South Korea's Park Geun-hye finds a middle way Park Chung-hee drove the industrialisation that Samsung typifies. On his death his daughter left politics. Intensely private, she has never married. Even now, back in the Blue House that was her childhood home, she mostly dines alone. The nation is her family, she likes to say. Not till 1998 did she re-enter public life: winning a by-election for the conservatives, then in opposition. For years she played a skilful game, mainly on the margins of power but called in to save her party when it was beset by scandals, in-fighting, recriminations or electoral defeat. A moderate, she clove to the middle ground: a no man's land in Seoul's hard-fought politics. Park thought 2007 was her moment, but she narrowly lost the nomination to a businessman turned mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung-bak. They never reconciled. As Lee's bossy manner and corrupt cronies alienated voters, Park kept her distance; until her party, afraid of losing power last year - South Korean presidents serve only a single five year term - again came begging. This time it was her hour. Rebranding the party as Saenuri (New Frontier), she pushed policy leftwards - no Thatcher she - with critiques of big business and pledges of welfare spending. This worked. In April 2012 Saenuri won parliamentary elections it was expected to lose. And on December 19 Park was elected president, by a narrow but decisive million votes. She lost in Seoul and among younger voters, but in a fast-ageing society grey power carried the day. Seven months is early days. In office Park has shown some faults. Reluctant to delegate, she took weeks to assemble a complete Cabinet. In September she withdrew a pledge to give all senior citizens a monthly pension, admitting it was unaffordable - as critics had said all along. Meanwhile in an unfolding scandal, an ex-chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) is charged with having agents, posing as ordinary folk, smear her left-leaning opponent in last year's election, Moon Jae-in, as soft on North Korea in online forums. This hardly invalidates Park's victory, but if proven it will suggest the spooks need reining in - as in other countries. Exports of $50 billion last month - ahead of the UK, which managed $40 billion in August - do not suggest a troubled economy. Yet GDP growth of three per cent, not bad for OECD, is poor for the region and far less than Koreans are used to. With China cheaper, exports cannot drive growth forever. Aware of this, Park stresses the need for a "creative economy" - one of her London meetings is thus themed - and has carved out a new Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MISP) to spearhead it. What this will mean in practice remains to be seen. If the home picture is mixed, abroad Ms Park is a star. She was a hit in the US and even more so in China - which unusually she visited before Japan, whose current rightward tilt worries its neighbours. With no plans to go to Tokyo, at the recent APEC summit she all but ignored premier Abe. That bothers the US, which needs its two east Asian allies to be better friends. Then there is North Korea. As a lawmaker a decade ago, Park visited Pyongyang and dined with Kim Jong-il. His son Kim Jong-un, by contrast, greeted her election with lurid threats - and by withdrawing all 55,000 workers from Kaesong, the last inter-Korean joint venture left. Park advocates "trustpolitik," meaning a middle way between the unreciprocated generosity of the "sunshine" decade (1998-2007) begun by Kim Dae-jung and the ensuing hard line of Lee Myung-bak. That will not be easy. The Kaesong zone has reopened, but the benighted North is still resisting such basics as mobile phones and email there. Park's idea of luring foreign investors, to make Pyongyang adhere to international norms, sounds a forlorn hope. Yet here too it is early days for Park. She has said she is ready to meet Kim, but is against a summit just for show: first, there must be trust. North Korea seems uncertain what to make of her, and they are not the only ones. Park Geun-hye has the knack of seeming all things to all men. Some in Seoul will never forgive her for being her father's daughter, but that is unfair and misses the point. Many South Koreans, tired of a political culture as poisonous as that in Washington, like her moderation. But as the old quip has it, in the middle of the road you risk getting run over. On the economy, North Korea, the NIS and much more, Park will face hard choices. Whether her reserve conceals real steel, nous and long-term vision only time will tell. The author is honorary senior research fellow in sociology and modern Korea at Leeds University