Issues and campaign strategies in the 2002 presidential election

The purpose of this paper is to investigate what strategies were effective in mobilizing voters under the political conditions in the 2002 presidential election in Korea. Just one month before the election, the probability of candidate Roh's winning was low. The finding of this study is that Roh Moo-hyun's election campaign strategies and unification of candidates with Chung Mong-joon were critical to his win. Because Roh knew that he would lose without dramatic changes in electoral issues, he considered every strategy to win. And the decision to unify into a single candidacy was one of them. It is ironic that he was able to win because he realized that he might lose. Analysis of empirical data shows that candidate unification was the decisive factor contributing to Roh's success. The effect of other issues, such as candle vigils, moving capital city and disclosure of alleged wiretap activities did not significantly affect electoral results.