Cho Kuk, the Rebuilding Korea Party candidate in the Pyeongtaek-eul National Assembly by-election, greets supporters at his campaign office in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday. [Yonhap]
Cho Kuk, the Rebuilding Korea Party candidate in the Pyeongtaek-eul National Assembly by-election, greets supporters at his campaign office in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday. [Yonhap]

Cho Kuk, the Rebuilding Korea Party candidate who lost the Pyeongtaek-eul National Assembly by-election in Gyeonggi Province, said Thursday that his top priority in the June election had been to achieve a "People Power Party-zero" result. In a concession statement, he said there were meaningful gains nationwide but that he had failed to carry out that mandate in Pyeongtaek. "It is all my shortcomings and all my responsibility," he said.

He added that despite the defeat, "we must keep flowing together, without tiring, toward the sea of a successful people's sovereignty government."

Addressing his supporters, Cho said the result was his own failure, not a repudiation of the vision and values they had placed in him. "I will always walk with you to ensure those hopes are realized," he said, adding that he would take "the earnest hearts that gathered in Pyeongtaek as my compass."


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