By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter


Pledging to revive the ruling camp’s plunging popularity, former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young Wednesday announced he would run for Uri Party chairmanship at its national convention next month.

``I feel grave responsibility (for the party’s falling approval ratings) as one of those who spearheaded the move to create this party,’’ Chung, who briefly served as the Uri Party’s chairman before entering the Cabinet in August 2004, told a press conference at the party headquarters in Seoul.

Pledging to win back the No. 1 place in public approval ratings, Chung called on Uri Party members to help him create the ``miracle’’ of winning the local elections in May.

``Everybody says it’s useless to expect something from the May elections. I find the situation indeed hard,’’ Chung said. ``But leadership matters in politics just as the role of the CEO matters in enterprises. The public will give us another chance if our party members respect each other and cooperate.’’

Chung, a broadcast journalist-turned-politician, was among some 40 lawmakers to defect from the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), now the Democratic Party, and form the ruling Uri Party in 2003 under a banner of ``reform.’’

Opposition parties, which greatly outnumbered the Uri Party in the legislature at that time, impeached President Roh Moo-hyun, who won the 2002 presidential election on the MDP’s ticket, in March 2004. The impeachment was viewed negatively by the public and the ruling party rode on this sentiment to sweep the parliamentary elections that April.

Chung briefly served as chairman of the ruling party during the election campaign but stepped down after he sparked a controversy by implying the elderly did not need to vote in the polls. Shortly after, Roh appointed him unification minister and chairman of the presidential National Security Council.

Since then, Chung has received considerable international media attention as South Korea’s point man on North Korean affairs. He met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in June last year as a special envoy from the president. That meeting is believed to have created momentum for the resumption of the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs.

The nation’s conservatives, including the largest opposition Grand National Party (GNP), however, have criticized Chung for what they claim is a pro-North Korean stance, as the 53-year-old has been preaching the importance of more inter-Korean economic cooperation as the way to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Chung is viewed as one of the leading candidates to win the ruling party’s ticket to contest the 2007 presidential election. Taking over the Uri Party chairmanship at this time would provide a strong platform to secure the primary nomination, experts said.

saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr