Ex-Startups Minister Park Young-sun declares bid for Seoul mayor

All News 13:38 January 26, 2021

SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Yonhap) -- Former Startups Minister Park Young-sun on Tuesday declared a bid to run for Seoul mayor in the upcoming April by-election.

Park, also a former four-term lawmaker affiliated with the ruling Democratic Party (DP), will compete with another four-term DP lawmaker Rep. Woo Sang-ho to win the party's ticket for the April 7 by-election for Seoul mayor.

"In order to go beyond the hardships and difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic to finally witness the moment of recovery and rebound, Seoul needs a mayor who (can open up) the spring season," she said in a press conference.

Park also proclaimed a "great transformation" as her post-COVID-19 innovation vision for the South Korean capital city, adding she will make the city safer, fairer and more friendly.

Under the vision, Park plans to organize Seoul into 21 self-sufficient subunits within which every kind of trip is possible in 21 minutes, according to her.

She also cited housing issues, low youth employment, low birthrates and falling profits of small business owners as policy priorities for her Seoul mayoral candidacy.

In a recent opinion poll that pits Park against Ahn Cheol-soo, the leader of the minor opposition People's Party who is the clear front-runner in the mayoral race, she was lagging behind Ahn by a margin of 8 percentage points.

The Seoul mayor seat has been left vacant since the death of Park Won-soon in July. He was found dead on a mountain in Seoul in an apparent suicide after he was accused of sexually assaulting his former assistant.