According to recent voter turn-out, the conservative party’s agenda of jobs and welfare issues prevailed over the liberal party’s agenda of trade restrictions.  While these positions sound familiar, the results did not come from the recent round of primaries, rather it was the result of this week’s Parliament elections in South Korea.  The conservative New Frontier Party’s victory over the liberal Democratic United Party came as a surprise.  Just a few weeks ago, the DUP was expected to win handily due to scandals plaguing the NFP.  However, exit polls suggest that the NFP’s movement towards the middle on economic issues was enough to catapult it to a win thus maintaining control of Parliament and even putting the NFP’s candidate in the lead for the upcoming presidential election.  Voters also expressed concern over the DUP’s vow to cancel a free-trade agreement with the U.S. which did not connect with the electorate of an export dependent country.

The question now is whether the U.S. conservative and liberal parties will learn anything from South Korea’s election and how they’ll be able to use it in our own upcoming elections.