Park, Moon compete to win over battleground central region

Korea's two leading presidential candidates headed to a key battleground region Wednesday in an apparent effort to secure a lead early on in their official campaigns ahead of the Dec. 19 election.

The 22-day official campaigning period started Tuesday with ruling party candidate Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) locked in a fierce battle to bring victory to their respective conservative and liberal camps.

Competition is expected to heat up as both sides try to appeal to supporters of the highly popular liberal independent Ahn Cheol-soo, who dropped out of the race last week.

Park, the 60-year-old standard-bearer of the Saenuri Party, is aiming to become South Korea's first woman president on the back of her widespread popularity among conservatives and supporters of her father, the late President Park Chung-hee, while the 59-year-old Moon represents the liberals' call to take back power from the ruling camp.

Both candidates made numerous stops throughout the day across the central South Chungcheong Province, with Park scheduled to finish the day in the southern part of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds the capital city of Seoul.

Voters in South and North Chungcheong Province have effectively determined the winner of each presidential election in the past.

Park gained considerable popularity in the region in the past few years by defending the previous administration's plan to build a new city there to serve as an administrative hub and contribute to economic growth in the regions. The incumbent Lee Myung-bak administration had tried to scrap the plan.

However, recent public opinion surveys have suggested she may be losing ground to her rival. A survey jointly conducted by the Donga Ilbo newspaper and local pollster Research and Research showed the two candidates competing neck-and-neck with 45 percent and 44.6 percent, respectively.

Both sides became increasingly aggressive in their campaigns as they blamed each other for the failures of past administrations and claimed to have the solutions to people's concerns.

"Does it make sense to demand to take back power after losing the precious opportunity the people gave them?" Park said in a speech in Hongseong, 157 kilometers south of Seoul. "If (the DUP) takes power, they will once again get lost in ideologies that have nothing to do with people's lives, split the nation into two, and intensify conflict and division."

The five-term lawmaker was referring to the 2003-2008 liberal administration of late President Roh Moo-hyun under whom Moon served as chief of staff.

Under Roh, the country saw a growth in irregular jobs, wider polarization, and record-high college tuition fees and real estate prices, Park claimed.

Moon made a stop in the central city of Daejeon and held his rival responsible for what he called a "breakdown" in state affairs over the past five years under Lee.

"The Lee Myung-bak government has done nothing good and (deserves) a zero (out of a score of 100)," he said in a speech in front of a train station. "Park, the presidential candidate of the Saenuri Party, is jointly responsible for the 'zero-score government.'"

The former human rights lawyer claimed the Lee government failed to make improvements on the issues of democracy, inter-Korean relations, national security and ethics.

"Park, a top heavyweight of the failed administration, should be judged together with the Lee Myung-bak government," he said.

On the legacy of the Roh administration, he acknowledged there were "many weak areas" but gave it a score of 70. (Yonhap)