Yoon Seok-yeol Launches People Power Party Membership Drive: "Feeling Warm-Hearted Visiting Eunpyeong-gu with Middle and High Schools"

"Online Membership Applications Triple After Former Prosecutor General Yoon Joins Party"

Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential primary candidate, is promoting party membership in front of Eungam Station in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, on the 3rd. Photo by National Assembly Press Photographers Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, who joined the People Power Party, began recruiting party members on the 3rd at a park near Eungam Station in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul.

In his greeting, Yoon said, "I received advice that it would be good to visit the Eunpyeong party branch, which fought the hardest in the last general election and made a dramatic turnaround in the April 7 by-election," adding, "Since this is the area where I attended middle and high school, it really feels like coming home, and my heart feels warm."

Wearing a sash that read 'Party Member Recruitment Campaign,' Yoon also met with his former teacher who taught technology and home economics when he was a first-year high school student, as well as alumni.

This move is interpreted as an effort to appeal not only to party members but also to campaign in the Democratic Party's stronghold areas. Seoul Eunpyeong Gap is the constituency of Democratic Party lawmaker Park Ju-min, and Eunpyeong Eul is the constituency of Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Byung-won.

Earlier that day, Yoon also held a meeting with out-of-office party branch chairpersons from the northern Seoul area at the Yeouido party headquarters.

Park Sung-joong, chairman of the Seoul City Party Committee, said, "There were 383 online party memberships in the three days before Yoon's joining, but the number increased more than fourfold to 1,799 in the three days after his joining."

After the meeting, Yoon told reporters, "We will recruit people who have different views from the People Power Party and, beyond ideology, discover many policies that approach the daily lives of the people from a practical perspective." He had lunch with re-elected lawmakers including Park Sung-joong, Song Seok-jun, and Lee Man-hee.