NOOOOO!

Chung Dong-young, the former DP presidential candidate who lost to President Lee Myung-bak in 2007 in the presidential race, will now represent Deokji in Jeonju, North Jeolla.

Following his defeat against Lee Myung-bak in 2007, a power struggle with the Democratic Party and his subsequent defection, Chung has scored a successful political comeback with 72.3 percent of the vote. [Joongang Ilbo]

This, of course, follows Chung’s much-discussed failure to be named to the National Defense Committee after March’s Supreme Peoples’ Assembly elections, clearing the path for Kim Jong Un’s succession.

The lesson — even a discarded candidate can make a comeback by riding on the natural tendency of voters to reject one-party rule and curb excessive government power (especially in a district that leans hard to the candidate’s direction anyway).  In due course, the same will happen here, just as it did in 2006 and 2008.