador to China
Japanese ships blocked from Diaoyu Islands
Inspired by Guan, more Chinese pick up golf
US Weekly
Beyond Yao
|
Money power |