By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Independent presidential candidate Moon Kook-hyun launched the tentatively named Creative Korea Party (CKP), Tuesday, with about 300 party members and delegates in Yeouido, Seoul.
Moon, the former CEO of staple product maker Yuhan-Kimberly, will serve as a co-chairman of the party with Lee Jeong-ja, the chairman of the Green Purchasing Network, which promotes eco-friendly buying, and Lee Yong-kyung, the former CEO of telecommunication service provider KT.
The party is scheduled to hold a national convention on Nov. 4 to pick its presidential candidate and Moon is expected to win the party's ticket to run in the Dec. 19 election.
The party will give people in various walks of life including businessmen and scholars a chance to join it, party officials said.
It vowed to include the consolidation of social solidarity, the curbing of property speculation and the easing of polarization in its party charter.
It will also seek sustainable development, life-long education systems and economic cooperation in Northeast Asia.
Moon said his party has set the goal of winning 50 percent of the National Assembly seats in elections next year.
Election experts speculate that Moon, through the new party, is aiming at creating an advantage over having a unified presidential candidate with the United New Democratic Party or the Democratic Party, to compete against Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party.
However, it remains uncertain whether Moon has reached an agreement on having a unified candidate.
``More than 60 percent of Moon's supporters prefer him to run for the presidential election on his own,'' an aide said.
Moon is considered a promising independent runner due to his reformative and clean image but his approval support hovers around five percent in most surveys.
On the other hand, Lee Myung-bak enjoys support of more than 50 percent followed by UNDP nominee Chung Dong-young with 20 percent.