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(Image Source: Yonhap News Agency) BY KATIE BRENNAN
South Korea made history
Monday, as the country inaugurated its first female president. But many wonder if her election
means the country will improve its rank in gender inequality.
“Park Geun-hye’s
team believes her five-year presidency could inspire a change in the way women are treated
in South Korea... South Korea has one of the lowest rates of female in the workforce in
the developed world. On average women are paid more than 40 percent less than men.”
– Al Jazeera
The BBC reports, as Park Geun-hye moves into the presidential
palace, she is returning to her childhood home.
“...Former president Park Chung-hee.
Which means that South Koreans are already familiar with their next president, Park Geun-hye;
She’s his daughter.”
Park Geun-hye’s parents were both assassinated when she was
a young woman. CNN reports it was another two decades until Park returned to the public
spotlight.
“Last December, as the head of the conservative party, the 61-year-old
who never married and doesn’t have children, was elected president with an overwhelming
majority.”
No matter how familiar she is with a life in politics, CNBC reports South
Korea’s economy is in bad shape, and her job won’t be easy.
“Park has promised
to improve the lives of the people and unify the nation and failure to deliver will not
easily be forgiven.”
Euronews reports a major challenge for
Park’s administration will be dealing with increasing hostility from neighbor North Korea.
“South
Korea’s new president, Park Geun-hye, has urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions
and to stop wasting its scarce resources on arms less than two weeks after the country
carried out its third nuclear test.”
Park offered North Korea aid and trade if it gave
up its nukes. A South Korean blogger with the New York Times explains it’s important
Park encourages a sense of unity between North and South Koreans.
“...we need to hear
much more about how she proposes to reorder the relationship with the North so that Korean
souls on both sides of the 38th Parallel at long last can move beyond the fears and misguided
attachments left by a war that stopped, but did not end, in 1953.”
More than 71,000 people attended the history-making inauguration ceremony.