South Korea's presidential candidates

So we just found out that Obama got re-elected for a second term in the US, but what about Korea?

On December 19th of this year, South Korea will hold its 18th presidential election. Just as the elections have been the central topic of the states for the past few weeks, it's also been like that here.

Before I even get into who's running and what party they're with, I want to go over one difference between presidency in Korea and America. Unlike the states, the president of Korea may only hold office for a single five year term. This obviously means no re-election and people can move onto the next president after a term if they're not satisfied with the current.

Now, unlike the huge competition between Obama and Romney, South Korea actually has three candidates running: a woman, a lawyer, and a computer programmer.

Park Geun Hye is one of three candidates. Just like when Hilary ran for president four years ago, there have been many debates on whether or not Ms Park can actually be a good president. As the daughter of a former president of Korea (Chung Hee Park) with a political background, some say she might actually be the best candidate out of all three. Because she has so much experience, people actually believe she may help the country, regardless of her gender. Park is running for the conservative party known as Saenuri. The current president, Myung Bak Lee is also with the same party. They support free trade and favor maintaining strong ties with America. This party is also against reunification of the Koreas. Because of their conservative status, this party strongly opposes gay rights.

Lawyer and former chief of staff, Jae In Moon is running for the Democratic United party. Why does he make a good candidate? Because his party is liberal and completely opposite of Park. This includes favoring the reunification of the Koreas by first merging the economies.

Cheol Soo Ahn is probably the oddest, yet most hopeful candidate for Koreans. He has many occupations including, but not limited to politician, professor, and computer programmer. He's best known for founding an antivirus software company. Ahn is running independently, with absolutely no affiliation to any of the parties in Korea. He's the oddest because he seems to have been a surprise to everyone when he announced his candidacy. One promising hope for all the young in Korea is that he's striving to cut all college tuition by half.

As of a day ago, Mr Ahn and Mr Moon actually mentioned merging the two parties together to run against Ms Park. By merging, they will have the best chance to win. Another difference between America and Korea is that there is no electoral college in Korea. It seems it's purely won by a popular vote.

So now that America has elected its president, it's time for Korea to elect its own. As an American citizen, I cannot vote, however it is very interesting to see how citizens of both countries mirror each other during the elections.

Who do you think will be most fit to be South Korea's next president?