The right-hand man of deceased former President Kim Dae-jung on Friday joined Saenuri Party nominee Park Geun-hye’s campaign, which strives to win over liberal voters and the southwestern region of Jeolla, Kim’s stronghold.

Han Gwang-ok, Kim’s chief of staff, defended his defection as “an act to fight regionalism and bridge the divide between liberals and conservatives.”

“Regionalism is a societal ill that we must not pass to future generations,” he said in a press conference at the headquarters of the Saenuri Party. “It is a legacy that our generation must do away with.”

Party sources said his entry could trigger a mass inflow into the ruling party of the former Kim aides, which would number 20-30. 

But the headhunting has ripped open the growing schism within the Saenuri Party. Ahn Dae-heui, a former Supreme Court justice who heads the political reform committee in the Saenuri Party, voiced his opposition to Han’s recruitment, citing his criminal record. Han was convicted in 2003 for receiving bribes from a businessman.

“The most pressing task of our generation is bringing about unity and harmony,” Rep. Park told reporters. “Han has agreed to partake in such objective.”

Han was an outspoken critic of Rep. Park and the conservative Saenuri Party, accusing it of “becoming a private party of Park” and “returning to the era of military dictatorship” of her father, former President Park Chung-hee.

Born in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, Han, 70, has been a long-time political heavyweight in the Democratic faction and one of the most influential confidants among Kim’s inner circle of Jeolla-based advisors.

He played a pivotal role in negotiating a coalition ticket between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-pil, another opposition leader, which paved the way for the future Nobel Laureate’s victory in the 1997 presidential election.

Han had at one time took the helms of the Millennium Democratic Party, the predecessor to the current main opposition Democratic United Party, from 2001 to 2002. But the four-term lawmaker broke from the party in March of this year after he was denied a nomination for the April parliamentary elections.

He publicly accused followers of the late President Roh Moo-hyun for usurping the DUP and engaging in nepotism by shelling out the nomination slots among the pro-Roh faction. Han went on to create a minor party, aided by further defections of the Kim Dae-jung faction from the DUP. But the party failed to secure any seat in the April elections.

The recruitment of Han by Rep. Park is widely seen as an attempt to attract support from South and North Jeolla provinces, which hold 7.5 percent of the total vote. Former leader Kim had enjoyed overwhelming support in the region. 

For the first time in recent memory, Jeolla region failed to produce a contender for the nation’s highest office, and the top candidates for this year’s election ― Park Geun-hye, Moon Jae-in, and Ahn Cheol-soo ― all hail from the same region of Gyeongsang.

Despite the consistent support the Democratic party has enjoyed from Jeolla with its native son Kim Dae-jung at the forefront, this year’s Jeolla votes, especially those of the younger generation, are seen as up for grabs. In the 1963 presidential election, the wide support Rep. Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, enjoyed from Jeolla was pivotal to his slim victory over Yoon Bo-seon.

By Samuel Songhoon Lee (songhoon@heraldcorp.com)