Hong Joon-pyo backed Kim Boo-kyum, but failed to win over Daegu voters
Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo said on Facebook on the 10th, "I backed candidate Kim Boo-kyum despite bracing for criticism, but Daegu citizens did not accept my sincerity." He wrote that the downfall of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province (TK) truly breaks his heart, noting that during his three years in office he selected 100 projects for the "TK Future 100-Year Plan" — adding one more to make 101 — and launched or completed 75 percent of them, yet the crucial TK new airport project never broke ground. Without help from the central government, he said, the power of the Daegu mayor alone could not get it done.
Against this backdrop, he publicly endorsed Kim Boo-kyum of the Democratic Party in the June 3 local elections, judging that completing core projects such as the TK new airport would require central government support. The result was the opposite: Rep. Choo Kyung-ho of the People Power Party won with 53.92 percent of the vote, defeating Kim, who settled for 45.05 percent.
The former mayor wrote, "The region has been sidelined in national policy projects, the new airport has been left hanging in the air, and finishing last in GDP for 30 years has become routine." He added, "For three years, I battled day and night for TK's leap forward, never once attending dinners or banquets with outside figures or local powerbrokers, but the people of Daegu and North Gyeongsang did not embrace it." He said, "It makes me realize how futile the years spent trapped in regional animosity have been," and added, "I've decided to blow my feelings of sadness away into the autumn sky." He went on, "I hope the people of Daegu and North Gyeongsang will once again unite for TK's leap forward," urging them to "cast aside regional animosity and party loyalty alike and devote themselves solely to a passion for the future of Daegu and North Gyeongsang."
