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Most agree her sights are set on presidency
Park Geun-hye resigned on Friday after more than two years as chairwoman of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP). Her move is part of preparations to run for the presidency next year. "I really hope that this moment will be a starting point for regime change," Park said during her resignation speech at GNP headquarters in Seoul.Ms. Park has not confirmed that she will now prepare for the December 2007 presidential elections, but her departing remarks hinted at the intention. According to party regulations, any office holders are required to give up their posts at least a year and six months before the presidential election if they want to be considered a candidate. The resignation was attended by 500 party officials and others, including Lee Myung-bak, the outgoing Seoul mayor, and Oh Se-hoon, Seoul’s mayor-elect. Mayor Lee has said he will resign from his post next week, also with an eye on the presidential bid. Ms. Park, a daughter of Park Chung-hee, South Korean military dictator during the 1960s and ’70s, entered politics in 1998. Since her inauguration as GNP head in March 2004, she has been at the helm of several victorious elections against the ruling Uri Party. On March 23, 2004, just after the controversial GNP bid to impeach President Roh Moo-hyun, Ms. Park led her party to secure 121 seats in the National Assembly. At the end of last month, the GNP swept the nationwide local-level elections. During her tenure, Ms. Park has seen her party’s approval ratings rise over 50 percent, in spite of backlash for the impeachment call. Ms. Park is also credited with injecting democratization into the party, decentralizing its nominative authorities. But she also has faced criticism for her conservative stances on certain pending issues, such as a controversial revision of policy in South Korean private education and an alleged lack of a clear vision for South Korea’s future.
