Korea's Presidential Election - Part IV: The Road Ahead

Having discussed the three major candidates, this part of the series will discuss what is ahead for each candidate (and a former candidate) in the presidential race, which is now less than three weeks away.

Ahn Cheol-soo

Previously, Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo had agreed to unify their candidacy to create a single progressive candidate. Since then, the two candidates held and broke off several rounds of negotiations regarding the methodology of the unification. Finally, on November 23, 2012, Ahn abruptly withdrew his candidacy, ceding the progressive candidacy to Democratic United Party's Moon Jae-in.

As far as political aesthetics go, Ahn's move was an inspired one. Ahn's greatest asset as a politician was his image as the new breed of politician, heroically appearing to breathe a fresh air into the old politics. Ahn had no choice but to unite his candidacy -- otherwise, Moon and Ahn would split the progressive votes, guaranteeing Park Geun-hye's victory. But as Ahn grappled with Moon to negotiate the unification of the slate, the value of his prime asset -- i.e. the image -- began to erode. Fighting for every inch of advantage in the proposed mini-primary was the opposite of the "new politics". So was Ahn's attempt to court the DUP Assembly Members and supporters away from Moon. Ahn's numbers began to sink, and he was projecting to lose against Moon in the head-to-head battle. Even if Ahn managed to prevail over Moon, it would be a Pyrrhic victory -- by the time he would face Park Geun-hye, Ahn would have squandered away his prime political asset.

Faced with two unsavory choices, Ahn chose to sublimate. Ahn would not squander away his chief political asset to achieve an intermediate victory that may well turn out to doom his presidential run in the end, nor would he quietly lose to Moon and have a number attached to the margin of his loss. Instead, he would restore the damage that his asset has taken in the last two months -- he would withdraw, cleanly and without making a fuss, and declare his support for Moon Jae-in.

Although Ahn withdrew, his influence remains quite relevant. We have already witnessed his ability to serve as a king-maker -- Ahn did make Park Won-soon, a candidate with around 5% support, into a 53.4%-garnering juggernaut. Ahn did express his support for Moon Jae-in, but how Ahn will express that support going forward may just decide the election.

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Moon Jae-in

Moon Jae-in survived the first test -- becoming the unified candidate for the progressives. But the way Ahn Cheol-soo left the field is less than ideal, and Moon must now pick up the pieces.

The best scenario for Moon would have been to actually go through some type of voting or other measurement against Ahn -- the two candidates were discussing some type of survey to decided the winner -- followed by Ahn's enthusiastic support of the camp. This type of organic merging between the two candidates would have given Moon the maximum legitimacy as the unified candidate, and minimized the defection of Ahn's supporters. 

Instead, Moon is now looking like the vanguard of the old politics who railroaded the would-be reformer out of his way. According to a recent survey, majority of Ahn's supporters (52.6%) thought Ahn withdrew because he could not overcome the DUP's pressure. While majority of Ahn's supporters (56.8%) moved on to support Moon, a significant minority (18.9%) now supports Park Geun-hye. Still another significant number of Ahn's supporters fell into the "undecided" group. The "undecided" group, now lacking its star, may choose not to vote. Unless Moon manages to attract the disaffected Ahn's voters, he will lose to Park Geun-hye -- who is now leading majority of the head-to-head polls against Moon Jae-in by 2 to 3 percentage points. 

As of now, Ahn's support of Moon is lukewarm as well. Although it has been several days since Ahn withdrew, he did not yet make any public appearance. Also, rather than officially joining Moon's camp, Ahn is apparently planning to independently campaign for Moon -- further diminishing the possible synergy that Ahn could create for Moon. Ahn has indicated that he will campaign for Moon in a week or so, to maximize Ahn's contribution to Moon's victory. The fear, however, is that the help might come too late.

Meanwhile, the very unpopular presidency of Roh Moo-hyun continues to act as the millstone around Moon's neck. Conservative newspapers are already eager to paint Moon as the second coming Roh, which is not exactly unfair given Moon's close relationship to Roh Moo-hyun as a person as well as the president. Although Moon has a ready counterattack against Park Geun-hye by tying her to her father's legacy, it simply does not pack the same punch, as sufficient number of Koreans are quite satisfied with how they fared under Park Chung-hee.

