Incumbents, Beware; Korean voters have turned on politicians--all of them. Voters relish the chance to toss them from office.

Byline: B. J. Lee

Politicians are not very popular anywhere these days. But in South Korea, they are truly loathed. Two weeks ago opposition Grand National Party (GNP) leader Park Geun Hye, daughter of the former dictator Park Chung Hee, was attacked by a 50-year-old man wielding a box cutter while she was making a campaign appearance in Seoul on behalf of another candidate. Park, a strong contender for next year's presidential election, was rushed to a hospital for a 60-stitch operation. The assailant's motive is unclear--but police investigators say the attack seemed to emanate from his personal animosity toward Park.

As Korean voters prepare to go to the polls on May 31 for crucial local elections, public resentment of politicians seems to be reaching a climax. According to a recent survey by Donga Ilbo, a Seoul daily, only 1 percent of South Koreans would favor politics as their children's future occupation--the lowest among 12 cited professions. Voters are fed up with seemingly endless corruption scandals: Even in this election, several lawmakers are being investigated for allegedly taking bribes from political hopefuls. Nasty and chronic bickering between political parties has further alienated the public. In the absence of any distinct issues, in fact, people's disillusionment with the nation's political class--dubbed "hate politics" by some commentators--seems to be the only real election issue.

Korea has perhaps the world's highest political turn-over rate. A very high percentage of incumbents are voted out of office regularly in local, provincial and national elections. In the 2004 parliamentary elections, for example, only one third of those elected to the National Assembly were incumbents--the lowest number in recent memory, say experts. By contrast, about 90 percent of U.S. members of the House of Representatives get re-elected, on average. And in other democracies, the re-election rate is 70 percent.

The top candidates in this week's elections--for city mayors, provincial governors and council members--are far removed from politics. Oh Se Hoon, the GNP candidate for Seoul mayor, is hugely popular and certain to win, mainly because he dropped out of politics, and the Parliament, two years ago when his re-election seemed ensured. Oh's competitor from the ruling Uri Party, Gang Geum Shil, won her primary largely because she's refused several offers of political appointment in recent years, opting to ...