Sunday, September 23, 2012

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Progressives Love Progress, Right?

As I noted in my last post right here at Destination Pyongyang, this December’s presidential election is shaping up to be a fascinating battle, pitting as it does the rightwing dictator’s daughter Park Geun-hye against democracy activist and former human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in, and both of them against the entrepreneurial, philanthropic founder of AhnLab, Ahn Cheol-soo.

Such a triumvirate does not merely demand that the South Korean citizenry decide who they want to lead their country for the next five years, it also implicitly asks every voter to decide what kind of Republic of Korea they would prefer to live in.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

3-Way Election Battle Fun Is Go!

Yesterday, entrepreneur-turned-professor Ahn Cheol Soo finally declared his candidacy in the upcoming 18th South Korean presidential election. Although one could argue that the extended period of indecision which preceded the declaration doesn't bode well in terms of Ahn's decisiveness in the face of nasty, brutish and short Northeast Asian politics, it certainly did all us election watchers a favor because now we only have to follow the mud-slinging for three months or so before it's all over.