3
The rebirth of South Korea’s right, however, constituted only a beginning of
political transformation. 1997 saw Kim Dae-jung successful in his fourth bid for
presidential power. In 2002 Roh Moo-hyun followed with another upset victory under a
progressive platform. The two shared as much similarities as dissimilarities in political
belief, style and behavior. In spite of a close ties developed with South Korea’s radical
chaeya during his years of democratic struggle since 1972, Kim Dae-jung was an insider
with his career made within South Korea’s establishment. He was an opposition party
leader before a chaeya activist, working within broad constraints set by South Korea’s
establishment as a Cold War frontier state in 1948. He pursued a reconciliatory Sunshine
Policy while maintaining a robust alliance with America. He expanded social welfare, but
also cleared ways for an economic renewal through putting in place an IMF-designed
neoliberal program of restructuring. By contrast, a perennial outsider shunned, if not
ostracized, even within his political party for his singularly unique political style and
unorthodox ideas, Roh Moo-hyun saw politics as a venue for letting out what he called a
“rage” against injustice. As a president, his rhetoric moved toward Q4 while his action
zigzagged between Q1 and Q4, if not across all four quadrants in Figure 1, depending on
political circumstances.
Convention