"Nomadic Life... Growing Impatient"
"Hope Asurapan Stabilizes Quickly"
Hong Joon-pyo, the Mayor of Daegu Metropolitan City, who has consistently voiced criticism of President Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment, has attracted attention by posting a message hinting at his candidacy for the next presidential election.
On the 23rd, Mayor Hong posted a message suggesting his presidential run on his social media (SNS) account. He began by saying, "Nomad life," and added, "The 23rd place I have moved to since birth is Daegu." He continued, "I thought I had come full circle back to where I started, but the thought of having to move again makes the end of the year unsettling."
Mayor Hong said, "I was planning to serve as Daegu mayor for only four years and then graduate, pushing forward the 'Daegu Innovation 100+1' project intensively," adding, "I feel that this period might come sooner, which makes me anxious." He also said, "Elected positions are just passing winds anyway." Finally, he emphasized, "Like a nomad wandering 23 times across South Korea, I have always thought our country is a truly good place to live," and expressed hope that "the chaos will soon stabilize and be resolved."
Earlier, Mayor Hong had made his presidential candidacy a foregone conclusion by criticizing both the ruling and opposition parties amid the impeachment turmoil. On the 20th, he posted on his social media account, "When I was the leader of the Liberty Korea Party in October 2017, an executive from a media company told me during a courtesy visit, 'This impeachment election won't succeed, so the opportunity to be a candidate came to you. If it was going to succeed, you wouldn't have gotten the chance.' Hearing that shocked me deeply," and added, "It meant that even though I had been part of conservative parties for a long time, I was merely an outsider in the Korean conservative forces."
He went on, "The idea that only those from elite families can lead the conservative forces appeared again in the presidential candidate primaries four years later. It was a strange primary where the popular vote won but the party vote lost," and said, "Reagan and Thatcher were outsiders in their conservative parties, and even Trump was an outsider in the conservative party, so why do Korea's vested interests think outsiders are unacceptable, trapped in a logic of protection? That can only be seen as a difference in the maturity of democracy." He also stated, "I really envy Representative Lee Jae-myung in that regard. But this time will be different," emphasizing, "Only outsiders can break the framework of vested interests in Korean society and create a truly advanced nation era."
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