Chung Sye-kyun announces bid for president

Jun 18, 2021, 08:37 am

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Former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun announced his intention to run for president next year, under the slogan of “Strong Korea, Economic President,” on June 17, 2021./ Source: The official YouTube channel of former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, “Chung Sye-kyun TV”

AsiaToday reporter Jeong Geum-min

Former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Thursday announced his intention to run for president next year, under the slogan of “Strong Korea, Economic President.” It seems he tried to change the situation by stressing that he is more literate in real economies than other competitors with his working experience in a private company for 17 years. The former prime minister received applause for his speech that focused on addressing issues involving the youth, real estate policy and economic growth.

“I will be an economic president of a strong Republic of Korea, who fights all inequalities,” Chung said during an event held in Seoul to kick off his candidacy.

Chung presented three principles for the ‘economic president’ model, in which he vowed to focus investment in innovation sector, make South Korea a country with a per capita gross national income of 40-thousand U.S. dollars, and make a country with strong care.

He proposed a social compromise that calls for freezing dividends for large shareholders of conglomerates and salaries of their executives and workers for three years, and instead increasing their subcontractors’ product prices and wages. He also promised to increase compensation for non-regular workers.

Chung also expressed his will to take the lead in resolving the youth issue by mentioning so-called ‘Future Seed Bankbook’, an individualized 20-year bank account installment program that offers up to 100 million won to each young person seeking financial independence from their parents.

As real estate solutions, he suggested providing public rental homes and apartments. “I will focus on dropping public rental home bombs for young people and ordinary people,” he said. He promised to provide 1 million public rental homes and 30,000 public apartments.

He also emphasized that he is a morally verified leader, saying, “Unverified morality and unexamined possibilities cannot be trusted by the people.” Observers say that his remark was intended to aim at both Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung and former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, who are leading presidential hopeful race.

The ceremony was held as a talk with youths in their 20s and 30s, reflecting the increasing power of young voters. The event was also attended by many lawmakers, including Lee Nak-yon and Chung’s other potential rivals in the DP primary.

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