Park Geun-hye

So, after a long detour, Korea's presidential election may have come back to where it was around three months ago: that is, Park Geun-hye's to lose. And Park's campaign is surely acting like it. For months, Park Geun-hye was on a steady march to the left -- she promised an expanded welfare state and abruptly changed her stance on her father's coup d'etat from "best possible choice" to "damages to constitutional values."

Yet, around a month ago, Park's campaign switched focus and began concentrating on galvanizing its base. It quietly dropped the slogan for "economic democratization," and dumped the prominent economic advisor Kim Jong-in who vocally called for chaebol reform. Park's campaign also began to raise questions about Roh Moo-hyun's handling of North Korea relations, which plays well for Korea's hawkish conservatives. Faced with another crisis in connection with her father's legacy -- this time, regarding the "scholarship foundation" that manages Park Chung-hee's leftover slush funds -- Park chose to stand tall, insisting that the foundation had nothing to do with her.

Park's campaign does have one message that is aimed for the undecided voters -- the "woman president" line. This message is working to some degree, especially among women voters in their 40s. To reinforce the message, Park has been focusing on "women-friendly" campaign promises, such as harsher prosecution for violence against women.

In sum, Park's campaign strategy is: (1) hold the base, and (2) win just enough undecided voters through the "woman president" line. It is quite Karl Rove-esque -- calculating, rather than inspiring. And it just might work.

The next parts of the series will go over major campaign promises, the minor candidates, and the Korean's endorsement.

Got a question or comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

AAK! PSA: Red Maria

Below is an interesting event in Seoul:

[Red Maria <레드마리아> film screening 상영회 + Q&A with Director Kyung Soon 경순 감독과의 대화]

★ YOU MUST RSVP via Email: womens.global.solidarity@gmail.com ★

In Korea, Japan and The Philippines, there are many women with diverse jobs and her stories. Among them, this film focuses on women who are called housewives, sex workers, dispatched workers, migrant workers, comfort women, homeless and so on. The camera tracks them as they go about their everyday lives. These women have never met one another, and their lives look quite different from one another. However, their lives are connected across national borders by the one thing they have in common. That's their bodies and labor. How can such different forms of labor be linked to the women's bodies in such a similar way? As we search for answers to this question, we are forced to confront another question: 'the meaning of labor' as an ideology that is reproduced in society.

* Entrance Fee: by donation at the door

* Languages: Korean, Japanese, Tagalog and English with English subtitles

* Naver map: http://me2.do/GDOEbSP

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/370272919729052/

The screening will be held at the Columban Mission Center.
Please note the center is very close to exit 4, and not on the University's campus.

To get to the center:
1) Take line 4 to the Sungshin Women's University Entrance 성신여자대학교입구) stop.
2) Go out exit 4 and a building with a traditional Korean roof (hanok) will be in front of you.
3) Go into the building and up to the second floor.

★ Due to a limited number of seats, you must RSVP to womens.global.solidarity@gmail.com and you will receive confirmation when your seat has been reserved.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Korea's Presidential Election - Part III: Ahn Cheol-soo

Part III of this series will discuss Ahn Cheol-soo, an independent candidate.

Ahn Cheol-soo (Independent)

Ahn Cheol-soo [안철수]
(source)

Ahn Cheol-soo was born in 1962, which makes him around ten years younger than both Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in. That fact, coupled with Ahn's biography, puts Ahn in a fundamentally different position from both Park and Moon. Unlike Park and Moon, Ahn is not tethered to Korea's tortured past of the 1970s -- which is one of the reasons why he has enjoyed such massive popularity as an independent.

Ahn was born in Busan. Ahn's childhood was unremarkable, which is actually remarkable for a middle-aged Korean. In the tumultuous times of Korea in the 1960s and 70s, few in Korea had a normal childhood. Recall that Park Geun-hye lost both her parents to political assassination, or that Moon Jae-in grew up in dire poverty in a Korean War refugee camp. In contrast, Ahn's youth had no drama. Ahn's father was a doctor who had (and still has) a small medical office in Busan. Ahn grew up living a comfortable but not lavish life, as a bookish student.

Ahn began his career as a research doctor after having graduated from Seoul National University school of medicine in 1986. Only four years later, he would serve as a dean of Danguk University school of medicine at age 27, the youngest dean in Korean higher education history. Ahn's research focus was in irregular heartbeat.

(More after the jump)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.





