What overseas voters want from Korea

LEE DO-SUNG
The author is a Beijing correspondent of JTBC.

“I came with the hope that my country would recover to its normal state,” said Park Jeong-soo, a Korean national who has been living in China for 26 years. Park, who lives in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, left home early in the morning to visit the Korean Embassy in Beijing, where voting booths for Koreans residing in China are set up.

Baotou, the largest city in the province, is 600 kilometers (373 miles) away from Beijing, which is equal to a seven-hour round-trip train ride. Park spent a whole day to cast a vote, but didn’t mind traveling far. “I hope Korea changes in a good direction because its image is not as good as before,” he said.

Ahead of the 22nd National Assembly election on April 10, early voting for overseas Koreans began. For six days from March 27 through April 1, they cast their ballots in 220 polling stations across 115 countries.

About 148,000 overseas Koreans have registered to vote, down 14 percent from the 21st parliamentary elections. It is estimated that more than 170,000 Korean voters live in China, but only 10 percent registered to vote. The Korean Embassy offered a shuttle bus between Beijing and Tianjin, but the bus arrived at the polling station with most of the 45 seats empty.

Fewer voters came to the polling place due to a significance decrease in the number of Korean nationals over the three years of China’s stringent zero-Covid policy. Others attribute it to aggravating Korea-China relations and distrust in Korean domestic politics. An expat working for a Korean company in Beijing linked the lower voter turnout to their disappointment about politics back home. “They express their discontent by not voting,” he said.

Despite the grim atmosphere, voters who showed up expressed a sense of responsibility and hope. Oh Hye-yeon, a college student studying in China, said, “This is my second time voting as an overseas Korean after the 2022 presidential election.” She added, “By voting, I feel more responsible for the country and my neighborhood.” Park In-heon, another expat who rode the bus for 3 and half hours to the polling station, said, “Voting is something a citizen must do.”

Another Korean national who has been living in Tianjin for more than 20 years, said, “As the Chinese perspective on Koreans has become worse than during the Thaad crisis, I hope it will get better in the future.”

Recently, politicians are exchanging attacks over Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung’s controversial remarks suggestive of his submissive attitude toward China. On a campaign trail earlier March, he said, “We don’t have to provoke China. We can just say, ‘Thank you.’ We have nothing to do with China and Taiwan’s domestic affairs.” In the discussion of diplomacy with China among political circles, the “life of the people” is not included.

Could the feelings of overseas voters be delivered to politicians back home? If so, how far?