Park Hyung-jun apologizes to Lee Jae-myung, who said Busan is boring, saying "Sorry it's boring"

Park Hyung-jun, Mayor of Busan.
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Seoyoung Kwon] Park Hyung-jun, mayor of Busan, has rebutted remarks made by Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, about Busan.

On the 14th, Mayor Park posted on his Facebook a piece titled "Candidate Lee Jae-myung, sorry that Busan is not fun." This is interpreted as a response to Lee's comments made the previous day during his nationwide tour on the "weekly livelihood bus," when he visited Busan and met with local startup representatives, saying, "Honestly, Busan is not fun. It is not like Gangnam," among other remarks.

Mayor Park wrote, "I was surprised that someone who came asking for votes in Busan said Busan is not fun. I was even more surprised that they said it is less fun than Gangnam." He added, "I am worried that this person’s mindset has not moved a step beyond the Seoul metropolitan area centrism." He pointed out, "Places like Gyeonggi-do, where just developing land leads to great success, attracting companies and people, and where abundant tax revenue allows the provincial government to spend and gain popularity, must have been quite fun. In that sense, the provinces are really not fun. It is exhausting to keep companies and people from leaving, and it is at least a hundred times harder to attract anything compared to Gyeonggi-do. That is the reality of the provinces and Busan."

Mayor Park emphasized, "I believe one of the most important issues in this presidential election is regional balanced development," and said, "For South Korea to truly become a fair society, it must create multiple axes of development, not just one." He continued, "The prerequisite is a groundbreaking decentralization policy that regards regions as development agents and transfers genuine autonomous authority and comprehensive budgets." He questioned, "Wouldn’t it be basic courtesy to the residents suffering from unfairness in the regions to at least say a word of empathy about the difficulties faced by the provinces and not call them unfun?"

He also explained, "These days, many people are coming to Busan saying it is fun, and because of that, culture and tourism are showing signs of revival," adding, "In this situation, it is not a time to bring misfortune but rather to help." Furthermore, he said, "Please apologize politely to the citizens of Busan. No, since you probably won’t apologize, I will apologize," and concluded, "Sorry that Busan is not fun. But the reason lies in the failure of decentralization and balanced development that cannot overcome the Seoul metropolitan area centrism," and "I want to add as a postscript that breaking that is the spirit of this presidential election."

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