While attending college, Ahn began to develop what was then a rare hobby -- computer programming. Ahn saw a computer for the first time in 1982, and taught himself how to build computer programs. In 1986, Ahn encountered, for the first time, a program that was designed to destroy computers and floppy disks -- a new, deleterious program called "computer virus." Ahn read an article about computer virus in a magazine, and checked his own computer. And there it was -- a computer virus in his computer. First, Ahn manually removed the virus, and told those around him how to do the same. Later, in 1988, Ahn built a program that would automatically detect and remove computer virus, and named the program "V1", with "v" standing for "vaccine." V1 was one of the first anti-virus programs in the world, as the first documented case of anti-virus program was made in 1987.

What Ahn did next would warm the heart of every computer nerd. By day, Ahn continued his teaching career as a post-doctorate graduate student. By night, Ahn would update his antivirus program -- which gradually changed its name to V2, V2-Plus, etc. -- to fend off the latest wave of computer virus, and distributed the program for free. According to Ahn's wife, Ahn pulled an all-nighter updating the antivirus program on the night before he had to report to his military service, then barely made it to the training camp on time. He would continue this lifestyle for seven years.

In 1995, Ahn finally decided to abandon his career as a doctor and focus solely on programming by founding Ahnlab, Inc. his own company. Ahnlab continued to provide free antivirus programs for consumers, and only charged corporations for its programs. After struggling for the first few years, Ahnlab took off in 1999, as the age of high-speed Internet (and the attendant problems with computer virus) dawned upon Korea. Overnight, Ahn became a millionaire.

In 2005, Ahn resigned from his post as the CEO of Ahnlab, as he decided that he wanted to study further. He studied business for three years in Stanford and the Wharton School, and returned to Korea in 2008 as the professor of KAIST business school. In 2011, Ahn was appointed to be the dean of SNU's Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology.

Ahn's foray into politics began indirectly, and no one -- possibly, not even Ahn himself -- really knows whether Ahn intended to enter into politics. Ahn began to occupy Korea's public consciousness around 2009, thanks to a well-received television interview about his life. Beginning in mid-2011, Ahn began holding a series of "talk concerts," usually in a small, intimate theater in front of an audience of mostly 20- and 30-year-olds. In a "talk concert," Ahn would have a down-to-earth conversation with his friends on stage regarding the topics that are the most pressing for the audience. The audience came away impressed with Ahn's ability to simultaneously communicate with and inspire the people around him. His name was increasingly spoken with reverence.

Ahn's potential as a politician exploded onto Korea's political scene, when a person close to Ahn leaked to the press that Ahn was considering running for Seoul's mayoral seat in September 2011. The torrent of support for Ahn was unprecedented in its speed and scale in Korean political history, which is quite a statement considering its wild volatility. After the news leaked -- but before Ahn made any official statement -- every poll showed an overwhelming lead for Ahn as the favorite for the mayoral seat, with over 50% of those who were surveyed supporting Ahn.

But in a shocking move, Ahn declared that he would not run; instead, he would support an independent candidate named Park Won-soon, a former human rights lawyer who was barely polling at 5%. As it turned out, the Ahn Cheol-soo sensation was transferable; overnight, Park's support shot up to over 50% as well. Park Won-soon cruised to victory, winning 53.4% of all votes. The Ahn Cheol-soo phenomenon would live on for the next year, gripping Koreans with will-he-or-won't-he questions about the upcoming presidential election. Finally, Ahn ended all suspense by declaring his candidacy for president in September of this year.

Although Ahn remained independent and did not join any party, he made quite clear from the beginning of his political career that he stands opposed to the conservative NFP, labeling them as the corrupt practitioners of the "old politics." Ahn had less disdain for the DUP, but only slightly. While Ahn broadly shared the stated policy goals of the progressives -- i.e. greater regulation of Korea's conglomerates, expansion of the welfare state, etc. -- Ahn also branded the 10-years of DUP's rule previous to the current presidents' as another variation of the old politics.

Ahn's candidacy had an immediate impact: it stopped dead the momentum of Park Geun-hye, who had been the front-runner in the polls for months. In polls after polls (assuming a head-to-head race between Park and Ahn,) Ahn would easily lead Park by double-digits. This result re-energized Korea's progressives, who were all but resigned to the coming Park Geun-hye presidency. Ahn's ascendancy also gave a new focal point for the factions within the DUP that did not wish to follow Moon Jae-in's lead.

