Kwon Young-jin, Full Support for Gadeokdo, Calls Moon's Actions "Despicable Vote-Buying"

President Moon Jae-in is speaking at the 'Southeast Mega City Construction Strategy Report' held on the training ship of Korea Maritime and Ocean University, located at the Busan New Port multipurpose pier on the 25th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter So-young Kim] Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin criticized President Moon Jae-in, who visited Busan Gadeokdo 41 days before the by-election, saying he "invited misunderstanding that he put the finishing touch on the vote-buying act for Gadeokdo New Airport."

On the 26th, Mayor Kwon posted a message titled "President Moon Jae-in, this is not right" on his Facebook page.

Mayor Kwon said, "The Busan mayoral by-election is a shameful election held after the former mayor from the Democratic Party of Korea (former Mayor Oh Keo-don) committed a sexual crime and resigned, wasting hundreds of billions of public funds."

He also criticized the Democratic Party for "shamelessly nominating a candidate by abandoning the promise made to the public when you were party leader not to nominate candidates in by-elections caused by problems of party-affiliated local leaders, and forcibly overturning the party constitution through a vote of all party members to field a candidate."

Furthermore, Mayor Kwon strongly condemned, "To win such a shameful and shameless by-election, effectively nullifying the Gimhae New Airport, a national project decided through democratic procedures four years ago, without any reasonable justification, and using the Gadeokdo New Airport Special Act for the by-election is nothing but a 'vile vote-buying act.'"

He evaluated the current situation as "an outrageous act that tramples not only 'Daegu-Gyeongbuk bypassing' but also the last dignity," and criticized, "The current behavior of the Democratic Party of Korea is no different from saying that it is acceptable to abandon Daegu and Gyeongbuk as long as they can win the Busan mayoral by-election."

Earlier, President Moon visited the Busan Gadeokdo New Airport on the 25th. In response, the People Power Party protested, calling it blatant election interference at the regime level. Floor leader Joo Ho-young said, "Please do not forget that the president's blatant election interference constitutes grounds for impeachment. Our party will begin reviewing allegations of election law violations after the president's schedule is over."

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