Yoon's Side on Pledge Plagiarism Controversy: "Did Yoo Seung-min Copy Moon's Minimum Wage 10,000 Won Pledge?"

A statement from Kim Byung-min, spokesperson for Yoon Seok-yeol's National Campaign.
[Photo by Yoon Seok-yeol National Campaign Facebook page capture]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seoyoung Kwon] The campaign team of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, a presidential candidate from the People Power Party, has responded to former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min, an intra-party rival who raised allegations of plagiarism regarding policy pledges.

Today (the 25th), Kim Byung-min, spokesperson for Yoon Seok-yeol’s campaign, issued a statement titled "Baseless smear campaigns, framing, and even fake news?Is this the rational conservatism that candidate Yoo Seung-min talks about?" Kim said, "In the People Power Party primary, where the public’s strong desire for regime change should be fully harnessed, former lawmaker Yoo is pouring cold water by launching malicious political attacks," adding, "We want to clearly correct the falsehoods in Yoo’s claims."

Kim stated, "They tried to impose the absurd frame of ‘plagiarizing policy pledges,’" and asserted, "The pledge regarding the housing subscription point system for military service members was developed through multiple meetings with youth and defense policy experts directly by Yoon’s campaign." He added, "Yoon even disclosed the specific names of experts and youth involved as promised during debates," and criticized, "Yet, seeing them indulge in petty political attacks while calling it lies, it seems that pledges were never truly important to former lawmaker Yoo."

He questioned, "In the past, lawmaker Ha Tae-kyung even proposed a bill related to this issue, so according to Yoo’s logic, who should be credited as the original author of this pledge?" He continued, "In the 19th presidential election, Yoo pledged to raise the minimum wage to 10,000 won," and asked, "At that time, both Yoo and candidate Moon Jae-in pledged not only the figure of 10,000 won but also the target year of 2020. Does that mean Yoo plagiarized Moon’s pledge?"

Kim also said, "It was Yoo who dragged the housing subscription issue into a smear campaign and avoided debates." He criticized, "Yoon did not own a house in the past and married late, so he did not deeply consider purchasing a home," and added, "Therefore, Yoo’s behavior of mocking Yoon’s fundamental answer that he did not subscribe to a housing subscription savings account and using it for political attacks is a prototype of the old-fashioned politics that our political system must change."

Kim further argued, "Yoo replaced the factually inaccurate mudslinging with political disputes even on Yoon’s interest in youth issues and his pledges," and claimed, "There are many points that should be asked of Yoo regarding whether he truly empathizes with the pain of the younger generation and has the will to solve their problems." He concluded, "I sincerely hope Yoo does not follow the path of hypocritical politics that the ruling party has failed at," and added, "Isn’t the remaining primary process a short time to demonstrate the political dignity that rational conservatism aspires to?"

Earlier, on the 23rd, former lawmaker Yoo raised suspicions that Yoon’s camp plagiarized the pledge of awarding 5 points in the housing subscription system for military service members announced by Yoon. However, on the 25th, Yoon’s camp rebutted Yoo’s claims by releasing a list of 48 individuals who participated in designing the pledge. Yoon’s camp emphasized, "The pledge related to the housing subscription point system for military service members was created through a process of listening to opinions from various people, including the MZ generation, and engaging in intense discussions."

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