S. Korea's ruling party names presidential candidate
A self-taught lawyer and reformist human rights campaigner, who wants to lessen South Korea's reliance on the United States, was chosen by the ruling party as its presidential candidate on Saturday.
The widely expected nomination cements Roh Moo-hyun's place as the front-runner for the December ballot.
Roh, 55, won 72.2 percent of the ballots in the ruling Millennium Democratic Party's six-week primary race.
Opinion polls have consistently put Roh ahead as the likely successor to incumbent President Kim Dae-jung, whose single five-year term ends February.
South Korea's constitution bars Kim from seeking a second term in the Dec. 17 presidential election.
Surveys show Roh is particularly popular among young and middle-aged voters born after the 1950-53 Korean War, during which U.S. troops led U.N. forces to fight communist North Korean invaders supported by China and the Soviet Union.
Roh has never visited the United States and has abandoned earlier calls for U.S. forces to withdraw from the Korean peninsula.
Recently, he said he supports a strong security alliance with Washington and U.S. military presence in South Korea.
But he would not repeat the practices of past presidents accused of "kowtowing to big powers.''
"There should come a time when not just the Americans and Europeans but also the Asians will play a main role in the world,'' Roh told party members this week.
Although popular for his record as fearless advocate during South Korea's authoritarian past, Roh had not been viewed as a serious challenger for the country's top political job until the ruling party's primary began.
Riding on what analysts view as a new political wave sweeping South Korea, Roh maintained an unassailable lead throughout the primary race.
A son of a poor farming family, Roh has had no formal education beyond high school.
He became a lawyer in 1977 by studying for the bar alone.
Roh became known nationally in 1981 when he took up the case of students accused of sedition against then-dictator Chun Doo-hwan.
Roh was arrested in 1987 and had his lawyer's license suspended for six months for supporting an outlawed labor protest.
The protest was triggered by the death of a shipyard worker who was hit by a police tear gas canister and died during an anti-government demonstration.
He entered politics in 1988 as an opposition member and was elected a national legislator in his political hometown of Busan, South Korea's second largest city.
He served as a maritime affairs minister in the current administration.
South Korea has been a close U.S. ally since its war with the communist North in the 1950s.
Half a century after the conflict ended in an uneasy truce, South Korea still hosts 37,000 American troops on its soil. The Korean border is sealed and heavily armed.
