[Newsmaker] Yoon hops on ‘Passion Train’ to woo voters from rival stronghold

YEOSU, South Jeolla Province -- It is Saturday, and People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol is making a grand entrance outside Jeonju Station in North Jeolla Province.

With supporters cheering -- some chanting “President Yoon Suk-yeol” to a drum beat -- Yoon is greeted by party Chairman Lee Jun-seok who arrived at the station on the “Passion Train,” a chartered four-carriage train that the party hired for a tour of the Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces.

This was the scene on day two of the Passion Train’s three-day tour that focused mostly on the Honam region -- the liberal stronghold of north and south Jeolla provinces.

The Passion Train, the slowest tier train the party rented from the Korea Railroad Corp., had departed Friday from Cheonan Station on a tour of 13 cities in the Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces.

“The Honam region has been dominated by a certain political party for some 30 years, and they have made so many enticing pledges, but I’m not sure if any of them have been realized,” Yoon shouted out to the crowd, as election law prohibited him from using loudspeakers. In Korea, certain acts of canvassing are banned before the official period, which starts Tuesday.

Hopping on the Passion Train on the second day of the train’s operation Saturday, Yoon visited Jeonju, Namwon and Sunchang in North Jeolla Province and Suncheon and Yeosu in South Jeolla Province.

Small campaign events followed Yoon’s speech, with Yoon punching train tickets given to young supporters in their 20s.

 

On the station platform, Yoon put on a blue wristband pass given to passengers and hopped on the train. A large crowd continued to follow Yoon along the platform, pushing and shoving as they tried to get a better view of the candidate. Some others, who did not get permission in advance, raised their voices as they attempted to get on the train.

Inside the train, Yoon participated in talk show programs designed to deliver his election pledges and to talk about the cities he visited. The programs invited guests from each city and were livestreamed on YouTube from a makeshift studio in the second car of the train. 

Stopping in Namwon, Yoon was once again surrounded by a similar crowd. In front of the train station, Yoon again denounced the ruling liberal bloc of failing to promote the region’s development.

In the city, Yoon also took a walk around a traditional market to greet the residents and shop owners there -- a routine activity for politicians running in elections here. 

The narrow road of the old market was completely filled with a crowd of supporters, opponents and onlookers, pushing and shoving to get a better view.

Not only reporters, but YouTubers also held up their cameras high as they livestreamed the scene on site.

From Namwon, the train moved on to Yeosu Expo Station, the last destination of the Passion Train for the day. At the port city, Yoon vowed to draw foreign investment, and to reinvigorate Yeosu as a city of tourism. Yeosu was the host city for the Expo 2012.

Not all were supportive of Yoon on his campaign trail. His opponents and the conservative party were spotted where Yoon visited, holding up placards critical of the candidate.

The Korean Railway Workers’ Union members also came to protest at the Passion Train’s departure from Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, Friday, calling out names and claiming that it was “inappropriate” to hire out a publicly owned train for a political campaign. 

Residents who came to see Yoon were largely welcoming.

At Namwon traditional market, a dried seafood shop owner told The Korea Herald the tour was “just a part of an electioneering event.”

“I’m not saying I am going to vote for Yoon, but it is still encouraging when politicians visit our city,” said the shop owner in her late 60s who declined to be named.

Moon Tae-hyun, a 23-year-old university student, was one of Yoon’s supporters who waited in front of Suncheon Station with a camera hoping to take a picture of the presidential candidate.

“I came to see Yoon Suk-yeol. Honam is widely thought of as the stronghold of the liberal bloc, and my parents are also supporters of the Democratic Party. But I am an avid supporter of the conservative People Power Party, and so are many of my friends,” Moon said.

As Yoon repeated his messages in all the stops about regional development, the party also unveiled details of the candidate’s election pledges. As the Passion Train departed before the official canvassing period Friday, the party said all the events during the train travel were part of its policy campaign.

The promises made in cities in North Jeolla Province include building an international airport on the reclaimed land at Saemangeum; the relocation of banks to the province and measures to attract foreign investments to make the province a “financial hub”; and building more roads to improve connectivity between regions.

In South Jeolla Province, Yoon pledged to foster the renewable energy industry, and create a “space and aerospace industry cluster” in Goheung, where the country’s space launch observatory is located.

Yoon Suk-yeol Train renamed into Passion Train

Electioneering tours around regions is a normal part of campaigning for candidates during election season. Yoon has already made visits to several cities, including Jeju, to meet voters there, and so has his main opponent, Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, who rented buses to travel every weekend, under his “Metabus” policy campaign -- the name is short for a Korean phrase meaning a “bus I ride every week.”

But it is the first time that a political campaign team has rented out a train.

According to the People Power Party, it aimed at reaching out to midsize and smaller cities with the use of the train, and stressed that it has been designed to advertise election pledges for the regions.

According to the People Power Party’s party officials, they were cautious in planning the train trip so as not to violate any election laws. While they made sure renting the publicly owned train does not violate any election laws, they had to change the train’s name to Passion Train from the “Yoon Suk-yeol Train” that they first planned.

The Korean election law bans contenders of a national election from canvassing activities before a designated period, and this prohibited the party from naming the car using the candidate’s name, and also from decorating the exterior of the train.

Other canvassing activities, such as distributing name cards and other printed material, installing advertising placards and using trucks with makeshift stages for candidates are all allowed only during the designated canvassing periods.

The passengers on board the Passion Train were also tightly controlled, with the campaign team giving permission after reviewing their identification and COVID-19 vaccine passes. The passengers also paid for the train fees, which cost about 10,000 to 14,000 won.

The party plans to operate the Passion Train for a second trip to visit the southeast -- North and South Gyeongsang provinces, Daegu, Ulsan and Busan -- from Feb. 26.

The party leader Lee Jun-seok is expected to lead the trip, and Yoon may also take part during the two-day trip, the party said.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)