Guess who is in old photos

The way a girl in the left photo poses indicates she is used to being photographed. The big brim circling the round hat she is wearing suggests she is too modern for the black-and-white photo. The girl is Park Geun-hye in her teens.

The boy at center has chubby cheeks that can be overlooked by his penetrating stare. Maybe, he is photographed while lost deep in thought. The hair hanging down over his forehead, however, is the unmistakable giveaway. This is Ahn Chelol-soo.

At right is a middle school student who perhaps is trying to imitate James Dean in the movie, “Rebel without a Cause.” He stands with his feet apart but his face is conspicuous by the absence of defiance. His sneakers look worn. He is Moon Jae-in.

The three are from different backgrounds but are now pursuing the same goal _ becoming president of the nation.

Cheong Wa Dae is no strange place for Rep. Park, the presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, as she was raised in the presidential residence after her late father President Park Chung-hee took power through a military coup in 1961.

In her biography, the 60-year-old recalled, “My childhood in Cheong Wa Dae, however, was full of ‘don’ts’ because of my mother.”

Software millionaire Ahn was an inquisitive, shy boy and used to play with rabbits and hens in the front yard of his family’s home in the southeastern port city of Busan.

Ahn went to medical school “to please his father,” although he wanted to pursue an engineering degree.

Rep. Moon of the main opposition Democratic United Party was an old friend of the late President Roh Moo-hyun and was named his chief of staff. Moon’s father was a laborer working at a prison camp in Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province. To supplement his father’s low salary, his mother had to walk several hours to sell eggs at a market. <The Korea Times/Kang Hyun-kyung>

news@theasian.asia