Yoon Hee-sook on Lee's 'Key Currency' Remark: "Kicked the Biggest Blunder... Economic Common Sense Even High School Students Know"

Lee Jae-myung, in Previous Day's Presidential Debate, "High Possibility of Korea Joining Reserve Currency Countries"
Yoon Hee-sook, "Now Realizing He Didn't Know What Reserve Currency Is"

Former People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Hee-sook posted on her Facebook on the 22nd, criticizing the remarks of Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] Former People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Hee-sook criticized Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, who claimed that "Korea is highly likely to be included in the group of key currency countries," calling it "the highest level of a blunder a candidate can make two weeks before the presidential election."

On the 22nd, Yoon posted on her Facebook under the title "The highlight of the presidential debate! A precious moment showing how ignorant a presidential candidate can be about the economy," saying, "While commentating on the previous day's presidential debate, the moment candidate Lee Jae-myung said that our won would be included as a key currency, the three experts providing commentary were dumbfounded (taken aback)."

Yoon pointed out Lee's ignorance about key currencies. She said, "Looking back, whenever he argued to spend more money because our national debt ratio is lower compared to other countries, experts said that Korea's situation is different because it is not a key currency country," adding, "However, he pretended not to hear and now it seems he did not know what a key currency is."

She continued, "Yesterday, when People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl pointed out that among non-key currency countries, our debt ratio is not low, Lee flinched and then said it would be included as a key currency," adding, "He just picked that up and repeated it. This is someone who has been advocating ruining the national finances without even knowing economic common sense that even smart high school students know."

Yoon emphasized, "Even though China spends astronomical amounts of money worldwide through the Belt and Road Initiative and exerts influence, what it cannot do at will is to be included as a key currency country," adding, "It is something that cannot be done even if desired, because it requires long-established trust in the currency."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party explained that it cited a press release distributed by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) regarding the possibility of inclusion as a key currency country mentioned by candidate Lee.

In the press release distributed on the 13th, the FKI presented five reasons why the won could be included in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) currency basket during the review process. These include △ Korea's economic status as the 10th largest GDP and 9th largest market capitalization △ 5th largest global exports △ continuous increase in the won's share in the foreign exchange market, among others.

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