Political Change in South Korea: The Challenge of the Conservative Alliance

Abstract

A revolutionary change has been made in South Korean politics under the Sixth Republic. On January 22, 1990, President Roh Tae Woo and the two opposition leaders, Young Sam and Jong Pil, jointly announced the creation of a new governing party, the Democratic Liberal Party (DLP), thus leaving the largest opposition party, led by Dae Jung, in isolation. The precarious one-Roh, threeKim four-party system, which had lasted for almost two years, was suddenly abandoned, and a new asymmetric three-party system in the form of a oone-Roh, two-Kim grand alliance versus one Kim (and one Lee) has emerged. ' Given the traditional pattern of hostile zero-sum confrontation between the government and the opposition, the new political experiment signifies drastic chemical as well as physical changes in South Korea's body politic. The impact of the surprise merger is indeed far-reaching. Domestically, the pace of the democratization process is now dominated by the new ruling party with its nearly three-quarters parliamentary majority. InterKorean relations are more regulated by the new conservative alliance in the South under less influence from the opposition. Externally, South Korea's relations with the U.S. are becoming more subtle as the political base of Seoul's bargaining position has been strengthened commensurately. On the other hand, its relations with Japan are becoming more pragmatic as the two governments are now under comparable political structures. In addition, the Nordpolitik of South Korea is being accelerated because of reduced concern about the negative domestic political feedback.