Polarized South Korea could elect its first female president

Park Geun-hye, conservative daughter of the 1961 coup leader, is a polarizing force in South Korea's presidential election.

Park Geun-hye has been in the public eye since she was 9 years old, when her father took control of South Korea in a 1961 coup.

Half a century later, Park herself is a powerful political figure. In voting Wednesday, she stands a good chance of becoming South Korea's first female president. Polls suggest her race with Moon Jae-in, a silver-haired labor lawyer, is neck and neck.

Some critics call Park, now 60, the "ice queen" for her lack of visible emotion in public. Elegant and composed, she never married — something that Koreans like because there is no spouse or children who can dip their fingers in the public till.

Moon was arrested and expelled from a university for a protest against Park's father and later served as chief of staff to the left-of-center former President Roh Moo-hyun. But the election is less about Moon's qualifications than the polarizing figure of Park.

To some extent, the election is a referendum on the divisive legacy of her father, Park Chung-hee. He is credited with the rapid industrialization that turned South Korea into one of the world's wealthiest countries. But he also suspended the constitution and arrested and tortured student protesters. His security services tried to kill his opponent, Kim Dae-jung, who later became president and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his rapprochement with North Korea.

"I hate her so much that I have no choice but to vote for Moon," said Lee Sang-gun, a 47-year-old magazine distributor who, as a university student, participated in pro-democracy demonstrations against the dictatorship of Park's father. In his view, electing Park would be a step backward. "I feel this is a very critical time for Korean democracy," Lee said.

In September, Park Geun-hye apologized for human rights violations committed during her father's rule. "Behind the stellar growth were sacrifices by workers who suffered under a repressive labor environment," she said. "I believe that it is an unchanging value of democracy that ends cannot justify the means in politics."

Despite the ideological overtones, the campaign issues are mostly prosaic matters of jobs, the economy and social services. Moon has attacked Park as being too close to the chaebol, the huge conglomerates that dominate South Korea's economy.

The candidates agree on the need to engage with North Korea, and whoever wins is likely to move away from the hard line adopted by conservative incumbent Lee Myung-bak.

Still, the electorate of this country of 50 million is deeply polarized along ideological and generational lines.