Woo Sang-ho, Reversal Strategy Card: "Democratization Movement Generation Possesses Progressive Orientation"

Late Mayor Park Won-soon called a "Model of Innovation"
Park Young-sun's Campaign Promises Seem "Idle"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] Woo Sang-ho, a candidate in the Democratic Party of Korea's Seoul mayoral primary, is causing controversy one after another. Following his remark that the late Mayor Park Won-soon was a "role model of innovation," he criticized fellow primary candidate Park Young-sun's pledge as "not befitting the Democratic Party."

It appears he is trying to highlight a progressive identity to reverse his significantly lagging position in opinion poll support ratings. The Democratic Party primary consists of 50% opinion poll results and 50% votes from party members, so capturing the so-called ‘party sentiment,’ dominated by the ‘pro-Moon’ faction, is key.

On the 15th, Woo appeared on CBS Radio and said, "It is a continuation of what I have said before?that I will inherit Mayor Park’s successful policies and supplement those that were flawed or lacking." He added, "The late Mayor’s bereaved wife, Kang Nan-hee, wrote a letter in grief, and rather than fully endorsing the entire letter, I wrote it with the intention of comforting the bereaved family as someone who helped Mayor Park’s election three times."

On the 10th, he wrote on Facebook, "Mayor Park was a role model of innovation for me and a comrade with whom I discussed democracy and human rights." In response to criticism including accusations of secondary harm, Woo explained, "At least as someone who lived as an innovator, I will emulate him. I need to learn from democracy, human rights, civic movement innovation, and some innovative policies he implemented after becoming mayor." Within the Democratic Party, the general consensus is to criticize the deceased’s faults but not to deny his entire life, making Woo’s explicit mention of this issue as a candidate unusually notable.

Regarding Park Young-sun’s ‘21-minute compact city’ pledge, which Woo had called "hard to see as a Democratic Party-like pledge" the day before, he again criticized, "Digging underground with taxpayers’ money to create vertical gardens on top where citizens can pick vegetables doesn’t seem like a pledge urgently needed by ordinary people. It somehow looks like a somewhat leisurely pledge." He also described himself as "a generation that participated in the democratization movement and holds progressive aspirations." Starting with a TV debate that evening, five Democratic Party primary candidate debates will be held, and this ‘progressive identity’ dispute is expected to be a major point.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.