By Kang Hyun-kyung
Rep. Park Geun-hye, presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, has been eager to sharpen her sense of humor as a campaign tactic to ease her image of being aloof, cold, and inaccessible. So far, her attempts to lighten up have produced mixed results.
On Wednesday night, the presidential candidate visited the busy Dongdaemun shopping district, in Seoul, to woo merchants and shoppers who are mostly in their 20s and 30s.
Park’s popularity among people in these age groups is low, compared with a high level of support among the older generation. The visit was aimed to attract younger voters before the Chuseok holiday which falls on Sunday.
During the trip, the 60-year-old politician picked a blue raincoat at a store and searched for a mirror to see if it suited her after trying it on.
When she could not find a mirror, Park began her joke. “Do you know how devils trouble humans?"
She added, “They display a wide selection of nice hats in a room and let humans try whatever they like.”
“Soon people find that the devil has played a trick on them because the room has no mirrors and people have no idea whether the hat they chose suits them or not,” she said.
Maybe, it was too long or too difficult. Park’s aides laughed immediately after she made such remarks. However, shop owners and people gathered there didn’t seem to get it.
The daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee tried another joke shortly after.
Cho Yoon-seon, a spokeswoman of the Saenuri Party, picked a pair of pants that looked odd and said they were nice.
Park responded, “It’s not Geun-hye style.” People around her laughed because they instantly knew that the context was singer Psy’s globally popular song “Gangnam Style.”
Rep. Park has sometimes used her version of jokes as an icebreaker.
In August, Park tried another joke when delivering a keynote speech to a forum on easing household burdens from college tuition fees held in Seoul. Most of participants of the event were the student leaders of 39 universities who took the forum seriously.
“I am wondering if there is anyone who knows the weight of your loved one’s heart. It’s 2.4 kilogram,” Park said.
Given the average weight of a human heart is approximately 226 to 340 grams, the weight the presidential candidate suggested was huge.
Park explained that those who are in love tend to have rapid heartbeats, “doo-geun doo-geun” in Korean, when they see their loved one.
The pronunciation of doo-geun is equivalent to 1.2 kilogram in Korean. As the word repeats twice, it equals to 2.4 kilogram, she explained.
The reaction from her audience was a bit cool, though a few laughed at that time.