Parliamentary elections last week have transformed politics in South Korea. The Uri Party -- which did not exist a year ago -- has won an absolute majority in the National Assembly, giving President Roh Moo Hyun control of the legislature for the first time since he was elected a year and a half ago and marking the first time in Korean history that a liberal party has controlled Parliament. It is unclear what impact the results will have on South Korean politics. That is because it is not at all clear what Uri, or President Roh, stands for. This campaign, like so many others, was driven by protests against the ills in South Korean society. Having won power, the left must now show what it plans to do with it.

Uri means "our party." It was formed five months ago by the younger, more radical members of the Millennium Democratic Party, or MDP, the party that backed former President Kim Dae Jung and then supported Mr. Roh when he ran for president. Although the MDP provided the springboard for Mr. Roh's election, it never commanded a majority in Parliament. The opposition Grand National Party, or GNP, controlled the National Assembly, and it was able to block the president's legislative initiatives.

Most recently, the GNP, backed by the MDP, engineered a vote to impeach Mr. Roh. His comments in support of Uri violated laws that require executive branch officials to be neutral during national elections. The National Election Commission decided the comments were a minor infraction, but Mr. Roh's refusal to apologize incensed the GNP, giving it and the MDP an excuse to join together to impeach the president.