Change of stance seen as move to make up for image tarnished by attacks


The race for Seoul mayor is to intensify this week as liberal candidate Park Won-soon launched an aggressive counterattack against the ruling party’s negative campaigning.

The liberal bloc’s unified candidate, together with the main opposition Democratic Party, on Monday ratcheted up criticism of the ruling Grand National Party and its candidate Na Kyung-won.

“Negative and false propaganda is a specialty of the GNP,” said Park during his campaign tour on Monday afternoon.

He also referred to Na as an imitation of former Mayor Oh Se-hoon and blamed him for insisting on depriving students of free school meals.

The liberal candidate also attacked the GNP.

“I am skeptical of how the GNP could accuse me of military evasion, real estate speculation and academic record forgery, considering its history of law violations and irregularities,” he said.

The strong words were in contrast to the civic activist’s previously defensive attitude.

“The reason I challenged politics was in order to suggest an alternative to the current Lee Myung-bak administration and its poor achievements,” said Park.

“Though I first hesitated to take this rugged path, I am now to dedicate myself fully to the mission, no matter how harsh.”

While countering the GNP’s accusations, the liberal candidate also continued to promote welfare policies such as free school meals and day care.

Park’s rival Na, on the other hand, focused on touring Seoul’s northern districts and stressed her policy of cutting credit card commission fees to help small-sized enterprises.

“Should I be elected mayor, I shall strongly back small-sized manufacturers and sellers,” Na said.

She also visited a nursery and highlighted her daycare policies, claiming that childcare welfare plans would be her top priority as Seoul’s mayor.

The party’s former chairwoman and presidential potential Rep. Park Geun-hye, too, came out to back Na.

Park, who previously refrained from much involvement in the race, has spent four of six campaign days so far in Seoul. The official campaign kicked off Oct. 13.

Na also suggested that she and her liberal opponent confront each other in an in-depth open forum before next Wednesday’s final showdown.

“Na seems to be a confident speaker but I am a man of actions,” Park said in response.

Na has been steadily catching up with Park in most of the recent public polls.

In a survey by Hankyoreh on Monday, Na won 51.3 percent of the respondents’ votes, beating Park by 5.5 percent.

Though she is ranked second in other polls, the figures were a considerable change from Park’s sweeping lead in the early stages of the mayoral race.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)