South Chungcheong Province Gov. An Hee-jung declared Monday that he would not run for office in 2018, fueling speculation that he may have his sights on the ruling party leadership.

An, currently serving his second term as South Chungcheong Province governor, is widely considered as a contender for presidential candidate. In the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s presidential candidate preliminaries earlier this year, An came second to eventual President Moon Jae-in. 

“I will wrap up eight years of governing the province in June next year, and (I) won’t be running for a third term,” An said at Monday’s end-of-year press conference.

“At present, I am not considering running in the (parliamentary) by-elections. Decisions regarding the future will be revealed at the farewell press conference.”

At present, two National Assembly seats have been confirmed for next year’s by-elections, which will take place at the same time as the local elections on June 13. The two seats, both in Seoul, were left vacant after People’s Party Chairman Ahn Cheol-soo stepped down to run for the presidency and Choi Myung-gil of the same party was removed after being convicted of illegal electioneering.

According to reports, An has made it clear he will serve the full term as governor despite rumors concerning a possible run for a parliamentary seat.

An’s term ends on June 30, 2018.

Under local election laws, An would need to step down from the post at least 120 days before the vote to run for a constituency within South Chungcheong Province. To run in a constituency outside the province, An would have to resign at least 30 days before the vote.

With An stating publicly that he will not run for public office, speculations are rising he could run for the party chairmanship in August. Should An win the election, the 52-year old could address the issue of lacking a support base within the party, a weakness thought to have played a large role in his being defeated by Moon in the party’s preliminaries earlier this year.

His comments at a lecture on Dec. 1 have further fueled speculation.

“(I) will develop the culture of party politics to prevent the parties and politics from becoming a gang fight that damages relations among ordinary people and their ideals,” he said at the time.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)