Left, right and the middle: Candidates expand on ideology and policy aims

The JoongAng Ilbo and the Korean Association of Party Studies say a study of the ideological orientations of eight presidential candidates shows Grand National Party Assemblyman Lee Bu-young as the most liberal and Kim Jong-pil, president of the small United Liberal Democrats as the most conservative.

With liberal denoted by the low end of a 0-10 scale, Mr. Lee was ranked the most liberal, at 3.3, on the basis of a new questionnaire send to each of the announced candidates. A strong ruling party primary candidate, Roh Moo-hyun, declined to respond to the survey.

Representative Chung Dong-young, a candidate of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party was ranked at a slightly left-of-center 4.5. Representative Rhee Shang-hi, a GNP candidate, was pegged at 5.5. Representative Rhee In-je of the MDP and Representative Park Geun-hye, an independent for the moment, were slightly to the right at 5.7 Representatives Lee Hoi-chang and Choe Byung-yul, both GNP candidates, were at 6-plus. Kim Jong-pil, at 7.2, expressed the most conservative views.

"I know that the JoongAng Ilbo intends to identify who is conservative and who is liberal," Mr. Roh said. "But I cannot respond to the survey, as it can be misused against me as a 'red scare' attack, contrary to the JoongAng Ilbo's intentions."

The survey is the second of its kind by the newspaper, which used a February survey of 11 questions, including a self-ranking on a liberal-to-conservative scale, to order legislators and presidential hopefuls by ideology. In that survey, Mr. Roh's answers suggested a score of 1.5, which would put him well to the left of the next most liberal candidate, Lee Bu-young. Lee Hoi-chang, a Grand National Party former chairman and presidential front-runner, declined to answer the first survey, saying he did not want his views to be represented as party positions. Having stepped down from his leadership post, presumably, he felt free to respond to the new poll.

Ms. Park, Rhee Shang-hi, Rhee In-je and Mr. Choe moved slightly to the right between the two surveys, which the survey-takers attributed to their attempts to distance themselves from Mr. Roh, whose popular image is both reformist and radical. Whether because of or despite that image, Mr. Roh leads in all polls over all candidates in his party and in test heats against other party candidates.

In the second survey, candidates were asked 21 questions, including the 11 used during the first poll. The questions included foreign policy, including North Korea policy, and domestic economic, political and social issues.

On the looming question of aid to North Korea, Mr. Chung called for a hefty increase. Rhee In-je and Lee Bu-young said the amount of such aid should be maintained at the present level; at the other end of the spectrum, Lee Hoi-chang, Mr. Choe, Rhee Shang-hi, Mr. Kim and Ms. Park said they would decrease assistance to the north. All eight candidates agreed that government-owned corporations should be sold off. But Lee Hoi-chang, Mr. Choe, Rhee Shang-hi and Rhee In-je wanted the privatization done quickly, while Lee Bu-young, Mr. Chung, Mr. Kim and Ms. Park said privatization should take place at a more measured page.

The eight candidates were polled between April 5 to 8; the rankings were calculated according to methods developed by Professor Kenneth Janda of Northwestern University in the United States. The rankings are based on how the respondents perceive the role of government in a range of policy issues. Assuming as a baseline that a government's role is to maintain order, expand freedom and equality and supply public resources, survey respondents are graded as conservative if they tilt in the direction of maintaining order and liberal if they prefer to pursue equality.

All but one of the presidential aspirants opposed limits on newspaper ownership; the holdout was Lee Bu-young. On admissions to universities based on monetary donations, all candidates but Mr. Choe said the step should only be taken after universities are fully autonomous. Mr. Choe said the system should be started quickly.

On maintaining the 37,000-strong U.S. military presence in Korea, six candidates said that U.S. troop levels here should be maintained. Lee Bu-young and Rhee Shang-hi called for small reductions.

On environmental policies, all the candidates showed a green streak. All but one candidate said there was for a need for content ratings on Internet sites except for Rhee Shang-hi, who opposed any limits to freedom of expression.

Most candidates were cautious about bank privatization; only Mr. Chung wanted to keep jaebeol hands off them.

Mr. Roh, who did not respond to the survey, has said in television debates and policy papers that he opposes the privatization of banks and favors ownership limits of media outlets.