However, Ahn could not simply run for the presidency alongside Moon Jae-in. Doing so would divide the progressive votes, which then would guarantee Park Geun-hye's victory. After some negotiation, Moon and Ahn agreed to unify their candidacy earlier this month. The result of that negotiation may well determine the outcome of this presidential election.

Next part will discuss the current lay of the land for the campaign, and what each campaign must do to emerge victorious.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Korea's Presidential Election - Part II: Moon Jae-in

Part II of this series will discuss Moon Jae-in, candidate from the Democratic United Party.

Moon Jae-in (Democratic United Party)
 

Moon Jae-in [문재인]
(source)

Moon Jae-in is one of the two chief rivals against Park Geun-hye in the upcoming presidential election. And like Park, Moon's political identity is tied to a polarizing figure of the past -- i.e. his old boss and closest friend, former president Roh Moo-hyun.

Moon is a National Assemblyman of the Democratic United Party, the progressive minority party of the National Assembly. He represents Busan's Sasang-gu. Moon Jae-in was born in 1953 in Geoje, an island in the southeastern coast of Korea. Moon was born in a refugee camp toward the end of Korean War. (Moon's parents was from Heungnam, North Korea.) His family later moved to Busan, where Moon spent most of his childhood.

The seeds of Moon's entry into politics were sown the same way as most progressive politicians of Korea -- as a student activist. Moon entered Kyunghee University in 1972, when the tyranny of Park Chung-hee dictatorship reached its height. In October 17, 1972, Park declared martial law; two months later, Park unveiled the new "constitution" that essentially made him a lifetime president who can disband the legislature and suspend constitutional protections at any time. As one of the leaders of Kyunghee's student government, Moon organized and led protests against Park Chung-hee's dictatorship. For his activism, Moon was arrested and imprisoned numerous times.

Moon passed the bar in 1980. (He learned that he passed in the bar while being held in prison.) In 1982, he graduated second in class from the Judicial Training and Research Institute, which meant that he should have been appointed as a judge. But the court -- under the thumb of Chun Doo-hwan dictatorship at the time -- passed on Moon due to his history of activism. Moon would then enter into private practice by joining a law office in Busan. The managing partner of the law office was a man named Roh Moo-hyun.

At the beginning of his practice, Roh was a tax attorney who earned enough for a very comfortable life. (His hobbies included yachting.) But by the time Moon joined the firm, Roh was considered one of the leading legal minds for the democratization movements, thanks to his pro bono representation of 22 Busan-area activists who were beaten, waterboarded and electrocuted for as long as 63 days. With Roh Moo-hyun, Moon Jae-in primarily represented democracy and labor activists. Even after Roh entered into politics in 1988, Moon took over the practice and continued to work as a civil rights attorney. Although Roh pestered Moon for more than a decade to join him in politics, Moon did not enter into politics until 2002, when Roh was elected president. Moon joined Roh Moo-hyun's Blue House, eventually serving as Roh's chief of staff.

After the rocky presidency of Roh ended in 2007, Moon returned to his law practice. When Roh committed suicide in 2009, Moon directed Roh's funeral, and later chaired the Roh Moo-hyun memorial foundation. In 2011, Moon published a very well-received autobiography, Moon Jae-in's Destiny [문재인의 운명]. Finally, in April 2012, Moon officially entered into popular politics by winning a National Assembly seat. Despite being a relative newcomer, Moon swept the DUP's presidential primaries, muscling aside the grizzled veterans of progressive electoral veterans.

As evident from Moon's biography, Moon's political identity is inseparable from Roh Moo-hyun. And as with his rival Park Geun-hye, this association both benefits and damages Moon's candidacy because, as with Park Chung-hee, Roh Moo-hyun was a polarizing figure.

If one measured Korea's presidents only by the capacity to cause polarizing reactions, Roh's presidency is right up there with Park Chung-hee's dictatorship. With his charisma and speech-making abilities, Roh inspired a passionate group of supporters who eventually made him president. (Roh Moo-hyun was likely the first Korean politician to have a self-generated fan club.) Yet through his rash and divisive governing style that demonized his opponents, Roh created an equal number of opponents who passionately revile him. Roh is almost certainly the most hated president among the Korea's right-leaning voters. Even among many left-leaning voters, Roh is not fondly regarded because of his political tactics that excluded a broader spectrum of Korea's left in favor of dedicated followers, somewhat like the way in which the smaller Tea Party managed to set the direction for the U.S. Republican Party.

