What is Kongchŏn?

A campaign poster in Wŏnju for a candidate in Saenuri-dang, Korea’s conservative majority party. (Author’s own image)

It’s election season again in Korea! Campaign posters have gone up all over and candidates have begun meeting with voters in earnest. Local politicians are up for election this year, which includes city and provincial council members and city mayors. It’s an exciting time to be in Korea for a researcher of gender and politics, since this year is the first election after the inauguration of Korea’s first woman president, Park Geun-hye.

There’s a lot to look forward to in this year’s elections, but first we have to get through the kongchŏn stage of the pre-campaign process. For those unfamiliar with Korean politics, the kongchŏn causes a great deal of confusion. Bewilderment is a natural reaction given that the process differs by party, region, and election year. I will try to deconstruct the kongchŏn enigma, and hopefully it will help readers to understand some of the current events in Korean politics regarding the elections.

The Great Charade of Democracy: Minority Parties in Korea and the Kongchŏn Reform Debates

An enduring debate among Korean politicians has been the utility and fairness of the kongchŏn, or the Korean committee-based party candidate nomination system. The system is generally considered to be unfair, to the point of being downright corrupt. With each election comes renewed discussion of how to change the system. Newspapers and the political parties ask: Would primaries be a better option? How open should the primaries be? To what extent should the general public be involved in the candidate nomination process?

Despite their longevity, the kongchŏn debates prove time and again to be merely political spin.

The Vortex: Presidential Power in Korean Politics

The president’s centrality in Korean politics is often compared to a vortex. (Image from Wikimedia Commons.)

Korean politics has often been described as a “vortex.” It’s a word that’s come up often in my interviews with Korean politicians, and there’s even a book titled Korea: The Politics of the Vortex. But what is this vortex? How can a political system be a “vortex?” The answer lies in a study of the distribution of power in Korean politics, and the quick discovery that the president stands at the center of Korean political activity.