Lee Jae-myung: "I Won't Mention 'Kim Gun-hee Recording' in TV Debate... Yoon Doesn't Need to Defend"

Suspicion over Daejang-dong: "Searched for 4 months but found nothing... People Power Party imposed conditions on the special prosecutor"
"Good aspects of Moon administration will be inherited, but mistakes will be corrected"

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, holds a press conference at the central party office in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 26th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, said about the upcoming TV debate during the Lunar New Year holiday, "I have no intention of talking about the recorded conversation of Kim Gun-hee, the spouse of Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party," adding, "If Candidate Yoon happens to watch, he does not need to defend that."

On the 25th, Lee appeared on Yonhap News TV's 'News Tonight' and, when asked about the expected negative exchanges in the TV debate, stated, "(The Kim recording) should be verified by the media, and it is up to the people to judge. Someone who intends to govern the country should not be concerned with recordings or anything like that."

Lee predicted that Candidate Yoon would mention the Daejang-dong project during the TV debate. He said, "The opponent (Candidate Yoon) seems to intend to talk about Daejang-dong," and criticized, "Candidate Yoon is the one who could have recovered the illegal loans from private developers but did not, and the People Power Party pressured to abandon public development." He added, "Who took the money from the developers who benefited? It's all the People Power Party," and said, "In fact, I think they might not even conduct a special prosecutor investigation."

Lee continued, "If they investigate from the loan corruption to 'who spent the money' and 'who blocked public development,' I have no problem," and pointed out, "They have been scrutinizing me for four months, but nothing has come up. When I suggested a special prosecutor, the People Power Party attached conditions."

He then predicted that he would be at a disadvantage in the upcoming TV debate. He said, "Our people have already made their judgments. Lee Jae-myung has always been good at debates and has long experience in politics, so they think this way. On the other hand, they might think Candidate Yoon, who was a prosecutor for a long time, will make mistakes in the debate. Expectations are different."

Regarding his recent stagnant approval ratings, Lee said, "When the election is not imminent, a kind of judgment psychology works," and emphasized, "President Moon Jae-in is not running. A new candidate named Lee Jae-myung is running, and the good parts will be inherited while the wrong parts will be corrected and eliminated."

When the host asked if this meant placing weight on differentiating from the Moon Jae-in administration, Lee replied, "Let's not fall into factionalism and choose pragmatically." He said, "I am part of the Democratic Party's third-term government. As the chief administrative officer of the largest metropolitan local government, I cooperated with the government, so I cannot act as if it is unrelated," but promised to differentiate from the Moon administration in personnel and real estate policies.

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