By Kang Seung-woo
High-profile veteran politicians are seeing their political careers end prematurely as lesser-known political novices put up more of a fight than expected in Wednesday’s general election.
Rep. Park Jie-won of the minor opposition Minsaeng Party, a four-term lawmaker best known as former President Kim Dae-jung’s chief of staff, was behind ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate Kim Won-I, 45.2 percent to 39.2 percent in the electoral district of Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, as of 11 p.m. Kim is a former deputy mayor for political affairs at the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
Chun Jung-bae, another Minsaeng Party lawmaker, is seeing his bid for a seventh term potentially stopped by the DPK’s Yang Hyang-ja in Gwangju’s Seo-B District. In his run in the quadrennial election, he was behind the former Samsung Electronics executive by nearly 60 percentage points. Four years ago, Chun, a former justice minister, easily beat Yang 54.5 percent to 31.5 percent.
Rep. Chung Dong-young, also of the Minsaeng Party, is also seeing his influence diminish in his district of Jeonju-C in North Jeolla Province as he appears to be on the verge of suffering a defeat to former Assemblyman Kim Sung-ju of the DPK by a wide margin ― 69.5 percent to 29.3 percent. Chung was a former unification minister under the Roh Moo-hyun administration and also ran unsuccessfully for president in 2007.
