Election war between Cho and Lee in Seocho district

As lawmaker Kim Hoe-sun gave up running for Seoul`s Seocho district, the position will be competed by two female politicians who are both close allies with President Park Geun-hye. They are Cho Yoon-sun, former spokeswoman and former gender equality minister, and Lee Hye-hoon, former supreme council member of the Saenuri Party. Seocho district is traditionally highly supportive of the ruling Saenuri Party, to the point that nomination guarantees a win. As such, the announcements of candidacy by each of them held at the National Assembly with a 15 minute gap on Monday garnered much attention.

Lee is an economist, a member of Seoul National University alumni and a Ph.D. in economics at UCLA. She worked as an economist at Korea Development Institute, and is daughter-in-law of former home affairs minister Kim Tae-ho. Lee admitted that she “devoted all 10 years of her political career into making President Park Geun-hye.” She had conflicts with Park, however, around the presidential election. That may be why she has recently turned critical toward Park on her economic policies. She is also very close to Rep. Yoo Seung-min of the Saenuri Party.

Cho Yoon-sun is also an SNU alumni and is a “Cinderella” who entered the political circle as a lawyer and deputy governor of Citi Bank Korea. She earned trust by President Park after displaying professionalism as a lawyer and cultural sensitivity as a writer of a book on opera, as well as mild and friendly personality. Although she stepped down from the senior presidential secretary for political affairs, taking responsibility for deadlock over civil service pension reform, some expect that her running for Seocho district represents President Park’s unchanged support.

Polls show that Cho is more appealing to male voters while Lee has more female supporters. Cho is known to make people believe that they are respected. Many male reporters say that she looks prettier in person than how she appears on TV. On the other hand, Lee gives a smart impression to viewers or listeners of TV and radio broadcasts. That may be the reason why she is liked by many housewives. Personally as a woman, it is a shame that such rare female resources are playing a game where one cannot but kill the other.

shchung@donga.com