hankyoreh

When Moon Kook-hyun, former CEO of Yuhan Kimberly Co., declared his bid for the presidency on August 23, his approval rating was just around 1 percent. At the time, the opinions of the nation’s political pundits were mixed as to whether the successful businessman would succeed in politics as well. Now, with increased support from within his newly-formed party and rising popularity in the polls, it seems as though Moon is gaining some valuable ground. He still has a long way to go, however, before he is able to captivate the large proportion of the electorate he will need to come from behind and win the race.

Two months ago, Moon formed his own political party, tentatively titled the Changjo Hankuk (Create Korea) Party. The party is aiming to found a central party on December 3 and obtained approval rating of 7.6 percent.

According to various opinion polls which were conducted last week, Moon finished in the third position after the Grand National Party’s Lee Myung-bak and the United New Democratic Party’s Chung Dong-young.

Just as President Roh Moon-hyun enjoyed a wave of support from the so-called “Rohppa,” or “Roh mania,” during the 2002 presidential election, Moon has loyal fans who call themselves members of the group, “Moonppa.” Is Moon’s political experiment succeeding?

This seems to be the case, as even people from Moon’s camp are impressed. Rep. Kim Young-choon, who is Moon’s chief campaigner and broke away from the UNDP to join Moon’s camp, said on October 23 that he had high praise for Moon’s unexpectedly good performance in the polls, though he had not, up until recently, had the backing of a formal party.

Moon’s success has resulted in part from his personal character and charisma, though the failed UNDP primary has also played a role.

An opinion poll conducted by The Hankyoreh last week showed that the UNDP primary and Moon’s strong performance are closely connected.

Moon’s supporters include a considerable number of former key supporters of the pro-government, but now defunct, Uri Party who are also disappointed in the UNDP. This kind of situation is favorable to Moon but is also a reason why Moon’s approval rating is unlikely to surpass 10 percent.

Im Sang-ryeol, head of the polling company Research Plus, noted that Moon’s supporters are mainly former supporters of the liberal camp and are largely composed of white-collar workers from Seoul in their 30-40s, adding, “It is essential for Moon to expand his support base in order to obtain an approval rating higher than 10 percent.”

Moon’s campaign is very much aware that their candidate has not yet won the hearts of people in their 20s, women and blue-collar workers, but knows that his prospects are bright. Goh Won, an official on Moon’s campaign staff, expressed the optimistic view that Moon will easily be able to increase his approval rating.

Feeling the need to organize an official campaign, Moon established his campaign headquarters with former lawmaker Chung Bum-koo, Rep. Kim Young-choon and drama producer Im Jin-taek at the helm.

Some people, however, remain skeptical. Professor Lee Jun-han at Incheon National University, said, “He doesn’t seem to be able to make people to believe that he will succeed as a politician. Politicians should be flexible enough to absorb the good aspects of their opponents views, but most of Moon’s messages are negative, giving impression that he will not listen to what people say.”

Professor Kim Hyeong-joon of Myongji University said, “Due to his short political career, Moon has not had a chance to let people know about who he is and he doesn’t have much time left to do so. He is taking steps on the snow, but hasn’t yet produced a ‘snowball effect.’”

Kim Hun-tae, Moon’s close aide, said, “Moon’s supporters are mainly reform-oriented middle class people living in metropolitan areas and are also part of the Honam region. We plan to expand our support base to include those who turned away from the United New Democratic Party and to supplement our weaknesses by reaching out to women’s organizations and labor groups.”

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