Growing Demand for Lee Jae-myung and Yoon Seok-yeol Debate... Both Parties Still Blaming Each Other

Yoon "Failed Due to Democratic Party's Unreasonable Stubbornness"
Lee "Will Keep Changing Conditions Again and Again"
National Doubts Must Be Resolved Through One-on-One Debate

Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party candidate (left), and Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea candidate
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Hyunju Lee and Gimin Lee] As a one-on-one debate between Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, and Kim Dong-yeon, the New Wave presidential candidate, took place, attention is focused on whether a one-on-one debate between Yoon Seok-youl, the People Power Party presidential candidate, and Lee will be resumed after a previous disruption. One-on-one debates attract more attention and allow for deeper discussions compared to multi-person debates, leading to calls for increasing opportunities for various debates including one-on-one and three-person debates to uphold the public's right to know.

According to the Democratic Party on the 3rd, the real-time simultaneous viewers of the debate between Lee and Kim exceeded 170,000, with a peak of about 210,000. As it was the first debate among presidential candidates and focused on policy discussions rather than negative exchanges, the internal atmosphere evaluated it as a successful event. The possibility of unification between the pro-government Kim and Lee candidates also kept the attention high.

In this atmosphere, there is growing demand in political circles for a one-on-one debate between Lee and Yoon. It is argued that questions about numerous allegations raised so far should be resolved through debate. Park Sang-byeong, a professor at Inha University Graduate School of Policy, said, "The ruling party candidate should unconditionally accept a debate on issues that the opposing candidate and the public are curious about," adding, "If it is Yoon’s role to raise suspicions, Lee can explain them in detail to resolve those suspicions." Eom Kyung-young, director of the Era Spirit Research Institute, also said, "It is difficult for Lee and Yoon to keep refusing the demand," and predicted, "Starting with tonight’s debate, expectations will grow that more debates will be held."

However, the gap between the two parties regarding the one-on-one debate remains wide. Kwon Young-se, head of the People Power Party’s election campaign headquarters, said at a meeting that day, "The one-on-one debate was canceled due to the Democratic Party’s unreasonable demands. They wanted to split the topics, limit the time, and eventually refused even if materials were brought." He criticized, "They avoided the debate because they were afraid the truth about Daejang-dong would be revealed, afraid that the Seongnam FC sponsorship money would be exposed, and lacked confidence because the Lee candidate and spouse have lived illegally." After the meeting, he told reporters, "When Lee debated with Kim, he brought many cheat sheets," mocking, "Cheating debates are okay, but when others do it, it’s not. This double standard is very frustrating."

On the other hand, the Democratic Party pointed out that Yoon has been continuously changing conditions to avoid the debate. They claim that even if conditions such as bringing materials, which Yoon proposed, were accepted, other conditions would have been raised to keep postponing the debate. Park Chan-dae, the Democratic Party’s chief spokesperson, appeared on CBS Radio and said, "From our side, there is no reason to avoid it, but I want to explain why Yoon’s side is avoiding the debate like this," adding, "If we had known they would avoid it this much, it would have been better to negotiate more with broadcasters so that even if Yoon did not attend, a three-person debate could have already taken place."

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