May 26, 2025
SEOUL – With the early presidential election just a week away, the mood among voters around me feels laden not with anticipation or relief, but with a heavy sense of disillusionment — a quiet chorus of sighs.
At first glance, you might assume that I am referring to the typical ups and downs in the emotions of campaign supporters as Election Day, June 3, quickly approaches. But the prevailing mood I observe goes deeper than just campaign fatigue or political rivalry.
There is no denying that this snap election represents an extraordinarily unfortunate and costly chapter in South Korean political history since democratization in the late 1980s. It is not a routine democratic exercise, but one forced upon the nation well ahead of schedule due to a deeply unsettling and tragic political event — the ousting of a sitting president, removed from office after being impeached by the National Assembly.
This is not how democracy should be exercised, yet here we are. Reflecting on that situation, I noted in one of my earlier columns that we, as a society, have both the capacity and the responsibility to transform this regrettable event into a turning point — a national blessing in disguise. We could use this election not only to select new leadership, but to pause, reevaluate where we stand, reconnect with our collective values and redefine the vision of our shared future.
That idea, however, seems increasingly distant. Several weeks have now passed since the campaign began, and the initial hope that it would blossom into a meaningful opportunity for national dialogue appears to be fading fast. Candidates from main political forces — including both the Democratic Party of Korea and the People Power Party — have formally submitted their policy pledges to the National Election Commission.
As anticipated, these pledges claim to address major national challenges and contain bold promises aimed at resolving them. However, a closer examination reveals that many of these promises are vague and lack substantive detail about how they will be realistically achieved or funded. That may be tolerable to some extent, as long as the promises are made sincerely and in the name of someone who will soon lead a nation that ranks highly in most global measures of modernization, innovation and democratic development.
However, the more serious problem lies in what the pledges do not address. Despite the volume of proposals, many of the issues most vital to the country’s long-term stability and prosperity are either neglected or mentioned only in passing. The economy is losing momentum. Our demographic crisis is deepening. The social welfare system is strained to its limits. And the political governance structure is increasingly dysfunctional.
Again, it’s the economy, stupid!
South Korea’s economy is forecast to grow significantly below its potential for the foreseeable future. One of the core reasons for this virtual stagnation is the underperformance of the services sector, which has failed to improve its productivity and remains far behind not only the manufacturing sector but also the average productivity levels of member countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
This inefficiency renders the economy overly dependent on exports, which are themselves susceptible to the tremors of geopolitical uncertainty and global market instability. At the same time, the demographic pressures facing the country are worsening at an alarming rate. We are experiencing a rare combination of the world’s fastest-aging population, the lowest birth rate and a shrinking working-age demographic.
This situation poses a dual threat, as not only does it strain our economic vitality by reducing both the supply of labor and the demand for goods and services, but it also erodes public morale. Many people are losing faith in the trajectory of the country, unsure of what kind of society they are helping to build.
Compounding this challenge is a social welfare system that is widely regarded as insufficient, especially when compared to the systems in other advanced economies. What is even more troubling is that the existing system, limited as it is, also suffers from low efficiency and questionable sustainability.
Improving and reforming social welfare programs is no easy task. Political parties are often reluctant to touch them because there is no single policy fix that can satisfy everyone in the short term, while they have to go through various national elections every few years. This reality leads many parties to default to inaction, fearing backlash more than valuing progress.
Another foundational issue we must face is the urgent need to reform the political governance system. Established in the late 1980s, it has failed on multiple occasions to uphold a proper balance of power and effective checks and balances across different branches of government.
Considering the massive transformation South Korea has undergone over the past few decades — in economic, social and geopolitical terms — it is both fair and necessary to say that we deserve a more responsive, modern and well-functioning system of governance.
Among the most frequently cited expressions during election seasons is the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Originally coined as an internal slogan by a strategist during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign in the United States, it gained international recognition after Clinton’s surprise victory.
The phrase captured a vital truth: For the vast majority of voters, the state of the economy — including concerns such as unemployment, inflation and income — has a far more immediate impact than abstract debates about ideology or global affairs.
The same truth holds today in South Korea.
I would urge the campaign teams at major parties, as well as the candidates themselves, to step back and take a long, hard look at what truly matters to ordinary voters. What affects people’s lives most directly? What causes the most daily stress or anxiety?
The people of South Korea have worked with tremendous dedication and discipline over the past several decades, achieving what the world often refers to as a modern economic miracle. They deserve more than recycled slogans and vague promises. They deserve a future in which wealth continues to grow, daily life becomes more fulfilling, and the burden of worry about tomorrow becomes lighter, not heavier.
In my view, the economy lies at the very heart of nearly all these national issues. So I’ll say it again, without hesitation: “It’s the economy, stupid!”
Yoo Choon-sik worked for nearly 30 years at Reuters, including as the chief Korea economics correspondent, and briefly worked as a business strategy consultant. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. — Ed.