Yoon to Yoo Seung-min and Hong Joon-pyo: "If You Don't Change Your Mindset, It's Better for the Party to Disappear"

Yoon Seok-yeol "Attacked with Ruling Party Candidate Frame"
"With What Face Did You Run for President?"

Former Prosecutor General and People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol is holding a press conference on the afternoon of the 13th at the People Power Party Jeju Provincial Office on Yeonsam-ro, Jeju City. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Seohyun] Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate and former Prosecutor General, strongly criticized the attacks from intra-party primary contenders targeting him, saying, "Whether we bring the regime to power or not is a secondary issue, but if we don't change this mindset first, our party is bound to disappear."

On the 13th, at the appointment ceremony of the Jeju campaign headquarters held by the People Power Party Jeju Provincial Party, Yoon said, "Once you enter politics, there is no separate ruling party or opposition party," expressing this view.

He referred to his time as Prosecutor General, saying, "When corruption was revealed, we investigated it, and when the truth was uncovered through investigation, we dealt with it accordingly. Despite doing such common-sense work, the ruling party tried to destroy me completely."

He continued, "Then, our party seniors who used to say I was a 'truly excellent prosecutor persecuted for properly enforcing the law' suddenly turned that persecution into suspicion once I entered politics," and pointed out, "They joined hands with the Democratic Party and attacked me according to that frame."

Yoon particularly criticized fellow party candidate Yoo Seung-min, saying, "He compares the 'accusation inducement (gobal-saju) suspicion' to the Daejang-dong case, attacking me by likening the relationship between Lee Jae-myung and Yoo Dong-gyu to that between me and the Investigation Information Policy Officer," and questioned, "Is this really something an opposition presidential candidate should say? Can such a person bring about regime change?"

Regarding candidate Hong Joon-pyo, he asked rhetorically, "One person (Hong) says he will turn Jeju into the Las Vegas of Korea, but do the residents of Jeju want to live in a desert filled with large-scale tourist hotel facilities and gambling establishments like Las Vegas?"

He added, "People who make such irresponsible 'cider-like' remarks or promises favored by construction businessmen come out as presidential candidates in our party and throw bombs around," asserting this point.

Yoon said, "If those people had done their job properly, would this regime have lasted? Would they have been crushed in the local and general elections?" and criticized, "With what face do they come out again to run for president and attack fellow party candidates using the Democratic Party's frame? The party is truly pathetic."

He then stated, "I am the very person who can stand firm even in the main election," and said, "Others have spent over ten years in politics, yet they impose moral and ethical scrutiny on a salaried public servant like me. Isn't that laughable to a passing cow?"

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