Park Geun-hye announces presidential bid with jobs, welfare pledge

Rep. Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party officially announced her bid Tuesday to become South Korea's first female president, pledging to promote a fair economy, expand welfare and improve relations with North Korea.

"I will devote my everything to make the Republic of Korea a country in which everybody can achieve their dreams," Park said at a press briefing in front of a popular shopping mall in western Seoul. 

It is the second bid for the daughter of late President Park Chung-hee to run for president after she narrowly lost to now President Lee Myung-bak in a 2007 party primary, who is barred from seeking reelection by law. Since then, the 60-year-old has commanded large leads over her rivals in opinion polls.

Park is widely expected to clinch the party's nomination in its primary next month.

"Politicians have been mired in political fights and slandering without caring about matters related to people's livelihoods," Park told hundreds of supporters clad in red, the Saenuri Party's official color. "In my political career, I have kept my promises even if I suffer damage. I have fought to keep promises to the people and I will continue to do so in the future."

Park's election pledges centered on a fair economy, jobs and expanded social welfare in a marked shift to the left, compared with her 2007 pledge that promised small government with fewer taxes and regulations.

"Our economy has put too much emphasis on efficiency, overlooking the importance of fairness. As a result, gaps have widened and inequality worsened," Park told reporters at a press briefing. "We are confronted with the challenge of establishing a fair and transparent market principle to realize economic democratization."

"Economic democratization" has been the centerpiece of Park's campaign platform, although party officials and camp staff differ on the scope and pace of reform measures for the nation's large conglomerates, which were fostered by her father's export-driven development strategy.

Park vowed to eliminate "unnecessary regulations" in order to boost the economy, while implementing tougher rules to make large firms fulfill their social responsibility to realize her goal of fairness.

 She also promised to improve relations with North Korea.

"I will cut the vicious circle of distrust, confrontation and uncertainty to make the first step toward the new Korean Peninsula," Park said.

The unmarried politician has special appeal to many older people, who praise her father's charismatic leadership for achieving rapid economic development and lifting people from poverty in a generation.

"Park Geun-hye was in the Cheong Wa Dae for five years with her father, so she knows about politics," Jung Hyun-sung, 72, said, referring to the presidential office while showing an album of late President Park Chung-hee. "She doesn't have a husband, children, so she wouldn't commit corruption for them."

Park's supporters say they want her to be the next leader as she is well prepared to take the top office with her experience as a de-facto first lady after her mother was assassinated in 1974 when she was 22. Since then, Park stood by her father's side and played the first lady's role until the general-turned-president was killed by his spy chief in 1979.

"She learned from politics from an early age. She doesn't lie.

Most politicians reverse their words, but she doesn't," Kim Jae-kyung, 70, said. "I believe she'll be a good president. As a woman, I want to see a female president in my lifetime."

But the disciplined, soft-spoken lawmaker is desperately seeking ways to get more support from younger, urban voters, who consider her father a dictator who ruled the country with an iron fist for 18 years, and are unhappy with the tight job market in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

Ahead of her announcement, a group of college students staged a rally to demand Park make greater efforts to cut high tuition rates and provide more jobs to college graduates.

"If you want to become the next president, you have to first cut the tuition by half to help college students attend school without financial problems," said Ahn Jin-kul, a college student.

"You have to first take care of youths who suffer from financial burden and the tight job market."

During Tuesday's event, Park answered questions written on cards from participants and joined her supporters in singing upbeat songs in an attempt to shake off her aloof, aristocratic image.

Although she has long been in the public sphere, her private life has been veiled, even sparking curiosity as to why she has maintained the same hairstyle for decades.

"We picked this venue to allow more people to communicate with Park and have fun," said Cho Yoon-sun, the spokeswoman for Park's camp. "Our campaign will put a focus on communications." (Yonhap News)