Supporters of S. Korea’s Roh Push Legislature to the Left

South Korean voters elected the most left-leaning National Assembly in the nation’s history Thursday in what was widely seen as a rebuke to conservative lawmakers who last month voted to impeach President Roh Moo Hyun.

Bolstered by support from young voters, Roh’s loyalists narrowly gained control of parliament, winning 152 of 299 seats.

In addition, an unabashedly left-wing party, the Democratic Labor Party, entered parliament with an expected 10 seats of its own -- an outcome that will make it the third-most-powerful faction in the legislature.

The overall tilt left could make South Korea more independent of the U.S. and more determined to pursue peaceful coexistence and dialogue with communist North Korea. But analysts said that the most immediate effect would probably be felt in domestic politics and that changes in foreign policy would probably be subtle and gradual.

The outcome also should bolster Roh’s efforts to win his job back. South Korea’s Constitutional Court, which is reviewing the March 12 impeachment proceedings, will be hard-pressed not to reinstate the president given the electorate’s support.

“He will be back by the end of next month and stronger than before, with a real mandate to govern,” predicted political scientist Hahm Sung Deuk of Korea University in Seoul. “This time, he will be a full president who has to take responsibility for running this country.”

Roh, 57, a self-educated labor lawyer, had served barely one year of his five-year term when the National Assembly voted to impeach him for a minor election-law violation. Since the impeachment vote, he has been suspended from his official duties pending the court ruling. Prime Minister Goh Kun has been serving as acting president.

Goh met today with Vice President Dick Cheney, who was visiting on the third stop of an Asian trip. But with the South Korean government in transition, the visit was expected to be little more than a courtesy call.

Among the pressing issues facing the allies are North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and the war in Iraq. South Korea has promised to send 3,000 troops to Iraq in addition to the 600 in place -- a pledge that is expected to be kept despite the election results.

Moon Chung In, a South Korean academic with close ties to the Roh administration, said the country’s foreign policy would not be affected by the vote.

“There will be continued close coordination between Washington and Seoul on North Korea. Our dispatch of troops to Iraq will go forward as planned. I think you will see a more coherent, more confident Roh Moo Hyun but no major changes in foreign policy,” Moon said.

Roh could find himself challenged from the left. The Democratic Labor Party, which is closely tied to militant labor unions, is strongly opposed to South Korean participation in Iraq and is likely to flex its new political muscle.

“This is a contentious democracy. Korean politics will remain tumultuous despite the election,” said Scott Snyder, a researcher with the Asia Foundation think tank in Washington.

The president also faces implacable opposition from older voters and members of the traditional elite, many of whom view him as an upstart and a dangerous radical.

“There are a lot of intellectuals and high-class people who feel we need to protect ourselves against a party that has communist tendencies,” sniffed Choi Ok Ju, a voter in her 50s who was emerging from a polling place in an upscale Seoul neighborhood.

The conservative Grand National Party, the standard-bearer of anticommunism in South Korea, lost its majority in the National Assembly but will remain a powerful force. In fact, under the leadership of Park Geun Hye, the popular daughter of former dictator Park Chung Hee, the party did far better than initially expected by garnering 121 seats.

The biggest loser in the election was the Millennium Democratic Party of former President Kim Dae Jung, which won just nine seats.

The pro-Roh Uri Party, which by itself will have a slim majority, was most popular with voters in their 20s and 30s. Interviews outside polling stations indicated that younger voters were less swayed by specific policies than by a style of governing that represented a break from South Korea’s traditional politics.

“The younger generation want new faces who are not corrupt and do not belong to the power structure of the past,” said Koo Seong Mi, a 27-year-old architect who said she voted for the Uri Party.

Mindful of the younger generation’s distaste for politicians, the parties tried to bring in newcomer candidates from academia and business. The number of women in the assembly will increase to 39 from 16. Many new members were student radicals during the struggles against military dictators in the 1980s.

Kim, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with North Korea, was also a former dissident. But his ability to pursue a reformist agenda was limited by the conservative legislature.

Roh’s supporters hope not only that he will be reinstated but also that over the next four years he can work with a like-minded legislature to reform the political process -- for example, weakening the links between the parties and big business.

“This election means that the old political forces that have dominated South Korean politics for 44 years are forced to leave the stage, and signals the beginning of new politics,” Uri leader Chung Dong Young said.

Jinna Park of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.