Park-Chung clash dubbed as dry run for presidential bid

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon visits the construction site of the new Lotte World Tower in Songpa, southern Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

The clash between Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and Rep. Chung Mong-joon in the June 4 local elections is being dubbed as a dry run for the 2017 presidential race.

Chung is a seven-term lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, while Park is a member of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD).

If Chung beats the sitting mayor in June, he will be able to enjoy his rising status as a frontrunner for the governing side in the next presidential poll; and for Park, vice versa.

Chung once challenged his presidential bid in 2002, but had to withdraw his ambition.

Chung, who also served as a vice chairman of football’s world governing body FIFA, lagged behind President Park Geun-hye in popularity in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election and folded his bid.

But the lawmaker, son of the late Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung, maintains the first place as the next presidential candidate representing the conservative camp, receiving 15.9 percent ratings in a pollster Realmeter survey, conducted last week.

Park has yet to show his presidential ambitions. Like Chung, he said that he wanted to devote himself to the second term, if he wins re-election.

“The Seoul mayoral post is a huge responsibility itself. I am different from previous mayors (who used the position as a steppingstone for their presidential bids),” said Park.

But he has been also cited as one of the formidable presidential candidates among the opposition figures, given his close relations to Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chairman of the NPAD. Ahn’s support contributed a lot to Park’s victory in the 2011 Seoul mayoral election against Na Kyung-won of the then Grand National Party (now Saenuri).

The two candidates stressed that the most significant task the next Seoul mayor should deal with is keeping Seoul citizens safe.

Park called for bipartisanship on Monday to draw up safety measures to prevent recurrence of tragic accident such as ill-fated ferry Sewol that sank off the southwest coast last month claiming hundreds of lives of passengers, mostly high school students who were on a school trip.

The recent opinion poll showed that Park is currently enjoying a lead against Chung, as he received 45.9 percent to Chung’s 30.5 percent in survey conducted by Hyundai Research from Friday to Monday.