Saenuri candidate reaches out to younger voters


The ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate Rep. Park Geun-hye on Thursday met with university students and promised to halve the burden of high college tuition.

In a move aimed at reaching out to younger voters, Park attended a debate co-hosted by the association of nationwide college student councils and Saenuri Rep. Kim Sang-min to discuss ways to realize “half-price tuition.”

“It is regrettable that (we) still do not have a complete set of measures to halve the tuition that is one of the highest in the world,” Park said.

The presidential frontrunner explained that her measures would include lowering the loan rate for the school expenses and providing tuition cuts according to income, instead of cutting the entire tuition in half for all.

Later at lunch, Park met with the press and shared her thoughts on the latest diplomatic row with Japan.

“The countries of Northeast Asia and East Asia must cooperate with each other by looking at the future. However, the territorial issue is a problem that goes beyond relations with the other country. It is a matter of sovereignty and therefore cannot be yielded,” Park said at a luncheon with the press.

“We must urge (Japan) to change its historical perception, while at the same time, preparing stern measures ahead of any anticipated offensives,” she said.

Bilateral relations between South Korea and Japan have deteriorated over the latest row over Japan’s claim on Dokdo, prompted by President Lee Myung-bak’s visit to the islets earlier this month.

With regard to inter-Korean relations and unification, Park said building trust with Pyongyang was the first step toward unification that must be achieved for the benefit of the peninsula.

“If we achieve as far as creating an economic community together, it would be in some way a small unification in itself. If such (relations) are matured, then we would also be able to achieve political unification,” Park said.

During the meeting, Park also took a shot at the main opposition Democratic United Party, saying that while the DUP was focused on reforming corporate governance by pitting one side against the other, the Saenuri Party was focused on diluting the concentration of economic power.

She also expressed her support for strengthening restrictions on industrial capital from owning financial institutes, saying it was the global trend post-financial crisis.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)