Lefty South Koreans win the day. Says the Times:

The congressional delegation of Mr. Roh's Uri Party will triple in size, according to the polls, probably winning a majority in South Korea's 299-seat National Assembly, the nation's single legislative chamber.

The liberal Uri Party was winning up to 172 seats, the polls showed, while the conservative Grand National Party, the main opposition, was falling to 115 seats. As part of a general shift to the left, polls indicated that the Democratic Labor Party, an antibusiness party, would win up to 12 seats, compared with none before.

Looks like some of this was backlash for a stupid impeachment trial:

Mr. Roh was inaugurated in February 2003 and his first year was marked by sharp acrimony between conservatives and liberals, a split that reflected generational shifts as well as ideological ones. Mr. Roh, a 57-year-old, self-taught human rights lawyer without a college degree, was seen as the standard bearer of young South Koreans, a group that voted overwhelmingly for him.

But conservatives faulted Mr. Roh for his style as much as his politics. They winced at hearing their president use informal language; they complained when he openly asked for advice, and when he expressed self-doubt. In a hierarchical Confucian society, this man with an easy grin was seen as a rule breaker.

A conservative coalition impeached Mr. Roh on what South Korean voters apparently saw as a technicality: public comments in favor of the Uri Party.