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| President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol poses for photos after receiving flowers in his party's election situation room at the National Assembly in Seoul on March 10. Yonhap |
By Jane Han
SEATTLE ― Echoing calls from voters in their motherland, Korean nationals in the U.S. asked newly elected president Yoon Suk-yeol to usher in a new chapter of unity, equality and recovery from years of worsening economic disparity and generational and gender division.
Conservative opposition and political novice Yoon came out just narrowly beating liberal Lee Jae-myung from the ruling party in a nail-biting tight race ― the closest ever in the country's political history ― that displayed how sharply divided the country is.
Yoon garnered 48.56 percent of votes, while Lee brought in 47.83 percent.
''The numbers show exactly what the country needs from the new president,'' said Jin Lee, 42, a freelance photographer, who was one of more than 220,000 Korean nationals living overseas to cast ballots in the presidential election.
''One in two people did not vote for Yoon so what does that mean?'' said Lee. ''I hope the new president will work even harder for the people who didn't support him.''
Equality in many different areas is desperately needed, people say.
''Economic inequality and gender inequality are major and urgent issues that need to be addressed,'' said Kim Jin-tae, a 53-year-old software engineer in Los Angeles. ''Seeing our mother country from the outside, it's disheartening to see that Korea isn't effectively closing these gaps despite the nation's potential to grow so much more.''
Park Young-sook, 64, who recently retired in the New York area, says she wants to return to Korea, but soaring and impossible housing prices stop her from going back.
''I know many retirees feel the same way. We want to return to our country, but there's no place to live and we can't afford to buy a decent apartment close to Seoul,'' she added. ''We are hopeful to see a change soon.''
Korean leaders in the U.S. agree that President-elect Yoon is facing a tough road ahead considering that the country is still battling record-high COVID-19 cases on top of all the other urgent economic, political and social issues that await.
''We'd like the country safely to open back up to foreign travelers, including us Koreans living abroad,'' said Kim Chang-joo, a member of the Korean-American Coalition in Los Angeles. ''Successfully getting past COVID-19 is the first and foremost task for the new administration.''
Voters of Korean nationality in the U.S. showed a relatively muted response following the election results, as voter morale has been lower than previous elections due to the coronavirus pandemic, and many expressed that candidates did not offer pledges that were specific to Korean nationals overseas.
Another factor that disappointed some voters was the last-minute dropout of third-placed candidate Ahn Cheol-soo. Overseas voting took place before Ahn pulled out of the race, which meant all ballots that chose Ahn were considered invalid and thrown out.
''I sacrificed an entire workday to travel to the nearest voting center, which is a four-hour roundtrip drive,'' said one anonymous male voter, who lives in the suburbs of Illinois. ''So when I heard that my vote was thrown out, I was furious that the election commission has such little regard for overseas voters.''
