Moon Jae-in, former chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, on Monday initiated his campaign for the upcoming presidential election by preregistering himself as a candidate.
His official entry into the presidential race came amid the Constitutional Court’s move to speed up the impeachment trial of President Park Geun-hye, as well as the rapid rise of in-party rival An Hee-jung.
“Upon his candidate registration today, Moon shall move forward with the people to achieve a change of government,” said Rep. Kim Kyung-soo, a close ally of Moon, who submitted the application form to the party headquarters on his behalf.
In the afternoon, Moon visited the Korea Infrastructure Safety and Technology Corp., as his first official act as presidential candidate. He is also slated to visit the Honam region -- Gwangju and the surrounding Jeolla provinces -- where the liberal opposition has long enjoyed sturdy support.
Rep. Kim also heralded a competition against South Chungcheong Gov. An, who has recently risen strongly in public polls, catching up with front-runner Moon.
“(Moon) will contest tightly yet fairly against other candidates of our parties, and also join forces with them so as to create a whole new Republic of Korea,” he said.
Moon and An, as well as Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung, will be vying for the party’s candidacy in a primary.
A Realmeter survey conducted for the second week of February placed An second among potential presidential candidates, with a 16.7 percent support rating.
Though Moon continued to keep the lead for the sixth straight week, the gap between him and runner-up figure An has continued to shrink as the latter has gained momentum since announcing his election bid on Jan. 22.
Over the past weeks, while most of his rivals announced their would-be candidacy, Moon had been putting more emphasis on urging for President Park’s impeachment. He had also been prioritizing policies, in an apparent move to differentiate himself from his in-party rivals.
Moon’s representative slogan is to become an “employment president,” a plan to create some 810,000 new jobs in core sectors including the civic society.
“We don’t mean to say that a total of 810,000 new jobs will be created in the public sector alone,” said Rep. Song Young-gil, one of the senior lawmakers to join Moon’s camp.
“The idea is first to increase around 174,000 public servants in sectors directly related to people’s safety, and then encourage hiring policies in other sectors, such as education, health care and welfare.”
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
