By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Chung Dong-young, a former unification minister, bolted from the Democratic Party (DP) Friday to run in the April 29 by-election in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, as an independent.
Chung, one of core persons behind the creation of the Gaesong Indutrial Complex in North Korea, will vie with another North Korea expert, Kim Keun-sik, who will run in the election on the DP ticket.
``I returned to Seoul last month after wrapping up my nine-month stay in the United States to help rescue the country in a security crisis, and the DP in trouble,'' Chung told reporters.
``Although the DP didn't allow me to run in the election on its ticket,'' Chung said, ``I met many supporters who encouraged me to play a role in saving the party.''
``The blood of the DP flows in my body. I am leaving the party, which I've worked for 13 years, for the time being, but not forever. I will be back soon,'' he said, asking his supporters not to leave the party.
Chung made his decision public hours after the DP announced Kim, a professor at Kyungnam University and director of the Research Information at the Institute for Eastern Studies in Seoul, would run in the election on its ticket.
Kim, a supporter of former President Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine Policy, said in an interview earlier that the engagement policy was the right remedy to deal with the North.
The North Korea expert applied for the DP's selections of candidates running in the proportional representation system last year, but later dropped out of the race after learning the odds of his becoming a lawmaker were dismal, although his name was still on the list of candidates.
DP leaders denounced Chung's decision to leave the party, where he was responsible for a variety of leadership posts over the past years since he joined politics in 1996, after resigning as an MBC Nightly News anchor.
Chairman Chung Sye-kyun tried to convince him not to leave the party at the last minute, although he engineered vetoing Chung's candidacy.
The DP chairman said he would not run in his South Jeolla district, the DP's stronghold region, in the next National Assembly elections.
Instead, the DP leader pledged to choose a tougher campaign field to help his party earn more votes.
``Other DP candidates who campaign in districts unfavorable to the opposition party would feel frustrated and disappointed if and when the DP approved of the former unification minister, who ran in a Seoul district a year ago, to run in the DP's stronghold district,'' he said.
``I do not oppose the former unification minister's political comeback. In fact, I will support his return to politics in October, when another by-election will take place in Seoul and other districts, by picking him as a DP candidate,'' the DP chairman pledged.
Former Unification Minister Chung said that he didn't understand why the DP leader unveiled the plan on the same day he was scheduled to declare a bid to run in the election as an independent.
Opinion polls show that Chung would win his hometown district even as an independent. Many observers predicted that the two Chungs would engage in a die-hard power struggle following the by-elections.