By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Political analysts said the Afghanistan hostage standoff is likely to affect the primaries of the Grand National Party (GNP), but they questioned if the fallout of the kidnapping will engender anti-American sentiment in the country.
They pointed the finger at the dwindling effect of the property scandal of presidential hopeful Lee Myung-bak on the primary race after the outbreak of the July 19 crisis.
``I would like to clarify that the nature of the hostage crisis is all about the endangered lives of 21 aid volunteers who are now held by the Taliban militants. Therefore it is inappropriate to comment on what impact the crisis could have on the results of the primary race,'' spokeswoman Lee Hye-hoon of another GNP presidential contender Park Geun-hye told The Korea Times.
Lee said it is true that the heated debate over whether presidential hopefuls are qualified for the presidency has been overshadowed after the standoff.
Before the crisis, Park, 55, a former party chairwoman, and her rival Lee, 66, had traded attacks and counterattacks over suspicions regarding property deals of Lee, a former Seoul mayor.
The infighting was heavily focused on whether there were any illicit or dubious activities in the property acquiring process of Lee who tops almost all opinion polls.
After the hostage crisis, the two camps said they would hold off from attacking each other for the time being and pay more attention to the endangered lives of the hostages in Afghanistan.
Instead of going for consuming infighting, the two contenders visited the families of two captives who were killed by the Taliban to share their grief.
The debate over property suspicions lost momentum, party insiders said.
A political scientist analyzed the impact of the Afghanistan hostage standoff is likely to continue until the presidential election in December and the nominee of the liberal camp could suffer in the race as a result.
``The public perceived the government has poorly managed the crisis. There were few tangible outcomes after the government's negotiations with Afghan leaders and other parties. They came to see the incompetence of the government through the crisis,'' Prof. Lee Nae-young of Korea University in Seoul said in a phone interview with The Korea Times.
He went on that the government would face mounting pressure from the public demanding a diplomatic breakthrough if the crisis is not resolved in the near future.
``It is possible that a nominee of the liberal camp suffers negative fallout,'' Lee said.
The political scientist was skeptical about the possible recurrence of anti-American sentiment during the campaigns.
``It's unlikely that Koreans would hold anti-American sentiment as a consequence of the hostage crisis,'' he said. ``It is not reasonable to say that the Bush administration should take responsibility for the prolonged crisis."
Lee said the situation would be out of control were the U.S. to release the prisoners in return for the hostages, as the Taliban demanded, resulting in more insurgent groups kidnapping foreigners to have their allies in prison released, he predicted.