"Challenging Opponent" Criticizing Candidate Oh

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] This is the scenario the Democratic Party of Korea most wanted to avoid. Candidate Oh Se-hoon belongs to the main opposition party, the People Power Party, and he shows a less hardline conservative image with the ability to attract moderate voters. From the ruling party's perspective, this election is expected to be difficult, as Oh has a comparative advantage over Ahn Cheol-soo, the candidate of the People’s Party, in terms of scalability based on party organization strength.

Park Young-sun, the Democratic Party of Korea's candidate for Seoul mayor, is answering questions from reporters after visiting Choi Kang-wook, the leader of the Open Democratic Party, at the National Assembly on the 23rd. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

On the morning of the 23rd, Park Young-sun, the Democratic Party candidate, who visited the Open Democratic Party, dismissed the recent polls showing her trailing behind candidate Oh by saying, "Elections always have ups and downs," while trying to maintain her composure. However, it has become urgent to find a clever strategy to overturn the election, which has shifted from a "winnable fight" to a "difficult battle." After the announcement of the opposition's unification results that day, Park Young-sun’s camp immediately issued a statement criticizing it as a "unification made by the 'king of withdrawal'." Spokesperson Kang Sun-woo harshly criticized it as a "unification show among themselves," attacking candidate Oh as "someone who self-impeached and abandoned the Seoul mayoral position, someone who spews lies whenever they open their mouth, and someone who will devote the remaining one year of Seoul city administration solely to political struggles."

The ruling party also strongly criticized candidate Oh again on the issue of self-compensation in Naegok-dong that day. Kim Tae-nyeon, acting leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said at the party’s floor meeting, "There is more than enough evidence to prove the lies." He criticized, "Candidate Oh’s twenty questions of lies are becoming increasingly absurd," calling it "MB avatar-like lying politics."

This intense attack reveals the ruling party’s desperation regarding the election situation. Hong Ik-pyo, chairman of the Democratic Party’s Policy Committee, said on the radio that day, "In the 2010 local elections, candidate Han Myeong-sook and candidate Oh Se-hoon had an 18 percentage point difference in support one week before the election, but the final result was a 0.6 percentage point difference," adding, "If we continue to make efforts and show sincerity until the end, won’t the people give us their hearts?"

During the remaining 15 days of the election period, the ruling party’s offensive is expected to intensify. Professor Choi Chang-ryeol of Yongin University said, "Negative political battles surrounding real estate issues may intensify," but added, "Since these issues have already been raised extensively, if negative campaigning continues, it may actually weaken the competitiveness of the side raising them."

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