Celebs join campaign trail

Entertainers, sports stars livening up election atmoshpere

Since official campaigning for the presidential poll began this week, a number of celebrities have joined forces to support the leading candidates, Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in, in order to charm undecided voters.

Members of the celebrity cast have different supporting roles in the road show revues of political talent on offer. Some accompany their favored candidates at campaign rallies across the nation and are given the task of livening up the atmosphere. Some go on stumping tours to promote either candidate while others assist behind the scenes.

Park, the ruling Saenuri Party’s standard bearer, has a campaign group composed of nearly 120 celebrities including actors, comedians and sports stars, referred to as ‘NURI Stars,’ the Saenuri Party’s name for famous talent who support Park’s bid.

TV actor Song Gi-yoon is head of the celebrity group. A 74-year-old pop singer, Hyun Mi, is also a senior advisor.

The most notable figure, according to some preferences, is probably Lee Juno, who was a member of legendary 1990s male dance act, ‘Seo Tai-ji and Boys.’ He previously expressed conservative political views when he served as an honorary ambassador for a youth body in 2005. Park delivered congratulatory messages at the inaugural ceremony of the association.

Among sports stars, are martial arts fighter Choi Hong-man and defector from North Korea, turned women’s featherweight World Boxing Association champion, Choi Hyun-mi who endorsed the 60-year-old conservative.

When the daughter of late President Park Chung-hee made stumping tours to Daejeon and Sejong City, South Chungcheong Province on the first day of the official campaign, some 30 ‘NURI Stars’ accompanied and supported her.

Meanwhile, the election camp for Moon of the Democratic United Party’s (DUP), has a somewhat different tactic from Park’s organization.

The DUP plans to start a full-scale campaign exploiting the popularity of celebrities during the latter half of the race when it becomes intensively competitive. Indeed, the only celebrity who has appeared for Moon’s official campaign so far is rock singer Jun In-kwon, who sang the national anthem on Moon’s first day of official electioneering.

“Celebrities are not going on the stump in our camp. Rather, they will join events such as concerts. We believe this will boost more popular appeal,” said Rep. Seo Young-kyo who is the joint chair of the stump committee for the Moon camp.

Public figures that support Moon include movie director Lee Joon-ik and Lee Chang-dong, who was the minister of culture during late President Roh Moo-hyun’s administration. Popular author Gong Ji-young, who is also known for her social activism, joined Moon’s campaign as well.

Also, the Moon camp plans to make the best use of actress Choi Myung-gil, wife of Kim Han-gil, who was a former member of the DUP’s supreme council. <The Korea Times/Jun Ji-hye>