Daughter of former president is first female leader of South Korea

Thursday 20 December 2012

The daughter of a former military ruler has won South Korea’s presidential election and will become the country’s first female leader.

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Seoul

The 60-year old conservative, Park Geun-hye, will return to the presidential palace in Seoul where she served as her father’s first lady in the 1970s, after her mother was assassinated by a North Korean-backed gunman.

With more than 88% of the votes counted, Ms Park led with 51.6% to 48% for her left-wing challenger, human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in, giving her an unassailable lead that forced Mr Moon to concede. Her jubilant supporters braved sub-zero temperatures to chant her name and wave South Korean flags outside her house yesterday. She said she would work to heal a divided society, and told supporters at a rally in central Seoul: “This is a victory brought by the people’s hope for overcoming crisis and for economic recovery. Ms Park will take office for a mandatory single, five-year term in February and will face an immediate challenge from a hostile North Korea. She will have to deal with an economy in which annual growth rates have fallen to about 2%. She is unmarried and has no children, saying that her life will be devoted to her country. The legacy of her father, Park Chung-hee, who ruled for 18 years and transformed the country from the ruins of the 1950-53 Korean War into an industrial power-house, still divides Koreans. For many conservatives, he is South Korea’s greatest president and the election of his daughter vindicates his rule. His opponents dub him a dictator who trampled on human rights and stifled dissent. Ms Park has said she would negotiate with Kim Jong-un, the youthful leader of North Korea, but wants the South’s isolated and impoverished neighbour to give up its nuclear weapons programme.

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Daughter of former president is first female leader of South Korea

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