Leftward lurch

last updated 8 January 2015

Seoul

South Korean voters yanked their country to the left last week, electing a party that favors rapprochement with North Korea. The winning Uri Party, which tripled its number of seats in parliament to become its largest party, also advocates softening South Korea’s traditionally strong alliance with the U.S. Most Uri voters are in their 20s and 30s, too young to remember the bloody war that brought U.S. troops to the Korean peninsula, and many of them want the troops to leave. Those young voters were angered by the recent impeachment of President Roh Moo-Hyun, a Uri supporter, which was widely seen as politically motivated. The new parliament is now expected to pressure the Constitutional Court to overturn the impeachment.