Park Geun-hye's road will be tough

Park Geun-hye took office as the 18th President and the first female president of South Korea on Feb. 25. It was reported that as the first female president and daughter of a late president, Park will face extremely complex and serious domestic situation and international environment in the next five years.

In domestic policy, the support for Park is obviously lower than that for her predecessors. Against the background of domestic economic slow-down, difficulty in improving national living standard, increasing household debt and social employment issues, many citizens hope Park Geun-hye will be just like her father, Park Chung-hee, who led the country take off again in economy. However, most people in economic circles in South Korea believed that, given the current foggy outlook and gloomy overseas market, Park Geun-hye should face more challenges than her father to improve the economy of the country in a short time.

Park Geun-hye proposed her new model in her inauguration speech to solve the current problems, including unbalanced economic development in regions and influences of the distance between the rich and the poor. She gave a series of projects such as exploring new model of economic development, training innovative talents, fair market order, mutual development of large enterprises and small and medium-sized companies and so on. However, the local media in South Korea pointed out that the above issues are the “aeipathia” during the development process of the country. Whether Park Geun-hye’s ways could promote the economy or not is hard to say.

In foreign policy, this year is the sensitive time of the 60th anniversary of the truce of the Korean Peninsula war. It is a great challenge for Park Geun-hye to handle the DPRK’s third nuclear test on Feb. 12, which could influence South Korea’s security environment.

Besides, she will face another hot potato -- the relations with Japan after Lee Myung-bak’s visit to the Dokdo Island, or Takeshima Island as they are referred to by Japan. In recent days, Japan sent senior central officials to attend the commemorative activity of “the day of Takeshima” and lighted the fire again in South Korea. Japanese media analyzed that Park Geun-hye’s farther was considered as “Japanophile” when he took office, so facing the angry of the citizens in South Korea, the future of the relations between Japan and South Korea is not clear.

Contributed by Xie Zhongrui

We recommend:
Backstage of Ralph Lauren 2013 Fall collections	New York slammed with heavy snow	"Swan Lake" rehearsed in Mexico
Costumed revellers gather in Venice	People protest against DPRK's nuclear test	Chinese Lunar New Year celebrated around world