Rep. Kim Moo-sung Takes the Helm of the Ruling Saenuri Party
Rep. Kim Moo-sung Takes the Helm of the Ruling Saenuri Party
  • By cheon tae-un (ctu@koreaittimes.com)
  • 승인 2014.07.25 18:57
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Beating runner-up Suh Chung-won, Kim Moo-sung was elected as leader of the ruling Saenuri Party. Hence he took a giant stride towards winning the ruling party’s nomination for the 2017 presidential election.

Kim Moo-sung, Chairman of Saenuri Party

Five-term lawmaker Kim Moo-sung was elected Chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party at a national convention, beating out runner-up Suh Chung-won hands down. Kim Moo-sung, who has deviated from the so-called pro-Park faction within the party, garnered 52,706 votes while 38,293 votes went to pro-Park Rep. Suh Chung-won.

Kim Moo-sung has been known as a member of the “Sangdo-dong faction,” ― the followers of former President Kim Young-sam. His indirect encounter with the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement prompted him to enter politics. Kim started off as an aide to former President Kim Young-sam. After serving as Vice Minister of Home Affairs, he was elected as a New Korea Party (Sin Han-gukdang) lawmaker in the 15th parliamentary elections, thus advancing into the nation’s political centerstage. He also assumed various senior party positions, such as floor leader, a member of the supreme council, secretary general, etc. His ties with President Park Geun-hye date back to 2005 when then main opposition party leader Park Geun-hye anointed Kim, who had been serving as Chairman of the Finance and Economics Committee at the National Assembly, as Secretary General of the Grand National Party (GNP now Saenuri Party).

As the main opposition party’s secretary general, Kim silently took care of intraparty matters. In 2006, his proposal to set up election camps early for the intraparty race to win the GNP presidential nomination did not sit well with principled Park Geun-hye. In the 2007 intense intraparty head-to-head competition between Lee Myung-bak Park Geun-hye for the GNP presidential nomination, he handled all the details of the party race.

Having failed to run on the GNP ticket in the 18th parliamentary elections (held right after the 17th presidential election) owing to intraparty factional conflicts, Kim ran for a seat in the National Assembly as an independent pro-Park candidate representing Nam-gu Eul district in Busan. He defeated the GNP candidate to become a four-term lawmaker.

At that time, Park Geun-hye encouraged him to come back with electoral victory. Indeed,  Kim made a comeback, gleefully seizing control of the pro-Park faction. However, since 2009, he had failed to see eye to eye with Park Geun-hye on issues regarding the position of the party’s floor leader and the relocation of government ministries to Sejong City.

Kim Moo-sung stood at the forefront of Park Geun-hye’s presidential campaign

Though Kim was humiliatingly denied the party nomination for the 2012 parliamentary elections, he rolled up his sleeves to head up Park Genu-hye’s presidential election camp when the opposition party’s last-minute offensive heated up. In April 2013, he won reelection in youngdo-gu, Busan, successfully returning to the National Assembly in Yeouido as a five-term lawmaker.

Kim’s ascent to the Saenuri Party’s leadership has put him on the fast track to the Saenuri Party nomination for president. In a recent opinion poll, conducted by pollster RealMeter, Kim came out on top with 13.9% of the respondents mentioning Kim as their preferred presidential candidate, 12.6% former Governor of Gyeonggi Province Kim Mun-soo and 9.3% Chung Mong-joon.

 


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