This is the political landscape that Moon Jae-in is facing: passionate opposition from conservatives who see him as Roh Moo-hyun's heir, and mostly lukewarm support from his progressive base. This is the greatest reason why Ahn Cheol-soo -- the subject of the next part -- has been able to create such a sensation.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Korea's Presidential Election - Part I: Park Geun-hye

Dear Korean,

Can you explain a little bit about the current Korean presidential election, mainly about the candidates running today? What are the problems S.Korean citizens are most concerned about and should be concerned about as well as the candidates' positions on those issues. And who would you prefer, if you do care?

Paul K.

Korea's presidential election is now approximately 40 days away, and exciting times are ahead. First, if you are completely unfamiliar with the general landscape of Korean politics, the Korean would recommend reading this post first for an introduction.

Let's address Paul's question in reverse order. What are the biggest issues at hand for the upcoming presidential election? Interestingly, this election has been a relative anomaly because there has not been a big campaign promise that is dividing the electorate. For example, in 2002, the winning candidate Roh Moo-hyun promised that he would move the capital away from Seoul to promote balanced regional growth. In 2007, the winning candidate Lee Myung-bak promised that he would construct a Grand Canal that would make transportation more efficient. Each promise was controversial, and Korean electorate spent a great deal of time debating them.

This time around? Not as much. To be sure, there currently is a very strong policy demand from Korea's electorate -- namely, expansion of the welfare state. But the demand is so strong that even the conservative candidate, who might oppose such initiative under regular circumstances, is promising free childcare for children between ages of 0 and 5, increased welfare payments for the disabled, expansion of public housing, etc. While there are certainly differences in the specifics of the campaign promises from each candidate, it is fair to say that the campaign promises are at least directionally the same. Thus, the current election is driven more by the personalities of the candidates, and the standing ideologies that they represent, rather than any particular policy ideas. Which is just as well, because each candidate in the running are extremely interesting in his/her own way.

Thus, this series will examine the three major candidates currently running in the presidential election, and what the standing ideologies that they represent. As of now, the three major candidates are:  Park Geun-hye of the conservative New Frontier Party, which is the majority party of the National Assembly and the current holder of the Blue House; Moon Jae-in of the progressive Democratic United Party, the minority party of the National Assembly, and; independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, a Seoul National University professor who made a fortune through a start-up anti-virus software company. Then the series will conclude by giving the current state of play.

At this point, full disclosure:  the Korean supports Moon Jae-in of the DUP. Each part of this series will examine each major candidate. At the end of the series, the Korean will briefly explain why he supports Moon. First up is Park Geun-hye, after the jump.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.



Park Geun-hye (New Frontier Party)

Park Geun-hye [박근혜]
(source)

Park Geun-hye's identity as a politician is centered around this fact:  she is the oldest daughter of Park Chung-hee, the dictator who came to power by rolling tanks into Seoul and ruled the country for 18 years. Park is a National Assemblywoman of the New Frontier Party, the conservative majority party of the National Assembly. (The current president Lee Myung-bak also belongs to the NFP.) Born in 1952, she was thrust into politics early when, in 1974, her mother was shot and killed by a North Korean spy who was aiming at her father. After her mother's death, she acted as the de facto First Lady to her father, directing the operation of the propaganda machine for her father's dictatorship. However, after her father was assassinated in 1979, she stayed away from the public's eyes for more than 20 years.

Park re-entered politics in 1998, by winning the National Assembly seat based in Daegu, her father's hometown. She eventually made her way to be the head of the party in 2004, and made her first presidential run in 2007 against Lee Myung-bak, who was then a popular mayor of Seoul. In a hotly contested primary election, Park lost to Lee, who went on to win the presidential election. For the next five years, the Grand National Party (which later changed its name to NFP) would be divided into a pro-Lee faction and a pro-Park faction. Lee went on to become an extremely unpopular president, which played to Park's advantage. Her presidential run in 2012 was considered an inevitability as early as two years ago, and she indeed won her party's nomination by handily winning the NFP primaries.

