Hyundai Scion Eyes Seoul Mayoral Bid
March 8, 2014 Leave a comment
March 4, 2014, 2:30 PM
Hyundai Scion Eyes Seoul Mayoral Bid
By Kwanwoo Jun
Chung Mong-joon, Hyundai conglomerate scion and former presidential challenger, announced this weekend that he plans to run for Seoul mayor.
Does tycoon-turned-politician Chung Mong-joon really want to be Seoul mayor?
Mr. Chung, Hyundai conglomerate scion and former presidential challenger, has had to repeatedly assure local voters since his weekend announcement that he plans to run for Seoul mayor that he wouldn’t resign while in office to make a presidential bid in 2017.
Mr. Chung is battling widespread speculation that he sees the Seoul mayoral job as a way to catapult himself into presidential office, a route taken by former President Lee Myung-bak. The job of Seoul mayor is widely viewed as the most influential political post outside of central government.
“The job of Seoul mayor is as important as that of president,” Mr. Chung said in an interview with local MBC radio on Monday. “It makes sense for those elected to complete their terms.”
Mr. Chung ran unsuccessfully for president in 2002 and 2012, dropping out of the running midway through both races.
The first hurdle for Mr. Chung in the run up to the June 4 elections to pick mayors, governors and regional education chiefs across the country is to win the ruling party’s primary. Local media have speculated that former Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik is also preparing to seek the ruling party’s nomination.
In a recent opinion poll conducted by the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, Mr. Chung leads with 41.2% support while Mr. Kim has 20.2% backing from Seoul voters.
The same survey shows Mr. Chung and incumbent Seoul mayor Park Won-soon would have a neck-and-neck race with approval ratings of 44.9% and 47.7% respectively, if they compete against each other.
On Sunday, when Mr. Chung, a seven-term lawmaker with a controlling stake in Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., formally announced his bid for mayor he vowed “to stick to the given term” if elected.
As for his stake of about two trillion won ($1.9 billion) in Hyundai Heavy, Mr. Chung said he is ready to follow rules that restrict ownership by elected officials in private businesses. By law, Mr. Chung would need to either sell or entrust his assets to a financial institution that he has no stake in during his time in office.
Despite his denials about the Seoul mayoral run being a tactical move to raise his profile ahead of the next presidential election, Mr. Chung is likely to face continued questioning.
“I’ll have to think about it later if the time comes for me to do so,” Mr. Chung told the local radio station when asked if he would run again for the presidency in the future.
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