Saenuri Party

Saenuri Party 새누리당 Saenuri-dang
Chairman	Park Geun-hye
Spokesperson	Cho Hae-jin Chung Mi-kyung
Assembly leader	Hwang Uyeo
Founded	21 November 1997 (1997-11-21)
Headquarters	Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul
Ideology	Conservatism, Liberal conservatism
Political position	Right-wing
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
Official colours	Red
Seats in the National Assembly	166 / 299
Seats within local government	1,623 / 3,893
Website
saenuriparty.kr
Politics of South Korea Political parties Elections

Saenuri Party
Hangul	새누리당
Hanja	새누리黨
Revised Romanization	Saenuridang
McCune–Reischauer	Saenuridang

The Saenuri Party (English: New Frontier Party), until February 2012 the Grand National Party (Korean: 한나라당, Hannara-dang) is a conservative political party in South Korea. The party holds a majority of seats in the 18th Assembly, lasting from 2008 to 2012. In February 2012, the Grand National Party was renamed to the Saenuri Party.

History

The party was founded in 1997 as a merger of various prior political parties. Its earliest ancestor was the Democratic Republican Party under the rule of Park Chung-hee in 1963. Upon Park's death and at the beginning of the rule of Chun Doo-hwan in 1980, it was reconstituted and renamed as the Democratic Justice Party. In 1988 party member Roh Tae-woo introduced a wide range of political reforms including direct Presidential elections and a new constitution. The party was renamed in 1993, during the presidency of Kim Young-sam, with the merger of other parties to form the Democratic Liberal Party (Minju Jayudang). It was renamed as the New Korea Party (Sinhangukdang) in 1995, and it finally became the Grand National Party in November 1997 following its merger with the smaller Democratic Party, and various conservative parties.^{[citation needed]} Three months later, with the election of Kim Dae-jung of the Centrist Reformists Democratic Party, as president, the party's governing role came to an end, beginning its first ever period in opposition which would last ten years.

The logo of the Grand National Party (until February 2012)

Following the 2000 parliamentary elections it was the single largest political party, with 54% of the vote and 147 seats out of 271. The party was defeated in the parliamentary election in 2004 following the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun, gaining only 121 seats out of 299. The defeat reflected public disapproval of the impeachment which was instigated by the party. It was the first time in its history that the party had not won the most seats. It gained back five seats in by-elections, bringing it to 127 seats as of October 28, 2005.

Current status

On December 19, 2007, the GNP's candidate Lee Myung-bak won the presidential election ending the party's period in opposition.

In the April 2008 general election, the GNP secured a majority of 153 seats out of 299 and gained power in the administration and the parliament as well as most local governments.^{[citation needed]}

On the performance of President Lee Myung-bak and of Grand National Party, 25.4 percent of the population of South Korea answered "good" and 67.3 percent "bad" according to a poll by Donga Ilbo conducted in August 2008. Poll numbers for the opposition, however, were even lower.

One of the main bases of popular support of the party originates from the conservative, traditionalist elite and the rural population, except for farmers. It is strongest in the Gyeongsang region. Former party head and 2007 presidential candidate Park Geun-hye is the daughter of former President Park Chung-hee who ruled from 1963 to 1979. Although Representative Won Hee-ryeong and Hong Jun-pyo ran for the party primary as reformist candidates, former Seoul mayor and official presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak gained more support (about 40%) from the Korean public.

The GNP suffered a setback in the 2010 local elections, losing a total of 775 local seats throughout the counties.

2011

GNP-affiliated politician, Oh Se-hoon, lost his mayoral position of Seoul after the Seoul Free Lunch Referendum.

The Grand National Party has celebrated its 14th anniversary on November 21, 2011 amid uncertainties from intra-party crises.

The DDoS attacks during the October 2011 by-election have become an central concern of the GNP as it could potentially disintegrate the party leadership.

Emergency Response Commission

The Hong Jun-pyo leadership system collapsed on December 9, 2011 and GNP Emergency Response Commission was launched on December 17, 2011, with Park Geun-hye as commission chairperson, to prepare coming up Legislative Election 2012 on April 11, 2012 and Presidential Election 2012 on December 19, 2012.

