Yoo Seong-min’s political vision was brave and bold: He wanted to resurrect the battered right wing from the aftermath of the scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye and lead a new era of “true conservatism.”

The lofty ambition, as well as his presidential campaign, appeared to suffer a major blow Tuesday, when more than one-third of his party’s lawmakers abandoned him to support the more popular conservative candidate Hong Joon-pyo, who happens to represent everything that Yoo has vowed to reform: moral defects, divisive politics and a lack of long-term vision.


“I never thought it would be easy,” Rep. Yoo said, vowing to carry on with his fight for “rational” conservativism.

“I will continue to the finish line,” the candidate declared in a video posted on Facebook, ruling out the possibility of withdrawing his candidacy.

With 13 lawmakers left and only 20 remaining in the camp, it looks likely that his campaign will lose significant momentum.

The candidate’s support ratings in polls hover at just 3-5 percent, while Hong, the candidate of the Liberty Korea Party, is fast approaching 20 percent in the polls.

Yoo and Hong are as different as the sun and the moon.

While Yoo is well-versed in economic and foreign affairs, and seldom stirs unnecessary controversy with rash remarks, Hong is a firebrand.


Their strategies for the May 9 election have been quite contrasting as well.

Yoo sought to embody the rebirth of conservatives as the standard-bearer of a new political group that broke out of former President Park’s Saenuri Party. Hong resorted to an old, but proven election tactic for conservative voters: framing the election as a showdown between conservative patriots and pro-North Korea leftists.

He called for the unity of all conservative forces behind him to stop Moon Jae-in, the liberal standard-bearer with a “risky” stance on national security, from taking the presidency.

The popularity of Hong and Tuesday’s mass defection of Bareun Party lawmakers to his party reflect that the appeal is working with voters.

“It is a tactic that has proved effective for conservatives,” said Shin Yul, a political professor of Myongji University.

“For conservative voters, what Hong says is more pleasant to hear,” another political observer said. “Yoo’s call for conservative reform urges them to reflect on their flaws” in the election of President Park, which not all of them are ready to admit.

Yoo and Bareun Party lawmakers had joined with liberal forces to impeach the former President Park.

Hong, who kept a low profile in central politics when this happened, had called for leniency for the now-arrested Park, saying only he could help the “truth” behind the scandal involving Park to be revealed.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)