Election defeat leaves PM’s fate uncertain

By Na Jeong-ju

Staff reporter

He had mainly been a successful professor before becoming the country's 40th prime minister on Sept. 29 last year.

Recognized as a prominent economist, Chung Un-chan earned his cachet by being critical of the government's economic policies and was once touted as a potential liberal candidate for the next presidency.

So it came as a big surprise when he agreed to work for a conservative government. Despite angry reactions from liberals, it was a matter of personal choice after all.

His first task as prime minister was to revoke a five-year-old project to build an administrative town in South Chungcheong Province and turn it instead into an industrial complex heavily invested in by the chaebol.

After almost 10 months in office, however, the former Seoul National University president is still stuck in the mire, struggling to find a breakthrough amid fierce opposition from residents and falling between a factional divide inside the ruling Grand National Party (GNP).

Unfortunately, he is under growing pressure to resign to take responsibility for the GNP's unexpected defeat in the June 2 local elections. Opposition parties and independent candidates swept mayoral and gubernatorial posts that were up for grabs in the Chungcheong provinces.

On Friday, media reports said he had offered to resign at his meeting with President Lee Myung-bak. Chung's office immediately denied the reports, but it is true that his fate has become increasingly uncertain.

Lee's aides said the President may conduct a sweeping reshuffle of the Cabinet and the presidential secretariat in July or August to chart a new policy roadmap aimed at creating momentum for his reform drive.

The fate of the revised development plan for Sejong City has been thrown into doubt, too.

"The election results suggest that residents don't like the revised plan at all. We need to start everything from scratch when it comes to the revision," GNP lawmaker Lee Hahn-koo said Monday.

South Chungcheong governor-elect Ahn Hee-jung, a former aide to the late ex-President Roh Moo-hyun, has also pledged to use all possible means to block the revisions and revive the administrative town project.

The biggest challenge for the 61-year-old prime minister is the negative sentiment among Chungcheong residents.

When Chung visited Daejeon in December, protesters threw eggs at the bus he was on, calling Chung, a native of Gongju in South Chungcheong Province, a "traitor." Some protesters wore masks with an "X" mark to oppose the revision.

It is also very unlikely that Rep. Park Geun-hye, the leader of the GNP's second largest faction, will drop her opposition to the amended plan.

Chung has sought her help to secure an early National Assembly passage of the revision, but the former GNP chairwoman has made it clear that she won't back the project.

불투명해진 총리의 운명

40번 째 총리가 되기 전 성공한 교수의 길을 걸었던 정운찬 총리가 사임의 위기에 처해 있다.

총리가 되기 전 정총리는 정부 경제 정책에 비판적이었고, 진보 진영의 차기 대통령 후보로도 거론되었기 때문에, 그가 현 보수정부를 위해 일하겠다고 선언했을 때 사람들은 놀라움을 감추지 못했다. 성난 진보층을 뒤로한 개인적인 선택이었다.

그의 첫 번째 임무는 5년동안 진행되던 행정도시 건설사업을 백지화하고, 그것을 재벌이 투자하는 산업단지로 탈바꿈시키는 것이었다. 하지만 그가 총리직을 맡은 지 10개월 만에 여당내 내분과 지역 주민의 반대에 부딪혀 아직도 그 난제에 매달려 있다.

6월2일 지방선거에서 여당이 참패하고 충청지역 도지사와 시장 자리를 야당과 무소속이 잡으면서 총리는 사임 해야 할 위기에 놓여있다.

금요일, 일부 언론은 정총리가 이명박 대통령과의 만남에서 사임을 표명했다고 전했고, 총리실은 부인했다. 하지만 그의 앞날이 불투명해진것은 분명해 보인다.

세종시의 운명도 위태로워 보이긴 마찬가지다. 여권 관계자들은 이 대통령이 오는 7월이나 8월 개혁정책을 다시 짜기 위해 내각과 청와대 비서진을 쇄신할것이라고 전했다.