Korean presidential candidate releases promotional StarCraft maps

A Korean presidential candidate, Moon Jae-in, has released a pair of custom StarCraft maps for download, celebrating the game’s free-to-play release.

It’s not like Jae-in doesn’t have anything better to do, either. He’s running as the candidate for the Minjoo Party of Korea, also known as the Democratic Party of Korea, in an election on May 9.

The pair of maps are a four and eight player version of his custom map “Moonsters”, which is similar to a base Starcraft map, except with a huge chunk of resources squatting in the middle of the map, spelling out “1 Moon Jae-in” in Korean.

Better yet, Jae-in has introduced the map with a video showing the game slightly out of focus, while rock music blares over the top of the bottom bar of the screen, and the words “not enough minerals” flash across the bottom of the screen.

Is this a smart bit of promotional spin in a company where StarCraft is incredibly popular, or is Jae-in making a comment that the country itself doesn’t have enough minerals? This could tie in with the reported $8.9b stimulus package he’s pledged to support start-ups and small businesses in the event that he’s elected, but we couldn’t say for sure.