The Outcome of Yoon Seok-yeol Promoting the 'Chungcheong Great Hope' First

Yoon: "Not an Issue to Criticize, Just the Sentiment of Local Residents"
High Democratic Party Support in Daejong, Sejong, Chungcheong
Lee Leads Within Margin in Head-to-Head Race

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] "I was educated in Seoul, but my roots, including my father and cousins, have been in Chungnam for 500 years. Regarding the mention of the 'Chungcheong Daemangron,' I don't think it's necessarily right or wrong to criticize it; I see it as a sentiment of the local people."

This was said by former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, who is running for president, in Daejeon, the starting point of his livelihood campaign "Yoon Seok-yeol Listens." Chungcheong is the only region with a Daemangron (great hope) theory. It is also interpreted as a focused appeal to the Chungcheong public sentiment, given that Chungcheong is considered a swing region.

Daemangron literally means great hope, referring to opinions or discussions that hold great expectations or support for a particular subject or person. The reason the Chungcheong Daemangron exists is that no president has ever come from this region. Although there have been prominent candidates from Chungcheong such as Kim Jong-pil, Lee Hoi-chang, Lee In-je, Ahn Hee-jung, and Ban Ki-moon, none have actually been elected.

However, as Chungnam Governor Yang Seung-jo pointed out, former Prosecutor General Yoon was neither born nor raised in Chungcheong. Yoon’s father, Yoon Ki-jung, an honorary professor at Yonsei University, lived in Gongju and Nonsan, Chungnam, during his childhood. That area still has many residents from the Papyeong Yoon clan. The place where Yoon declared his presidential bid was the Maehun Yun Bong-gil Memorial Hall; Yun Bong-gil, also from the Papyeong Yoon clan, is regarded as a representative independence activist of the Chungcheong region.

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol is meeting with students at KAIST in Eoeun-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon on the afternoon of the 6th to discuss opinions on the nuclear phase-out policy.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Immediately, the Democratic Party of Korea chose Daejeon and Chungnam as the starting points for the regional primary elections to select next year’s presidential candidates, beginning next month. This is the first time the Democratic Party has started its regional primaries in Chungcheong. Usually, they began in Honam or Jeju. While some analyze this choice as considering the hometowns of the presidential candidates running in this primary, others see it as a strategic move to counter former Prosecutor General Yoon, who has promoted the Chungcheong Daemangron.

It is difficult to predict the outcome of the Chungcheong Daemangron, but it seems to be receiving positive evaluations so far. According to a public opinion poll commissioned by Asia Economy to Win-G Korea Consulting, conducted from the 26th to 27th of last month among 1,009 voters aged 18 and over nationwide (100% mobile phone virtual numbers, automated response), the Democratic Party’s support rate in the Daejeon, Sejong, and Chungcheong areas was 39.4%, higher than the People Power Party’s 29.6%. On the other hand, in a head-to-head contest with Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, former Prosecutor General Yoon’s support rate was 43.3%, slightly ahead of Lee’s 40.9% within the margin of error.

The response rate for this survey was 8.5%, and the sample was extracted with weighting by gender, age, and region based on the resident registration population as of the end of January by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For detailed survey information, please refer to the Win-G Korea Consulting website or the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.

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