Lee`s Deregulation vs. Chung`s Inter-Korean Summit

The result of an analysis of the pledges of Grand National Party candidate Lee Myung-bak and United New Democratic Party candidate Chung Dong-young showed that, in the economic field, Lee stressed an agenda of economic revitalization through a market-centered expansion of private self-regulation in comparison to Chung.

In the inter-Korean relations, Chung is emphasizing an agenda of improving inter-Korean relations based on an engagement policy toward North Korea in comparison to Lee.

Dong-A Ilbo, eight professors of economics, and eight experts in inter-Korean relations came to those conclusions on both candidates’ policy directions based on their election pledges, with one month left to the candidate registration on November 25.

For the evaluation, the advisory professors graded candidates in 11 categories in economics and eight categories related to inter-Korean relations on a scale of 1 to 5. In the economic field, the higher the index, the more a candidate is likely to back policies that liberalize the private sector and are market-friendly. In the inter-Korean relations field, the higher the index, the more a candidate is likely to back engagement policies toward North Korea.

The experts predicted that candidate Lee, with the average index of 4.2 in the economic field, would make active efforts to back deregulation, tax cuts, job-creation, and the creation of an enterprise-friendly environment.

In particular, the test showed that Lee would likely favor strong de-regulation policies.

On the other hand, Chung scored an average of 2.6 in economic categories, and is anticipated to be lukewarm toward de-regulations for enterprises (1.6) and passive about tax cuts (2.0).

In the inter-Korean relations field, Chung scored an average of 3.8, and is likely to support a tax for subsidies to North Korea, and to ask the U.S. to yield in case of a North Korean dispute with the U.S.

Chung’s index scores were highest in the category of ‘Active Promotion for an Inter-Korean Summit.’ Meanwhile, Lee’s average index score in the inter-Korean relations field appeared to be 2.2, and he was evaluated as likely to refuse to respond to any North Korean request on redefining the Northern Limit Line (2), link subsidies for North Korea with denuclearization (1.9), and suspend subsidies for North Korea in case of a second nuclear test.

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