Rising onion prices, doctors’ strike and more: The worries of South Korean voters ahead of polls

Soaring green onion prices. Striking doctors. A politician’s allegedly sexist jab at a woman candidate. This is what is on top of the minds of voters in South Korea, as they head to the polls on Wednesday to choose a new 300-member parliament.

The most significant election issues for many are public livelihoods and other domestic concerns and not traditional subjects like North Korean nuclear threats and US security commitment for South Korea.

“I feel drawn to someone who talks about things that can be truly helpful to our neighbourhoods,” said Kim Yun-ah, a 45-year-old Seoul officer worker. “I often don’t know when North Korea test-fired missiles.”

Up to 30 to 40 per cent of South Korea’s 44 million voters, according to experts, are politically neutral, and their votes could have an impact on the outcome of the election.

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Here’s a look at some of the burning issues in the elections:

Domestic and livelihood issues 

Because of the enormous differences between conservative and liberal candidates in South Korea, many voters have probably already decided who to support based more on party affiliation than on the policies of the candidates running in their districts.

However, Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Institute of Presidential Leadership, notes that the high polarisation has also increased moderates who are tired of partisanship and prefer to focus on matters that directly impact them, such as jobs, taxes, and pricing.

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Choi estimated that roughly 30 per cent of South Koreans consider themselves conservatives, another 30 per cent liberals and the remaining 40 per cent moderates. According to some experts, 30 per cent of people identify as moderates.

“In a nutshell, even if conservatives and liberals intensely bicker over political issues, that won’t influence election results much,” Choi said. “The fate of an election is rather determined by the moderates who silently monitor livelihood issues and decide who to vote for.”

Some observers say liberal parties could retain their parliamentary majority, making conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol — whose single five-year term ends in 2027 — an early lame duck. But others note many moderates are still undecided.

Regardless of the outcome, Yoon’s major foreign policy agendas would remain unchanged, such as boosting security cooperation with the US and Japan and taking a tough line on North Korea’s nuclear programme, experts say.

Soaring prices of green onions

Yoon got more than he bargained for when he visited a Seoul grocery mall last month to promote government efforts to tame food prices but ended up inviting criticism by talking about the price of green onions.

Looking at a bundle of green onions with a price tag of 875 won ($0.65) — a temporary discount price thanks to a government subsidy — Yoon said, “I’ve been to lots of markets, and I would say 875 won is a reasonable price.”

Green onions have been selling for some of the highest retail prices in recent years, ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 won ($2.2 to $2.9) on average.

Candidates from the main liberal opposition Democratic Party carried green onions to election rallies and accused Yoon of underestimating food prices and being out of touch with reality. Yoon’s casual remark set off a mini-crisis for his ruling People Power Party.

It goes beyond green onions.

Compared to the same month last year, the price of agricultural items climbed by more than 20 per cent in March. Apple prices jumped by about 90 per cent in a single year, the biggest increase since 1980.

Kim Tae-hyung, 55, said he’s almost decided to vote for a liberal opposition candidate in his constituency because he believes the Yoon government hasn’t done well on the economy.

But he said Yoon doesn’t deserve criticism over his green onion remarks. “Even if he doesn’t know the price of green onions, I don’t think it matters much as I also didn’t know about it.”

Doctors’ strikes

Yoon’s party faces additional challenges due to the thousands of doctors going on weeks-long strikes.

The doctors, who are all residents and medical interns, are demonstrating against Yoon’s proposal to raise the annual cap on medical school admissions by two thirds. They say universities can’t handle such a steep increase in students and that it would undermine the country’s medical services. Critics claim that if there are more doctors, they will worry about their salary.

Yoon’s plan initially gave him a boost in approval ratings but he now faces growing calls for a compromise as the strikes have caused numerous cancellations in surgeries and other inconveniences for patients.

Toxic rhetoric

Rival political groups have been using extremely offensive and abusive rhetoric towards one another, driven by their contempt for the other side.

When Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party chairman, criticised senior ruling party candidate Na Kyung-won over her alleged pro-Japanese views, he called her “nabe,” a combination of letters of her name and that of late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon called Lee’s comments “extreme misogyny.”

Nabe in Japanese means pot, whose Korean translation is “naembi,” which can be used as a derogatory slang term to refer to a woman with many sex partners. Last month, supporters of Na’s liberal rival candidate reportedly spread on social media a poster with a message saying “naembi tastes best when it’s trampled on.”

Han labelled Lee’s past comments as “trash,” drawing rebukes from Lee’s party spokesperson, who described “Han’s mouth” as “trash bin.”

Also roiling the South Korean election race is former liberal justice minister Cho Kuk, whose newly launched small party is forecast by surveys to win 10-15 seats. Cho was once a rising political star during the government of Yoon’s liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in, until he faced a slew of scandals that hurt his reformist image and sharply split the nation.

Han called Cho “a shameless petty criminal.” Cho said Han, Yoon and Yoon’s wife and first lady Kim Keon Hee were “representative people of a criminal group.”

With inputs from AP