President Park Geun-hye’s 2012 election rival Moon Jae-in on Monday announced his bid to run for chairman at the New Politics Alliance for Democracy’s convention, promising to revive the struggling main opposition party.

Analysts said the lawmaker’s move could be a prelude to his plans to run in the 2017 presidential race. By winning the NPAD’s chairmanship, Moon would have a chance to showcase his leadership and win the party’s ticket in 2017.

But he faces an uphill battle if he tries to use his party post as a stepping stone for another shot at the presidency, due to his questionable political skills, according to experts.

“His image is bound to be damaged as South Korean politics still revolve around a culture of negative attacks,” Kyung Hee University professor Yun Seong-yi told The Korea Herald earlier this month.

“If Moon becomes the main opposition party’s leader, he will be at the front line of the political wrangling,” Yun said. “I doubt Moon has the skills to defend himself from those kinds of political attacks.”

Moon will face Reps. Park Jie-won, Lee In-young and Cho Kyoung-tae, but analysts expect the ex-presidential candidate to win by a landslide. 

If elected to lead the main opposition, Moon will face the challenge of reviving a party that has been struggling under falling approval ratings and internal strife.

Gallup Korea statistics have shown that the NPAD’s monthly public ratings have failed to rise above 30 percent all year. The surveys asked about 1,000 adults and had margins of error near 3 percent.

The party’s ratings reflect the fiery infighting that has been plaguing the NPAD. Three leaders stepped down this year amid worsening in-house finger-pointing in the wake of landslide electoral defeats to the governing Saenuri Party in the July by-elections.

“Moon’s party chairmanship will serve as a testing ground for his political skills,” said Yoon Pyung-joong, a professor at Hanshin University. “He might be able to develop his own unique leadership style which he lacks, or he may fail miserably.”

Yoon noted that such a failure would likely prevent him from running in 2017, but added that anything was possible in the three years until the next presidential race.

Chung-Ang University Korean politics professor Choi Young-jin echoed Yoon’s remarks, calling Moon an “old card” for the opposition.

“Korean voters always want something new,” Choi said. “The only reason he is still faring well in his party is because of his in-house support base.”

Moon was the main opposition candidate in the 2012 presidential election, and fared well against the conservative candidate Park Geun-hye, despite his relative lack of political experience. Moon lost to Park by 3.53 percentage points.

Moon has been since serving in the National Assembly and is considered the leader of the pro-Roh Moo-hyun faction, the dominant power group within the NPAD. Roh was South Korea’s last leftist president, under whom Moon served as chief of staff.

By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)