Lee Jun-seok to Park Young-sun, who criticized 'Yoon's supermarket shopping': "Unfairly criticizing for buying anchovies and beans"

"Are You Not Considering Small Business Owners When Shopping at Large Supermarkets?" Rebuttal

Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, is selecting groceries such as anchovies at a large supermarket in downtown Seoul on the 8th. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, rebutted Park Young-sun, Chair of the Digital Innovation Grand Transition Committee of the Democratic Party's election campaign, who criticized presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol's "shopping at large supermarkets" as "the shadow of big corporations," calling it "unreasonable slander."

On the 9th, Lee shared an article on Facebook about Park's attempt to sign a "Caring Company (voluntary win-win cooperation company)" agreement with Shinsegae Group in June 2020 when she was Minister of SMEs and Startups, writing, "Is it reasonable to slander just because someone bought some anchovies and beans when you even collaborated on your own achievement projects?"

He continued, "Do ordinary citizens shopping at Emart not consider the feelings of small business owners? Haven't you suffered setbacks from such dichotomous thinking, which was often used during Mayor Oh Se-hoon's (Seoul) election?"

Earlier, on the 8th, candidate Yoon visited Emart in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, to check the implementation of the quarantine pass (vaccination certificate/negative test confirmation) that would be applied from the 10th at large supermarkets and department stores, amid rising food prices. The People Power Party released photos showing Yoon selecting Yeosu anchovies and medicinal beans at the supermarket and placing them in his cart.

Former Minister of SMEs and Startups Park Young-sun, Chair of the Digital Innovation and Great Transformation Committee of the Democratic Party Election Countermeasures Committee. / Photo by Yonhap News

In response, Chair Park posted on Facebook, calling it "the shadow of a certain presidential candidate's specific large corporation supermarket shopping," and criticized Yoon, asking, "Have you considered the feelings of small business owners and self-employed people who are already struggling due to COVID-19?" This was interpreted as criticism of Yoon for using large supermarkets instead of small markets or traditional markets during a difficult time for self-employed people due to COVID-19.

After Lee's critical post, Chair Park added another post on Facebook, targeting Yoon again, saying, "Candidate Yoon, you are the chair of 'Walking with the Vulnerable,' right? If 'thinking first about the difficult small business owners' is divisive, then is 'walking with the vulnerable' inciting division?"

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