Rep. Park downplays alliance move

Park Geun-hye, the presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, holds up a shirt featuring a design based on the nation’s eastern islets of Dokdo at an event at the Press Center in downtown Seoul, Wednesday. Japan has ramped up its claim to the rocks in recent months. / Yonhap

Saenuri candidate focuses on support in Gyeongsang provinces

By Jun Ji-hye

Park Geun-hye, the ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate, downplayed two liberal candidates’ agreement on a unified candidacy, describing it as unrelated to the people’s livelihood Wednesday.

The conservative standard bearer raised the question whether the liberal contenders’ will able to protect the nation from the constant threat from North Korea.

“I doubt if they have the will to protect the Northern Limit Line (NLL),” she said referring to the Democratic United Party’s Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo.

She made the comment during an event organized by a national policies advisory committee at the party’s headquarters in Seoul.

“How can they overcome the nation’s crisis with just an event unrelated to the people’s lives? We cannot entrust them with the nation’s security and future because their stance on the NLL is still not clear.”

“If you are a national leader, you have to clarify your stance on national security. The Saenuri Party must win in the December’s election to save this country,” she added.

This was the first time for Park to directly condemn the opposition attempt to field a single candidate. Election watchers say such a statement reflects Park and the party becoming growingly nervous about the move toward a single liberal opponent.

The ruling party went all out to woo support from regions where it has been suffering from signs of declining support.

The party has decided to focus on the southwestern Gyeongsang provinces and Busan. Experts say Park has little chance of winning the presidential poll unless she manages to garner more than 60 percent of support in the region.

But recent surveys have shown that opposition candidates had fared better there.

It also plans to intensively target the 5 percent swing voters in order to narrow the gap with a unified candidate in opinion polls.

Especially the party is poised to target Ahn who has been showing stronger strength than Moon in a two-way hypothetical race with Park.

The move also came because of the Seoul mayoral

by-election

last year. The then

Grand National Party

(now the

Saenuri

Party

) candidate

Na

Kyung-

won who was supported by Park

was beaten by independent

Park Won

-

soon

who took advantage of Ahn’s support.

Meanwhile, the daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee continued to play the gender card in response to her counterparts who dominated the media headlines with their alliance meeting.

The 60-year old conservative held a “Girl Two” meeting with

Kim Sung

joo,

Sungjoo Group CEO and co-chairperson of the park’s election committee at Seoul Women’s University. While having a conversation with 400 female university students, Park pledged to create a social atmosphere where women can follow their dreams.

She stressed the need for the nation to elect its first female president, calling it a necessity in male-dominated politics.