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South Koreans vote, with one eye on North Korea
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People wait for their turns to cast their ballots at a polling station in Seoul June 2, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Jo Yong-Hak
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Koreans voted in regional polls on Wednesday, a barometer of support for President Lee Myung-bak as he tries to push through business-friendly reforms, with North Korea a key issue for the first time in years.
World | South Korea | North Korea
Voting under sunny skies for nearly 4,000 mayors, governors and local government representatives has been overshadowed by the March sinking of a South Korean naval vessel, which Seoul has blamed on the reclusive North, fuelling shrill rhetoric on both sides including threats of war.
Lee's uncompromising stand on the sinking has seen him and his Grand National Party (GNP) bounce back in opinion polls from a voter backlash after a decision to scrap a plan to shift a large part of the government from Seoul.
GNP candidates in the key capital region races, including the governor for the Gyeonggi province and mayor for the giant port city of Incheon, have shown double-digit leads over Democratic Party opponents. Lee told Chinese and Japanese leaders at the weekend that Seoul was not afraid of war, but did not want it, projecting the image of a government confident of its power and mindful of how mounting tension could unnerve international investors.
"The GNP has received a huge advantage from the ship sinking incident," said political analyst Yu Chang-seon.
Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said controlling cash flows into the North was the most effective "non-military measure" to ensure it is held accountable for the sinking of the corvette Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors.
"The United States is looking closely at counterfeit notes, drug and cigarette trafficking at the same as it is tightening existing sanctions," he told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
"Even without additional measures from U.N. Security Council, our government and friendly countries -- U.S., Japan and European Union -- could take effective sanctions against North Korea."
Pyongyang has accused Lee of fabricating the sinking for political gain ahead of the elections and threatened war if further sanctions are imposed.
"SLEDGEHAMMER BLOWS"
North Korea's National Reconciliation Council appealed to voters in the South to "deal sledgehammer blows at the Lee Myung-bak pro-U.S. conservative group."
"The 'elections' are an intermediary judgment to be meted out to the group," North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted the council as saying. "The past two years and several months of the Lee group's office were days of disgrace, tribulation, pain and catastrophe."
Last week, the North accused the South of driving a decade of developing ties into the ground and said it would scrap all pacts between the two sides, including military agreements guaranteeing safety of commercial exchange.
The liberal opposition in Seoul has blamed Lee for provoking tension after a decade of warming ties, with slogans harking back to the Sunshine Policy of the two previous liberal leaders who gave massive aid to the destitute northern neighbor.
But Lee made no secret of his plans to leave the country better prepared for eventually absorbing the destitute North.
"People tend to think in terms of conflict and confrontation, but we are going to need a security strategy with unification in mind," he told a cabinet meeting.
Lee has established job creation as a top priority for the year and a smooth exit from massive fiscal spending that has pushed Asia's fourth-largest economy out of the global downturn ahead of peers at a faster pace than expected.
Lee has seen his pro-business agenda held up in parliament since he came to office in early 2008 for a single five-year term after a summer of protests that year over his decision to allow a resumption of U.S. beef imports.
A proposal to move parts of the country's central government to a newly constructed city about one hour south of Seoul angered the opposition and created deep rifts even inside his own party. But Lee's decision to scrap the plan also lost him voter support in the swing states in the central region.
Results of exit polls are expected to start coming in around 6 p.m. (0900 GMT). The turn-out rate at midday was 27 percent.
"There are too many candidates," Yonhap news agency quoted Yoo Jung-sang, 52, as he voted in the spring sunshine in Seoul. "But there is no information on the candidates on the voting paper. I am confused with who's who just with their names."
(Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)
World
South Korea
North Korea
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