ANAND NAIDOO, WORLD NEWS: South Korea is gearing up for parliamentary elections later this month. CNN's Seoul bureau chief Sohn Jie-Ae looks at how the election might alter South Korea's political landscape.</s>SOHN JIE-AE, CNN SEOUL BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): The bows are deep and the cheers are loud. It's political campaign season in South Korea. The entire national assembly, the country's parliament, will be elected on April 13. Two hundred seventy-three members down from 299 due to reforms by President Kim Dae Jung. The results will determine what party will have the upper hand the last three years of Mr. Kim's administration.</s>MOON CHUNG-IN, YONSEI UNIVERSITY: The outcome of general election on April 13 will influence in the whole entire governing ability of the Kim Dae Jung government. If his party loses, he might have a lame duck government earlier than expected.</s>JIE-AE: To avoid that, the president's Millennium Democratic Party, which currently has fewer than 100 seats, is pushing to gain a majority or at least a substantial increase in its national assembly membership. To do that, it will have to take seats from majority Grand National Party. South Korea's suddenly roaring economy may or may not play a role in the elections. First quarter growth is expected to top 10 percent this year. But the government's economic policies have been sharply criticized in this campaign. The opposition claiming that the country has suffered under Kim's leadership. This political mudslinging has government officials worried.</s>LEE HUN-JAI, S. KOREAN FINANCE MINISTER: That that kind of campaign rhetoric may make the international or foreign investors uncomfortable to invest in Korea.</s>JIE-AE: But this election, like most elections here, are not being fought on policy lines.</s>MOON: Even citizens living in Seoul metropolitan city will be voting along the regional lines, along the school ties, along the family ties.</s>JIE-AE (on camera): And since the president wields tremendous power in Korea, observers say whatever the outcome, it should not keep him from maintaining his current policies. Sohn Jie-Ae, CNN, Seoul.
Upcoming Parliamentary Elections In South Korea