The 1988 Parliamentary Election in South Korea

The results of the 13th National Assembly election on April 26, 1988, stunned political observers in Korea and abroad, for many expected the ruling Democratic Justice Party (DJP) to win a comfortable majority in the unicameral legislature. The two major opposition parties, the Reunification and Democracy Party (RDP) and the Party for Peace and Democracy (PPD), continued to be hopelessly divided even after their defeat in the December 1987 presidential election and the new president, Roh Tae Woo, was gaining popular support in the country.1 Contrary to predictions by many observers, when the ballots were tallied the government party, for the first time since 1950, failed to capture a majority of seats in the Assembly. As a corollary of the changed constitutional status and power of the parliament under the Sixth Republic, winning a majority in the election was important both for the government party and the opposition. For the former, it would be difficult to push through key legislative programs without controlling the National Assembly. For the opposition, control of the legislature was needed in order to check the DJP government. The opposition was particularly concerned about the prospect that majority control in the Assembly by the ruling DJP would impede, if not endanger, the process of democratization in South Korea, a process begun in earnest after the bloody constitutional crisis in the spring and summer of 1987. Thus, the stakes were high for all parties. This essay analyzes the results of the 1988 election, emphasizing factors that contributed to bringing about the so-called yadae yoso (large opposition and small government