"Give 300,000 to 500,000 Won More" to Lee Jae-myung... Hong Joon-pyo Calls It "Cash Handout Vote-Buying Act"

"The country is drowning in debt, yet there's an idea to raid the treasury"
"We are different from the US, the key currency country... If debt is high, foreign exchange will be depleted"

Hong Jun-pyo, a presidential primary candidate of the People Power Party / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] Hong Jun-pyo, a pre-candidate for the presidential primary of the People Power Party, strongly criticized Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, for his proposal of 'additional disaster relief payments,' calling it "a vote-buying act of distributing cash ahead of the presidential election."

In an interview with CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' on the 1st, Hong said, "The country's debt has reached 1,000 trillion won, household debt has exceeded 1,800 trillion won, and the whole country is drowning in debt. In such a situation, the idea of emptying the treasury is a wrong notion," sharply criticizing the proposal.

Lee's 'additional disaster relief payment plan' was announced on the 31st of last month. On that day, after attending an event in Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province, Lee told reporters, "In the COVID-19 situation, an additional minimum of 300,000 to 500,000 won should be provided as nationwide disaster relief payments."

He pointed out, "The scale of support compared to our country's GDP is only about 1.3%, which is ridiculously small compared to other countries," and added, "It's not because the country's capacity is lacking, but I think it's an error in fiscal judgment."

He also emphasized, "The amount should be discussed between the party and the financial authorities," but stressed, "Additional support is necessary for a combined effect."

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, recently argued that measures to provide additional disaster relief funds should be considered. / Photo by Yonhap News

Regarding this, Hong said, "There is really no lesson learned," and criticized, "They actually ruined the country's economy by distributing disaster relief payments like that, but they have no intention of reviving the ruined economy."

He added, "If that money exists, it should be used to recover the economy broken by COVID-19 and to rebuild the fundamentals."

He said, "Usually, Jews don't give you fish, but teach you how to fish. That's because it creates a more certain path to economic recovery," and criticized, "They want to empty the treasury, but now if the treasury is overturned, the whole country will collapse. How can they intend to do such a thing again?"

He also refuted Lee's claim that the scale of support is insufficient compared to other countries. Hong said, "The United States is a country with a key currency, so the situation is different. No matter how much they print dollars, even if the national debt is high, they don't collapse. Because the dollar is distributed worldwide, the debt does not have a significant impact on the US domestic economy," and added, "South Korea is different. The moment the debt is high, foreign exchange reserves are depleted."

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