By Lee Seung-joon
Newly elected Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s wife has been spotlighted on the Internet as a figure of “face of charisma.”
Kang Nan-hee made her first “public” appearance at a polling station in southern Seoul on Oct. 26, accompanying her husband.
“She is shy in the public. She first wanted to vote separately at a different time, but Park persuaded her to go to the poll with him," said a Park’s spokesperson. He also said that Kang had agreed not to assist her husband in public functions in future, too. The first appearance and her remark have stirred up online users.
Netizens were surprised to see her “charisma and elegance” on TV. “I have been shocked,” a netizen said.
Kang married Park in 1982. She took care of their home by running an interior design shop, P&P Design since 1999. They have a son and a daughter.
The lawyer-turned-civic activist Park thanked her during the campaign and said, "She had to work hard in business to earn a living for our family on behalf of her civic activist husband."
However, Park was troubled with the design firm which was reported to have won orders for the interior work of shops newly opening from the charity, the Beautiful Foundation, headed by him.
Park strongly disagreed and said, “I feel sorry for my family to have to have suffered from a negative campaigning from the ruling party.”