Ever since South Korea adopted direct election to select its president, the unspoken rule has been that the country’s southwestern region votes for the left and the southeastern region votes for the right, no questions asked.

Three decades on, the divide still appears strong, with Seongju-gun County showing high support for Hong Joon-pyo who supported a policy that they are opposed to. 


Seongju-gun in North Gyeongsang Province has publicly opposed the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in the region. The main issue for the residents is the potential health and environmental impact, which both South Korean and US officials have denied.

Despite Hong being one of the most outspoken advocates for the stationing of the US advanced missile defense system here, 56.2 percent of voters in Seongju cast their ballots for the conservative bigwig.

Hong won 16,788 of their votes, far outstripping Moon who got just 5,409 votes in Seongju.

Although Moon did not oppose the THAAD deployment outright, he said the issue has to be approached with caution.

Ironically, cheers were heard in Seongju as Moon’s victory seemed all but certain. The residents expressed hope that the THAAD issue would be reconsidered by the Moon Jae-in administration.

“We have hope now, as (Moon’s) Democratic Party of Korea said it would reconsider the THAAD deployment,” Lee Seok-ju, the head of Soseong-ri village, told the media.

Park Su-gyu, a member of Seongju’s committee against the THAAD deployment, said that Sim Sang-jeong of the Justice Party -- who opposes the THAAD system’s deployment -- should have gotten more votes. Sim finished fifth with 5.7 percent of votes in the region.

(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)