There was a debate with Commision members about whether transform the Grand National Party into a non-conservative political party or not, but Park said GNP never transform in to non-conservative, and will follow the real value of conservatism.

Policy

The GNP supports free trade and neoliberal economic policies. This attributed to the GNP to be stamped as a business friendly party and well-bing party, far away from working-class-friendly party. However, with the beginning of 2011, GNP changed its policy line to the right-centrism because of their sinking approval rate. The GNP favors maintaining strong ties with the United States and Japan while distancing South Korea from North Korea. The party is also conservative on social issues, in the last election the president called homosexuality "abnormal" and opposed any legal recognition of same-sex couples. The party's conservative, pro-American stance often makes it the target of criticism by North Korea's state-controlled media.^{[citation needed]}

Four Major Rivers Project

One of the GNP's important policies is to financially secure the The Four Major Rivers Project since President Lee Myung-bak is in the office. This project's budget disputes have sparked controversial political motions in the National Assembly for three consecutive years.

Criticism

Generating favorable online comments

• The GNP has records of secretly hiring and paying university students to generate online replies favorable to the GNP.
• GNP member Jin Seung-ho (진성호) formally apologized on July 2, 2009 for making a remark that "the GNP occupied Naver". Naver is one of the biggest South Korean internet portals.

December 8, 2010 controversial bill-passing

• The GNP passed the bill relating to the year 2011 national budget without the opposition parties' inputs on December 8, 2010. It had caused legislative violence before. This process of passing the budget bill sparked controversy of potential illegality. Due to this incident, many South Korean political, academic and citizen groups expressed their outrage against current mainstream politics. The reason for forceful passing of the bill is mainly due to the budget disputes in the controversial Four Major Rivers Project.
• Many Buddhists in South Korea criticized the budget bill on December 8, 2010 for neglecting the national Temple Stay program. This has led the Jogye Order, the largest Buddhist order in South Korea, to severe ties with the GNP and becoming financially independent without any funding from the government.
• The interns and the staffs working in the National Assembly officially complained on December 17 that their salary was missing after the passing of this bill.

Inefficient public relations

• The GNP was criticized for having an inefficient public relations that resulted less people voting for them during the 2010 local elections.

Infiltration of opposition party

A Blue House official of the pro-GNP Lee Myung-bak government had illegally infiltrated a party meeting of the opposition, Democratic Party, on October 18, 2011.

Free Trade Agreement disputes

The four main contributors of the controversial passing of the South Korea–United States Free Trade Agreement bill in the National Assembly are members of the Grand National Party:

• Hong Jun-pyo, then-current chairperson, currently resigned
• Park Hee-tae, current Speaker of the National Assembly
• Park Geun-hye, former chairperson
• Chung Ui-hwa, current Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly

Only one GNP member had voted not to ratify the Free Trade Agreement.

List of Chairmen of GNP

1. Cho Soon (November 21, 1997 - November 28, 1998)
   • Lee Han-dong (November 29, 1998 - August 30, 1998) (acting)
2. Lee Hoi-chang (August 31, 1998 - May 12, 2002)
   • Park Kwan-yong (May 13, 2002 - May 14, 2002) (acting)
3. Seo Cheong-won (May 14, 2002 - May 25, 2003)
4. Choi Byeong-yul (May 26, 2003 - March 22, 2004)
5. Park Geun-hye (March 23, 2004 - July 10, 2006)
6. Kang Jae-sup (July 11, 2006 – July 3, 2008)
7. Park Hee-tae (July 4, 2008 - September 7, 2009)
8. Chung Mong-joon (September 7, 2009 - July 14, 2010)
9. Ahn Sang-soo (July 14, 2010 - May 8, 2011)
   • Jeong Ui-hwa (May 9, 2011 - July 4, 2011) (acting)
10. Hong Jun-pyo (July 4, 2011 - December 16, 2011)
11. Park Geun-hye (December 17, 2011 - Incumbent) (Emergency Response Commission)

See also

• DDoS attacks during the October 2011 South Korean by-election
• 2008 Grand National Party Convention Bribery Incident