Kim Sang-uk's 'Change for Ulsan' vs. Kim Du-gyeom's 'Ulsan's Next 100 Years'

The June 3 local elections in Ulsan have tilted in favor of the Democratic Party of Korea after it consolidated candidates with the Progressive Party for the mayoral race, district chief seats and city council seats — yet local political observers still consider the mayoral contest and other key races too close to call.

The mayoral race, the most closely watched contest in the city, became a straight two-way fight after Democratic Party candidate Kim Sang-uk unified with Progressive Party candidate Kim Jong-hun, squaring off against People Power Party incumbent Kim Du-gyeom. With the broad progressive camp now consolidated, the degree to which conservative voters rally and the final turnout have emerged as the last decisive variables.

Ulsan has 936,171 registered voters, down 5,018 from the eighth local elections in 2022. Local political circles widely believe a turnout of 55 percent will be the threshold that determines the outcome, with analysts saying that crossing that mark would bring swing voters into play.

Signs of movement among swing voters are already visible. Early voting held May 29 and 30 drew 210,232 ballots, pushing the early turnout to 22.46 percent — up 2.81 percentage points from the 19.65 percent recorded in 2022. The final turnout is expected to surpass the 52.3 percent recorded that year.

Both candidates, along with the Democratic Party's Ulsan chapter and the People Power Party's Ulsan chapter, held press conferences urging voters to cast their ballots, each scrambling to secure every last vote.

At a press conference Tuesday morning at the Ulsan City Council Press Center, Kim Sang-uk said he had run his campaign "with the lowest possible spending, policy-focused messaging free of negative attacks, a lean campaign office staffed only by working-level staff, and no campaign vehicles — all to establish civic sovereignty and a world where citizens are truly in charge." He added that he would "expand Ulsan's capabilities to make the entire Busan-Ulsan-South Gyeongsang region our playing field, break out of isolation, and rebuild Ulsan as a nexus at the center of connectivity — a Northeast Asian energy and logistics hub."

Kim Du-gyeom also held a press conference Tuesday morning at the same venue, saying the past four years had been "a breathless journey alongside citizens toward Ulsan's great transformation and leap forward." He said his dream was "to build an Ulsan where our children's precious dreams can take root and every citizen can live a happy life." He urged voters to demonstrate "the great potential of Ulsan's people at the ballot box," saying the city's leap toward "Ulsan's next 100 years" was "possible only through each citizen's precious vote."