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South Korea's voters choose a new legislature today in an election that will determine whether President Lee Myung Bak can achieve his plans to double South Korea's wealth and build an inland waterway across the peninsula.

Lee, who won a landslide victory in December on a pledge to increase foreign investment, cut corporate taxes and deregulate business, needs his Grand National Party to win a majority in the 299-seat National Assembly to enact those changes. Polls show a decline in the GNP's popularity since the presidential election, when its favorability ratings were above 50 percent.

Polls are open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Seoul time.

If the GNP fails to win a majority of seats, Lee, South Korea's first president from a corporate background, may face the same fate as his predecessor, Roh Moo Hyun. Roh didn't control the legislature and wasn't able to enact his programs, and cost his Uri Party the presidency for the first time in 10 years.

“Without a majority in the National Assembly, President Lee will have to spend a lot of time making deals with minority party members, which would slow down the process for the economic growth that he has in mind,'' Jaung Hoon, a political science professor at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, said.

The decline in GNP's support is partly because some GNP members close to former Chairwoman Park Geun Hye quit after they weren't chosen as candidates and are now running as independents. The UDP currently has the power to block Lee's programs because it has 136 seats in the Assembly compared with the GNP's 112.

Economic Plan

Lee, 66, won in December largely because of his pledge to increase South Korea 's economic growth to 7 percent and double per capita income to $40,000 by 2017. While South Korean presidents serve only one five-year term, Lee has said his programs would pave the way to accomplish his goals by then.

Asia's fourth-largest economy expanded 4.9 percent in 2007 from a year earlier, and Lee is aiming for growth of about 6 percent this year, higher than forecasts by the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Korea.

The president also is banking on non-government investment to fund housing loans and a 16 trillion won ($16.4 billion) project to build a “Great Waterway,'' a network of canals through South Korea and branching up to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang cash advance payday loans.

Diminished Support

In a March 29 Korea Gallup survey, 38.1 percent of respondents said they approved of Lee, down from 52 percent immediately after he took office. The poll, published by Chosun Ilbo newspaper, queried 1,014 likely voters nationwide and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Support for the GNP slid to 42.1 percent from more than 50 percent. The National Election Commission banned new polls after April 3 until election day.

Still, GNP support is about three times that for the United Democratic Party, formed Feb. 18 by a merger of Roh's Uri Party and Kim's Democratic Party. The UDP had a 14.5 percent approval rating in the Gallup poll. The labor-activist Democratic Labor Party had 6.1 percent, and former GNP chairwoman Park's supporters had 4.4 percent.

Tensions with North Korea, which have risen over the past few weeks, probably won't affect the outcome of today's elections, analysts said.

North Korea increased its criticism of South Korea and the U.S. after their governments stepped up pressure on the Kim Jong Il regime for missing a Dec. 31 deadline to disclose all its nuclear programs.

North Korea Ties

Lee has said a lack of progress on nuclear disarmament would harm ties. North Korea on April 1 called Lee a “traitor'' and a “sycophant toward the U.S.,'' criticizing him by name for the first time since he took office, and days later threatened to cease all contact with South Korea.

“The rhetoric seems more geared for North Korea's domestic audience, rather than toward South Korea or the international community,'' said Kim Yong Hyun, a North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University in Seoul. “The South Korean public is aware of this, and also that neither South Korea nor North Korea can afford to sever ties abruptly with one another.''

In an April 3 poll conducted by Real Meter public polling company and CBS Radio, about 72 percent of 700 people said they won't be swayed by the issue.

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