TV endorsement speeches begin

By Jung Min-ho

Sung Kim, U.S. Ambassador to Korea, arrives at the headquarters of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to discuss countermeasures regarding North Korea’s planned rocket launch, Monday. / Yonhap

Backers of Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in began a televised series of endorsement speeches Sunday and Monday respectively in support of the respective presidential candidates ahead of the Dec. 19 presidential election.

To start, Park chose a middle school alumnus and Moon selected a factory worker he helped when working as human rights lawyer to highlight their humanity instead of focusing on the competitiveness of their policies.

Starting with an informal greeting, “Hi Geun-hye,” Park Bong-sun, the ruling Saenuri Party candidate’s friend from Sacred Heart Girls’ Middle School, described Park as a “genuine and down-to-earth” individual who is most suitable for the nation’s top job.

In her personalized letter format speech, she said, “Going to the same school with you, I really didn’t feel that you were the president’s daughter. You were just like me. If you bragged about who you were, I probably wouldn’t be here today.

“Do you remember the students gathering around you when you opened your lunch box? Frankly, I was disappointed with the boiled barley and rice in it, expecting the president’s daughter would eat something different. But it wasn’t the case,” Park continued.

Her emotional speech reached fever pitcher as she illustrated how the candidate undauntedly coped with her mother and former first lady Yuk Young-soo’s assasination in 1974. She said, “When I saw you trying hard to pull yourself together, my heart just shattered.”

For Moon, Busan shoe factory worker Kim Sung-yeon shared her experience with the former human rights lawyer who actively fought for laborers’ rights in the 1980s.

In her 20-minute speech, she said she cannot forget Moon’s efforts to improve the lives of the people in poverty at that time when the reality was especially stark for those who were not privileged saying, “I want to live in a world where Moon is president.”

“Working conditions during that time for the factory workers was harsh and people in power didn’t listen to our voice. At that time, Moon, who himself went through similar poverty in his childhood, was the only person we could rely on,” Kim said. “I met him in 1988 when I moved to a different factory where my co-workers and I were excessively exploited, working double shifts without proper compensation. He defended us at court for fair treatment and he has become our hope ever since.”

People who are privileged cannot fully grasp the lives of ordinary people and the candidates’ lives simply show who they really are, Kim said, noting “I don’t trust politicians’ hollow promises before elections.”

The next speech for Park will be handed over to the president of the Korea Association of the Deaf on Monday, while Moon’s is undecided.