Left Flank

Comparing The Economist's less diplomatic opinion of President Lee Myung-bak with immediate reactions highlights what those snap judgments slighted.

The president, elected last December, has made a poor start to his five-year term.

Mr Lee, cleared this month of any wrongdoing in a failed investment scheme, nevertheless faces public suspicion over the past business dealings that made him a multimillionaire. And some of his nominees for cabinet posts are already under clouds. Three of his ministerial choices—for sex equality, «unification» (ie, dealings with North Korea) and the environment—have resigned over criticism of their property dealings. This is a highly sensitive issue in Seoul, where many cannot afford to buy their own homes. Some of his nominees' children are foreign citizens. One was thus able to dodge the mandatory military service. This has raised hackles. Most South Koreans cannot afford to send their children abroad to acquire foreign passports.

Most economists think Mr Lee's bold promise of 7% annual growth is optimistic. His plan to build a canal system on the peninsula has united a coalition of civic and political groups in opposition. And his call for a «pragmatic not ideological'' relationship with North Korea has perturbed American leaders. In addition, Mr Lee has had to scale back his plans to trim the bureaucracy. Instead of 13 government ministries there will be 15, down from 18 under his predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun.

The president's difficulties are compounded by his shallow political base. In a pun on the name of a famous actress, South Koreans call it «Ko So Young». «Ko» refers to his alma mater, Korea University, which has supplied him with prospective ministers and aides; «So» to the church he attends; and «Young» to the south-east of the Korean peninsula, which voted for him in huge numbers largely because Mr Roh is widely loathed in the region.

Even within the GNP, Mr Lee has few allies. Party heavyweights have long viewed him as an upstart without their own conservative convictions.

Korea Report concurs with this perspective on Lee's ethically-challenged cabinet nominees. It's unfortunate, but ROK is a country tired with partisan fractiousness looking for leaders who aren't contemptuous of average South Koreans and the law.

The political storm surrounding Lee's nominees was triggered by a new law requiring high-ranking officials to disclose their personal assets. Declarations from the Cabinet nominees and data leaked to the media show that most of Lee's nominees owned two or more houses, some with extensive tracts of land suggesting that they may have been engaged in speculation.

Now, Lee's choice of Han Seung-soo for prime minister hangs by a thread, with the nominee wounded by allegations of property speculation and tax evasion. A parliamentary vote is scheduled Friday.

And on Wednesday, two Cabinet nominees withdrew just hours before what were expected to be deeply embarrassing parliamentary hearings on their appointments.

Park Eun-kyung, nominated for environment minister, stepped back after reports that she once sold property zoned as farmland to a developer.

To avoid speculation, South Korean law requires that such land be farmed at least 90 days a year. Park had never been a farmer.

Nam Joo-hong, a professor nominated to lead the ministry responsible for unification issues with North Korea, withdrew after reports that his wife owned a ginseng field north of Seoul worth $2.2 million. The revelation was a damaging blow to an appointment already in trouble because of Nam's fierce opposition to rapprochement with North Korea, and from news that his son had acquired U.S. residency, gaining an exception from compulsory military service.

Those pullouts followed Sunday's announcement by putative gender equality minister Lee Chun-ho that she was withdrawing her name because of questions about real estate speculation. She and her sons were found to own more than 40 properties across the country.

All three former nominees blamed the media and opposition parties for using South Koreans' suspicions about real estate to taint them with what they said were unfounded allegations.

There are some who would argue that these rescinded nominations are the result of substantive policy disagreements (for another view, read Seoul Searcher's "It Must Go"). Yet even if both pundits are correct about ideological differences over DPRK policy, that doesn't explain the fracas over the Gender Equality and Environment ministries. More constructively, Brendan Carr analyzes the causes for ROK's precious real estate.

So just to be conservative, let's say that W50 million accounts for the «extra construction cost» necessary to complete that 34-pyong apartment. Construction, then, takes us to just around W200 million. That's in no way a bargain, by the way—we're talking about a 900 sq. ft. box (and the basic fit-out is real çráp, too). According to the math, the greatest contributor to the balance of the average apartment price is the cost of land. In an earlier Korea Law Blog entry (August of last year), I noted how Seoul apartments of the size we're talking about here sell for an average price of W570 million—this Maeil Kyungjae report says that price is comprised of W200 million for the apartment, W370 million for the minuscule slice of the land underlying the apartment tower.

Rot in, rot out.