Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2002. The result was a victory for Roh Moo-Hyun of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, who defeated Lee Hoi-chang of the Grand National Party by just over half a million votes. Background President Kim Dae-jung's National Congress for New Politics (NCNP) re-branded itself to Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) in 2000, but was struggling as it had defeated by the Grand National Party (GNP) both the 2000 parliamentary election and 2002 gubernatorial elections. GNP's then leader and probable presidential nominee Lee Hoi-chang was polling higher than any MDP candidates. Primaries Millennium Democratic Party For the first time in South Korean history, the Democratic Party nominated its presidential candidate through open primaries. At the beginning of the primaries, Rhee In-je, the 3-term congressman who ran against President Kim in 1997 but afterwards joined the ruling party, led the other candidates by a considerable margin in every poll. However, fringe candidate Roh Moo-hyun rose to prominence after winning the Gwangju contest, eventually winning his party's nomination and then the presidential election. Candidates Roh Moo-hyun, former Member of National Assembly from Busan Lee In-je, former Governor of Gyeonggi Chung Dong-young, Member of National Assembly from North Jeolla Kim Joong-kwon, former Member of National Assembly from North Gyeongsang Han Hwa-gap, former Member of National Assembly from South Jeolla Yu Jong-geun, Governor of North Jeolla Kim Geun-tae, Member of National Assembly from Seoul Results Grand National Party Candidates Lee Hoi-chang, former Prime Minister Choi Byung-ryul, Member of the National Assembly from Seoul Lee Bu-young, Member of the National Assembly from Seoul Lee Sang-hee, former Minister of Science and Technology Results Democratic Labor Party Labor activist Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party was nominated for president. Campaign Although corruption scandals marred the incumbent government, Lee Hoi-chang's campaign suffered from the wave of Anti-American sentiment in Korea generated by the Yangju highway incident. Public opinion of Lee, who was widely seen as being both pro-U.S. and the preferred candidate of the George W. Bush Administration in Washington, D.C., suffered. After losing to Roh by 2% in the December 2002 elections, Lee subsequently announced his retirement from politics. Roh-Chung coalition Chung Mong-joon, the 3-term independent congressman from Ulsan and son of Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung, became so popular that he began appearing on polls for presidential election after he, as the president of the Korean Football Association, was