Who is Park Geun-hye?
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye of the Grand National Party (GNP) is often called Korea’s Joan of Arc who was a national heroine of France in the 15th century.
Park, 55, earned the nickname after she led the dead-end looking GNP win 121 seats in the 2004 National Assembly elections, following the Uri Party with 141 seats.
Before she assumed the post of party chairwoman, the GNP was literally in crisis.
The party was struggling against its corruption-ridden image.
Before the elections, the allegation that the party received a huge amount of illegal campaign funds from conglomerates hit the party.
In addition, the party’s failed impeachment against President Roh Moo-hyun faced severe backlash afterwards.
The whole situation was out of control and no one doubted the GNP had no future.
Park became party leader, amid the sweeping defeatist atmosphere.
During the campaigns for the 2004 Assembly elections, Park proved herself to be an ``exceptional’’ leader.
Under her leadership, the conservative GNP became the main opposition party in the elections.
A question arises what is the source of her leadership.
She answered the question in her book, titled ``Adversity Is Part of Life, Truth Is the Guiding Light to My Life.’’ The book was published in 1998.
The publication is a collection of her essays which she kept between 1974 and 1993.
She admits her life as the eldest daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee has shaped her inner strength and brought her to what she is now.
Her mother, Yuk Young-su, was assassinated in 1974, and her father faced a similar fate about five years after her mother’s death.
``Had I known how my life would turn out in advance, I might have not plucked up the courage to come this far,’’ Park recalled.
She said the painful lessons she had learned in past decades had led her to seek true values, pleasure and goals in life.
She also said the inner strength has empowered her to keep those values cherished in her heart all her life.
One of the most distinctive political legacies of her father is that he spearheaded the country’s industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s.
In a speech to U.S. citizens in June 2005, President George W. Bush said that South Korea’s growth model has resulted in its citizens being able to live as affluently people in Europe.
``It is trade that provides the engine for development. Only 30 years ago, South Korea’s per capita GDP was equal to that of many African countries. Thanks to export-led growth, South Korea is as rich as many European countries,’’ Bush said.
Bush called for seeking the best practice for the third world. ``This example can be multiplied throughout the world and lift great numbers of people out of poverty.’’
Had she not been born the daughter of the President, Park, still single, said she would have liked to a have been a researcher in her spheres of interest.
She graduated from the electronics engineering department at Sogang University in Seoul and studied literature at the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan.