Roh Changed Politics, Embraced North Korea
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The late President Roh Moo-hyun, who rose to power as champion of students and left-leaning citizens upping the ante on the country's decades-long authoritarian rule, tasted both achievements and setbacks in his ``reform'' initiatives.
Most political observers agree that the human rights lawyer-turned-politician, in particular, achieved success in his efforts to make the presidency less imperial as well as cleaning up the nation's political and election systems, though many of his agenda items were challenged by opponents and stirred up controversy.
During his five-year tenure from 2003 to 2008, Roh also put a strong emphasis on cutting connections between big businesses and politicians, and won success in that effort, too. But ironically, he killed himself following a bribery case allegedly involving him and his family members.
``Though Roh ended his life miserably at last after falling into a trap on morality that he emphasized, we can't discount his efforts during office to improve transparency in all sectors of society,'' said Professor Choi Jin-woo of Hanyang University in Seoul.
Professor Im Hyeok-baek of Korea University said unlike his predecessors, Roh didn't try to use powerful government agencies, such as the prosecution, or the spy and tax agencies, to attain his political goals.
``Roh will be recorded as the first President who `democratized the presidency' and sought to remove authoritarian presidential leadership,'' Im said.
On the dark side, however, Roh's presidency was riddled with controversy and feuds with political opponents. Critics say he often made political gambles and too often devoted himself to ideological disputes, such as the abolishment of the anti-communist National Security Law and the revision of the Private School Law.
In his first year in office, Roh called for a vote of confidence and vowed to step down if he failed to win public support. The Constitutional Court said the latter proposal was unlawful.
In March 2004, Roh was impeached by a coalition of opposition parties over his televised remarks explicitly supporting a party formed by his supporters before the National Assembly elections.
The coalition led by then major opposition Grand National Party (GNP) claimed Roh violated the election law that mandates presidential impartiality in parliamentary elections.
Roh was later reinstated after the Constitutional Court ruled against the impeachment and his Uri Party won a majority of seats in the Assembly.
After a brief surge in popularity after the impeachment, however, Roh became dogged by allegations of incompetence again by pushing controversial policies.
A case in point is his unsuccessful bid to relocate most government ministries to the south of the capital to achieve balanced regional development. The Constitutional Court ruled against the plan later.
Roh's ``grand coalition'' proposal to the conservative GNP was also controversial. After a series of defeats in the parliamentary elections, the liberal leader, who was suffering from support below 20 percent, offered the opposition GNP a stake in the country's management if a coalition was successfully launched.
The GNP repeatedly rejected the offer and many liberal supporters also turned their backs on Roh.
Later, Roh was accused of mishandling economic policies. He failed to slow down runaway property prices and economic polarization was deepened. His tax policy affecting the rich backfired.
On foreign affairs, Roh, who won the 2002 presidential election by riding a wave of anti-American sentiment, focused on being more independent from traditional ally, the United States.
He pushed to take back wartime operational control of the country's troops from the U.S. military at an early date, which was vehemently opposed by conservative forces.
Roh sustained the ``sunshine policy'' of engaging the North but was often criticized for just giving to the North and not getting anything from it. He held a second inter-Korean summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2007.