Moon's Ruling Party Sweeps Local Elections Across South Korea

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea President Moon Jae-in’s ruling party won 14 of 17 mayoral and gubernatorial races on Wednesday, including the re-election of Seoul’s mayor, in an endorsement of Moon’s embrace of North Korea.

The ruling Democratic Party also won 11 of the 12 vacant parliamentary seats, according to the National Election Commission. Moon’s party now controls 130 seats in the 300-seat National Assembly, widening its advantage over the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (which has 113).

The landslide win for the ruling party will help Moon push through his policies on North Korea, chaebol regulations and consumer-driven economy, Korea Investment & Securities wrote in a research note. The victory is likely to further boost public support for the president and his policies, including his softer approach to North Korea, Yonhap News reported.

“We simply did not have the strength to fend off the president’s peace offensive,” Sohn Hak-kyu, a senior election campaigner for the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party told Yonhap.

To contact the reporters on this story: Shinhye Kang in Seoul at skang24@bloomberg.net;Heejin Kim in Seoul at hkim579@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Pae at ppae1@bloomberg.net, Andy Sharp

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