Yoon Seok-yeol: "Lee Jae-myung Admits Government's Quarantine Policy Failure... Implies Ruling Party Should Take Responsibility"

Lee: "Follow the Debate Rules"

Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea, Ahn Cheol-soo of the People Party, Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party, and Yoon Seok-youl of the People Power Party, the presidential candidates from both ruling and opposition parties, are posing ahead of the first debate hosted by the National Election Commission held on the 21st at MBC in Mapo-gu, Seoul. Photo by the National Assembly Press Photographers.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, retorted to Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, saying, "Isn't it true that the Democratic Party, which holds 170 seats, stood by while bills were passed by a snap vote and, as the ruling party's candidate, admitted the government's failure in quarantine policy? Doesn't that mean the Democratic Party should take responsibility in the presidential election?"

On the 21st, during the '1st TV Debate' hosted by the National Election Commission on the topic of 'Economic Measures in the COVID-19 Era,' Candidate Yoon stated, "Since last year, I have consistently emphasized that compensation for losses to self-employed and small business owners is a constitutional right, so the law should be enacted quickly to provide support."

He continued, "However, the Democratic Party passed the Loss Compensation Act by a snap vote in July last year but did not recognize the concept of compensation rights for restrictions on property rights due to public policies like quarantine under the constitution. Recently, they said they would provide retroactive compensation, but at least 50 trillion won is needed."

When Candidate Yoon asked Sim Sang-jung, the Justice Party presidential candidate, for her thoughts on this, she responded to Yoon, "Is this a debate? Are you trying to block others from making their arguments?" and added, "I hope the basic rules of debate are followed."

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