South Korea: ruling party chief abdicates after defeat in elections

"I failed to keep my promise," Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-young said, according to his party. "The responsibility for the election defeat lies on the party chairman."

Photo: South Korea: ruling party chief abdicates after defeat in elections

The opposition Grand National Party had been expected to win big in the local elections Wednesday, but the scale of its victory revealed voters' discontent with the government of President Roh Moo-hyun, amid perceptions it has failed to carry out reforms and revive a stagnant economy.

The opposition also was boosted by sympathy for its leader, who was wounded in a May 20 knife attack, the AP reports.

Roh said Thursday that he "accepts the election results as a trend in public opinion," and pledged to faithfully implement policy objectives, according to his office. He also called on the party to have "patience."

Roh's single five-year term ends in February 2008, and he is constitutionally barred from running again.

An Uri candidate succeeded in only one local vote, for governor of North Jeolla province, according to final election counts early Thursday.

The GNP won 12 posts including mayor of the capital, Seoul, the highest-profile job at stake in the elections. The small Millennium Democratic Party won two races and an independent candidate was elected governor of Jeju island.

Chung, a former unification minister who held a high-profile meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il last year that preceded Pyongyang's return to international nuclear talks, is seen as a leading candidate in presidential elections set for 2007. He had resigned his Cabinet post late last year to seek leadership of the Uri Party.