Park foregoes formalities

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon will forego the traditional inauguration ceremonies, opting to make his pledge online, city official said Wednesday.

According to a Seoul Metropolitan Government source, Park will hold his inauguration in his office and broadcast it live for an hour next Wednesday.

“The Seoul city hall homepage will be revamped to feature the inauguration in a live streaming broadcast,” said the city official, who declined to give his name.

“The inauguration preparations are being made to include the public’s comments sent in through social networking services.”

Social networking services have become a strong tool for election campaigning, as made apparent by Park’s following and influence on sites like Twitter.

This is will be the first time a mayoral inauguration will be done in such a fashion, reflecting Park’s distaste for traditional ceremonies that he describes as expensive, authoritative and complex.

The city also said that the live online broadcast will cut costs, bypassing the need to prepare large facilities and send thousands of invitations to participants.

“Holding an inauguration with invited public figures costs too much and is too traditionally set in stone. We will prepare it to make it worth while,” said Park during a press conference last Thursday.

Park also met with more than 70 members of the foreign press to address their concerns and questions.

“I have seen developments and changes in Seoul through the foreign press,” said Park.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)