Park Seonghun "Urban Loop Unrealistic" VS Park Hyeongjun "Samsung Attraction Must Be Specific"

Second Head-to-Head Debate for People Power Party's Busan Mayor By-Election Candidates Held on the 18th

On the afternoon of the 18th, before the start of the TV debate among the People Power Party candidates for the Busan mayoral primary held at KNN in Busan, candidates Park Seong-hoon and Park Hyung-joon are taking a commemorative photo. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kum Bo-ryeong] Ahead of the April 7 Busan mayoral by-election, the People Power Party's preliminary candidates Park Seong-hoon and Park Hyung-jun pointed out issues in each other's key pledges such as 'attracting large corporations' and 'Urban Loop.'

On the 18th, the second head-to-head debate between the People Power Party's Busan mayoral by-election primary candidates was held at the KNN studio in Haeundae-gu, Busan. The first part of the debate featured a showdown between candidates Park Seong-hoon and Park Hyung-jun.

Candidate Park Seong-hoon targeted one of Park Hyung-jun's major pledges, the 'Urban Loop,' highlighting the construction cost issues. Park Seong-hoon criticized, "The Sasang-Haeundae underground expressway section is 24 km long, but the project cost exceeds 2 trillion won. The Urban Loop announced by candidate Park Hyung-jun covers a 55 km section, yet the cost is said to be 1 trillion won, which does not sound realistic."

In response, candidate Park Hyung-jun said, "The information I announced is based on data from the company building the Urban Loop and the Korea Railroad Research Institute," adding, "The Urban Loop costs less to build, and once constructed, it costs less for citizens to use, with the advantage of being carbon-neutral."

Candidate Park Seong-hoon stated, "According to the Korea Institute of Construction Technology and related scholars' opinions, even if all domestic technologies and researchers are combined, it is difficult to materialize technological development within 10 years," and added, "Commercialization is expected to take even more time."

As soon as Park Seong-hoon's remarks ended, Park Hyung-jun countered, "Efforts to pioneer future technologies are necessary," emphasizing, "Cities like Busan, which function as hubs, should strive to introduce the world's most advanced transportation technologies first. This is not impossible but a very realistic pledge."

Candidate Park Hyung-jun mainly attacked Park Seong-hoon's pledge to attract large corporations. Park Seong-hoon had declared plans to attract Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electro-Mechanics to Busan. Park Hyung-jun said, "These matters must be handled delicately, like dealing with glassware. If we talk like that, I can also list about 10 large corporations," adding, "At least when an MOU has been signed or there are concrete agreement results, such information should be disclosed with consent. From my perspective, I think Samsung is currently in a difficult position."

In response, Park Seong-hoon said, "Regarding Samsung attraction, I worked directly on this project while serving as the Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs," and added, "I spoke based on comprehensive discussions with Samsung and proposals received from them."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.