As the ninth round of directly elected local government gets underway, key aides who worked closely with re-elected Songpa-gu Mayor Seo Gang-seok and Seocho-gu Mayor Jeon Seong-su are returning to their respective district offices.
The return of loyalists who handled strategy, scheduling and communications during the campaign is expected to give both mayors a stronger footing as they begin their second terms.
Seo made a surprise win in the eighth-term local elections, taking the Songpa-gu mayoral race a decade after leaving his post at the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
One of the key figures who helped him during that campaign was Hwang Dae-seong, a former head of the Songpa-gu Facilities Management Corporation and a junior alumnus of the University of Seoul who had previously served as the district's administrative bureau chief.
After Seo took office, two other University of Seoul alumni — former Seoul Metropolitan Government section chief Kim Yeong-gi and former major daily newspaper deputy editor Kim Gu-cheol — joined as special advisers, supporting district administration throughout the eighth term.
All three played key roles again in this year's election, contributing to strategy, candidate scheduling and public outreach that helped secure Seo's re-election.
Seo won by a margin of roughly 30,000 votes over his opponent.
Following the victory, his inner circle returned with him. Hwang came back as head of the Songpa Cultural Foundation, a role that supports Seo's cultural policy agenda — an area the mayor has long prioritized. Chief of Staff Woo Jeong-hun, along with special advisers Kim Yeong-gi and Kim Gu-cheol, also returned to their previous positions to support the mayor's second-term administration.
Jeon Seong-su of Seocho-gu followed a similar path. Song Jun-u, who served as Jeon's chief of staff throughout the eighth term and played a central role in this year's campaign, was tapped by the mayor after his re-election.
Jeon appointed Song as communications director, placing someone who had spent four years absorbing the mayor's philosophy and policy direction at the forefront of his second-term public affairs operation.
Jeon also brought in Kim Yun-rim, a former deputy editor at a national news outlet who worked on the campaign, as head of the messaging office.
The decision to place a former chief of staff in charge of communications and a seasoned media professional as messaging chief signals that Jeon intends to significantly strengthen policy communications and message management in his second term.
Both mayors won re-election in Songpa-gu and Seocho-gu — two districts where the People Power Party holds a strong advantage — and have chosen to surround themselves again with the same trusted figures they campaigned alongside and worked with over the past four years.
Attention will now turn to what the two mayors can deliver in their second terms, leading with a team of tested loyalists assembled from the outset.
seouldream01@heraldcorp.com
