The ruling Saenuri Party's presidential candidate Park Geun-hye on Wednesday visited former President Kim Young-sam, one of her most outspoken critics, to highlight the need to overcome past differences and seek national unity.
The courtesy call paid two days after she won Saenuri's primary follows on her surprise visit to the gravesite of late President Roh Moo-hyun, who has become an icon for the opposition ahead of the Dec. 19 presidential election.
Kim, South Korea's president from 1993 through 1998, openly attacked Park's leadership style in the past as being dogmatic and doubted her overall capabilities as a politician. He had also been a key political opponent of Park's late father President Park Chung-hee.
The late Park took power in a 1961 coup and is credited with bringing about South Korea's economic success, but at the same time, he is roundly criticized for suppressing political dissent and cracking down on people calling for democracy such as Kim.
During the meeting held in Kim's home, Park said in order for the country to make another leap forward, there is a need for national unity.
"There is a lot of discord in the country," Park said, and asked Kim to watch over her effort to cope with social conflict.
The former president said South Korea is facing hard times in the economic and diplomatic spheres and within society, and stressed the importance of a ruling party candidate overcoming such difficulties.
Kim, in addition, deplored what he claimed was a lack of patriotism by politicians.
The latest visit comes as the five-term lawmaker made clear she seeks to overcome the idealogical, regional divide that exists in the country as well as differences between those that contributed to South Korea's rapid industrialization and people who helped transform the country into a democracy.
"There is a need to transcend all differences so everyone can move forward together," she said in her presidential nominee acceptance speech.
On coping with a standoff with North Korea that has split public opinion, Park advocated a return to dialogue.
"It is not right for the government to pretend that North Korea did not take the lives of many youths, but it is equally not appropriate to allow the current state of affairs to continue," she said in a meeting with reporters.
Relations between the two country have deteriorated sharply under President Lee, with Seoul blaming North Korea for the sinking of one of its warships in March 2010 and the shelling of a border island in the Yellow Sea later the same year. The two incidents claimed the lives of 48 solders and two civilians, and the sinking resulted in a halt to most inter-Korean exchanges that some claim has escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Park, however, made clear Seoul must not permit any country to threaten its security.
Reflecting the need to reach out to her critics, Park called on former first lady Lee Hee-ho in the afternoon.
Lee is the widow of late President Kim Dae-jung, a prominent politician who was incarcerated several times by past authoritarian administrations for his political views. Lee is a political activist in her own right and has supported the opposition and expressed reservations about the incumbent Lee Myung-bak administration. Park visited the grave of Kim Dae-jung at the National Cemetery on Tuesday.
In the 10-minute meeting, the former first lady said if Park wins the upcoming presidential race, it will represent a step forward for the country and be a source of pride for women.
She said the Saenuri candidate should try to follow through on the many campaign pledges she is making, and expressed hope that cooperation with North Korea will improve and speed up unification.
Park said she will try not to disappoint the public and confirmed the need to pursue dialogue in handling South-North relations. The presidential hopeful, moreover, touched on her meeting with late President Kim in 2004, when she personally apologized for all the pain suffered by the chief executive under her father's rule.
The string of actions taken by the Saenuri hopeful is seen by political watchers as a way to shed her image as an uncompromising conservative who shuns opponents and does not listen to the views of others.
The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), which has yet to pick a presidential candidate, blasted Park's visits and meetings as a "political show" meant to improve her image.
"There has been no heartfelt remorse or apology by Park in regards to the past wrongdoings committed by her father," said DUP chief Lee Hae-chan. He added Saenuri chairman Hwang Woo-yea's mention of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria in his remarks on Park is troubling because it could be a sign of the type of society pursued by the conservative party if it won the presidency.
Other DUP members said Park has consistently kept silent about a money-for-nomination scandal involving a lawmaker and a former leader of Saenuri's candidate nomination selection committee.
This, they claimed, shows her pledge to carry out political reforms are nothing but rhetoric. (Yonhap)