Park is nicknamed the "Queen of Elections," and for a good reason. Twice -- in 2006 and 2012 -- she delivered the NFP from the brink of death. Perhaps because of her extensive experience with Korean politics that reaches back into her childhood, she has an instinctive sense of emotionally connecting with the electorate -- particularly the part of the electorate that forms her base. She has also shown remarkable poise and determination in her public life, projecting an image as a steady and grounded leader. In 2006, while being on a campaign trail, Park was attacked by a knife-wielding lunatic who cut her from underneath her ear to her jaw, for as deep as an inch and a half. After Park woke up from the surgery, reportedly her first words were: "What happened with Daejeon?" -- asking about the battleground city. She also more or less successfully distanced herself from the very unpopular outgoing president Lee Myung-bak by systematically eliminating the pro-Lee faction from the NFP.

But of course, even as one can recognize Park's formidable achievement as an individual, no responsible overview of her politics can omit the long shadow of her father. Park Chung-hee's legacy remains to be a complicated and conflicted one. There is no question that, under his 18-year rule, Korea achieved an economic growth that was unprecedented in human history, set upon a path toward becoming a significant world power only several decades after being one of the poorest countries in the world. But there is also no question that, under Park Chung-hee's 18-year rule, South Korea did not look all that different from North Korea -- elections were rigged, Park's political enemies were assassinated, propaganda was 24/7, protesters for democracy were imprisoned and tortured.

Depending on how a Korean made out of his 18-year rule -- which ended only 30 years or so ago -- her assessment of Park Chung-hee's rule is bound to be starkly different. For a significant number of Koreans, Park Chung-hee was a hero who delivered Korea from the twin threats of poverty and communism. For equally significant number of Koreans, Park Chung-hee was a mass-murdering dictator who stunted the growth of democracy and freedom in Korea. And the particular Korean's assessment of Park Chung-hee's rule will directly impact her assessment of Park Geun-hye.

This is even more so because Park Geun-hye's awkward stance with her father's legacy. Based on her public statements, perhaps the best way to describe Park's position with respect to her father is that, while she is sorry to see a lot of people were hurt in the process, she is not sorry for her father's legacy of elevating Korea from poverty and combating communism. (Of course, she hardly ever mentions that most people who were branded as "communists" during Park Chung-hee era were actually her father's political enemies.) Park did issue multiple apologies to those who were injured during her father's rule, but until very recently, she stonewalled the calls for her to recognize that her father was in fact a dictator who destroyed the constitutional order. As recently as four months ago, Park claimed that her father's coup d'etat was an "unavoidable, best possible choice" given the circumstances.

This stance came to a head when Park seemed to suggest that eight democracy activists were executed in 1972 for allegedly being in the People's Revolutionary Party -- a phantom organization made up by the KCIA -- received a fair trial and a fair sentence. A publicity crisis and sinking poll numbers compelled Park to do an about-face, as she finally issued a statement in late September that "ends could not justify the means" and her father's rule "caused damages to the constitutional values." But in late October, Park did another semi-about-face, claiming that she currently had nothing to do with Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation, the organization that (still!) manages Park Chung-hee's remaining slush funds. (The president of JSF would soon disprove Park's claim when, unaware that he was being recorded, he said JSF's funds should be used to support Park's campaign.)

With a little more than a month to go, the defining issue for Park Geun-hye will be about the shadows of the past. Which is quite interesting, as the subject of the next part -- Moon Jae-in -- is not free from the shadows of the past either.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Looking for Someone?

Dear Korean,

How do I go about finding someone in Korea? I only have a name, and what he used to be back in the 1980's. Any help would be much appreciated.

F.V.

This is a very frequent question for which the Korean has no good answer. Just think about the absurdity of the question -- how can F.V. seriously expect to find someone with just a name, from the 1980s? It is not as if the Korean knows everyone in Korea across all time and space. Yet this type of questions continue to come in.

The Korean suspects that part of the reason why this question is so frequent is because people often do not realize is just how populous Korea is. Korea is a country with 50 million people. It has more people than Spain, Argentina, Poland or Canada, just to give a few examples. Finding one person among the 50 million will not be easy.

Short of hiring a private detective in Korea, there is no "good" -- as in, high-percentage -- way to find someone in Korea. If one is willing to try even a very low percentage shot, the best option for someone living outside of Korea is, in fact, Facebook, as approximately 8 million Koreans are on Facebook now. But it would be wise not to get your hopes up.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.