[Politics, That Day...] The 'Unification Spell' Between Jeong Dong-yeong and Moon Guk-hyeon Ended the Night Before the Presidential Election

2007 Presidential Election, Unification Negotiations Leading to False Hope... Rapid Progress → Difficulties → Collapse, Resulting in the 'Lowest Voter Turnout'

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min]

Editor's Note‘Politics, That Day...’ is a series planning corner that looks back on Korean politics through the ‘recollection of memories’ related to notable scenes, events, and figures that deserve attention.

Jeong Dong-yeong, leader of the Democratic Peace Party, is being interviewed at the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Yeouido, Seoul, on September 13 last year. Photo by Jang Jin-hyeong aymsdream@

The 2007 presidential election, the hottest yet most anticlimactic election, left many lessons for Korean politics. It showed how difficult it is to reverse the massive current of public sentiment and taught that in ‘political mathematics,’ 1+1 may not equal 2 but could be -1.

The 2007 election was one where the tide shifted early on. Although the Uri Party was reborn as the United Democratic Party, the dark clouds surrounding the election remained unchanged. The ruling party, which had consecutively elected Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, was in crisis.

Jeong Dong-young, the United Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, focused intensely on the ‘BBK issue,’ a weakness of Lee Myung-bak, the Grand National Party candidate. Another focal point was the ‘anti-Lee Myung-bak’ unified front.

He put all efforts into unifying with Moon Guk-hyun, the Creative Korea Party candidate who also ran in the election. Interestingly, even after the presidential candidate registration ended, the issue of unification between Jeong Dong-young and Moon Guk-hyun dominated the election scene.

On April 15, the day of the 21st National Assembly election, voters are casting their ballots at a polling station set up at Hyehwa Art Center in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

2007 Presidential Election: 12 Candidates Including Lee Myung-bak, Jeong Dong-young, Lee Hoi-chang, Moon Guk-hyun, Kwon Young-gil, Lee In-je, Shim Dae-pyung, Lee Soo-sung Compete

On November 26, 2007, after the Central Election Commission closed presidential candidate registration, 12 candidates registered: Jeong Dong-young of the United Democratic Party, Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party, independent Lee Hoi-chang, Moon Guk-hyun of the Creative Korea Party, Kwon Young-gil of the Democratic Labor Party, Lee In-je of the Democratic Party, Shim Dae-pyung of the People’s Center Party, Jeong Geun-mo of the True Owner Alliance, Jeon Gwan of the New Era True People Alliance, Geum Min of the Korean Socialist Party, Heo Kyung-young of the Economic Republic Party, and Lee Soo-sung of the National Coalition for Harmony and Leap.

Although many evaluations predicted a high chance of Lee Myung-bak’s victory, there were many competitors. Political heavyweights such as Jeong Dong-young, Lee Hoi-chang, Moon Guk-hyun, and Kwon Young-gil, as well as Lee In-je, Shim Dae-pyung, and Lee Soo-sung, all threw their hats into the ring.

One misconception during elections is the belief that if a particular event (potential political scandal) breaks out before election day, the tide will turn. In the 2007 election, it was thought that the BBK allegations surrounding Lee Myung-bak would shake the election landscape, but the ‘law of action and reaction’ was overlooked. When a candidate faces political adversity, their supporters often feel a sense of crisis and unite more strongly.

Jeong Dong-young’s excessive focus on unification until the final stages of the election ultimately became a burden on his vote-getting strategy. To his supporters, it felt like ‘hope torture.’ The question of whether Jeong Dong-young and Moon Guk-hyun would unify drew the greatest attention, and the political pressure regarding its success only grew. Even after candidate registration ended and official campaigning began, the focus remained on the unification issue.

During Official Campaign Period, Greatest Interest Was 'Unification'

It was not all doom from the start. There were reports that unification was gaining momentum. Naturally, supporters’ expectations grew. Observers noted that Moon Guk-hyun, who had been reluctant about unification, canceled his campaign schedule entirely and was in deep contemplation.

Senior figures from civil society even stepped in to mediate unification. Behind the scenes, both Jeong Dong-young’s and Moon Guk-hyun’s presidential campaign headquarters continued negotiations. They engaged in a tug-of-war over how and when unification would take place.

One week before the election, on December 12, 2007, Jeong Dong-young held a press conference proposing “a coalition government based on power-sharing.” He tried to persuade Moon Guk-hyun to join the unification with the coalition government card, but the response from the opposing camp was cold.

Moon Guk-hyun’s side strongly believed that if unification were to happen, Jeong Dong-young should step down. The view was that unification negotiations should ultimately lead to unification under Moon Guk-hyun. On December 13, 2007, Jeong Dong-young said, “I am willing to give up everything at this moment for candidate unification,” adding, “I can offer anything, not just the presidential candidacy.”

This was a last-ditch effort to do whatever it took to block Lee Myung-bak’s victory. However, the opposing side took it as political rhetoric. As election day approached, unification negotiations made no progress. Time passed, and the hope torture did not end in a happy ending.

In the 17th presidential election, Lee Myung-bak, then the Grand National Party candidate, who was confirmed to have won, is seen cheering with his wife Kim Yoon-ok at the party headquarters' vote counting room in Yeouido, Seoul.

Ended in a Defeat by Over 5 Million Votes... Could Unification Have Changed the Winner?

“We did our best for unification, but ultimately the unification talks collapsed.” The United Democratic Party announced the final collapse of unification negotiations the night before the election. Moon Guk-hyun took responsibility for the failure to unify.

The belief that unification alone could overturn the election may have been close to a ‘spell’ of hope. As the election framed itself around the BBK issue and unification disputes, opportunities to present political visions to the public diminished.

The result was a record defeat in Korean presidential election history. Lee Myung-bak won a landslide with 11,492,389 votes (48.67%). Jeong Dong-young received 6,174,681 votes (26.14%), and Moon Guk-hyun garnered 1,375,498 votes (5.82%). Jeong Dong-young lost by a margin of over 5 million votes. Even combining the votes of Jeong Dong-young and Moon Guk-hyun was far from enough to surpass Lee Myung-bak.

There were many reasons for the defeat, but a decisive factor was the traditional Democratic Party supporters’ failure to turn out to vote. The voter turnout for the 2007 election was only 63.0%, the lowest ever in a presidential election. Why did so many voters hesitate to participate? It should be seen as a result of disappointment with the political engineering obsession over unification.