Lee Throws an Uppercut at Yoon's Home Ground

Intensive Campaign Rally Held Today in Front of Suwon Paldalmun
Candidate Lee Jae-myung Announces Offensive

Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporters Bomryeong Geum, Hyunji Kwon] Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, will head to Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province, the stronghold of Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, on the 24th. The strategy is to criticize Lee’s tenure as governor of Gyeonggi Province and relatively increase his presence in the metropolitan area, where there are many moderate voters, to boost his approval ratings.

On the day, Yoon had no public schedule until 11:30 a.m., when he attended an event where former National Assembly speakers and members declared their support, focusing on internal work. The election campaign headquarters took charge of attacking Lee. Yoon Jae-ok, deputy head of the campaign headquarters, pointed out at a meeting that day, "The Democratic Party claims that Lee himself designed the Daejang-dong project and calls it a national treasury project, but now they are calling it the ‘Yoon Seok-yeol Gate,’ which is a case of audacity."

Campaign headquarters chief Kwon Young-se also criticized, saying, "The Democratic Party is making all sorts of unreasonable claims, but the vast majority of the public thinks that Daejang-dong is the Lee Jae-myung Gate and that ‘that person’ is responsible." He added, "Even if they do devilish editing, it gets exposed in less than a day, and they absurdly argue that the ‘gate’ in Lee Jae-myung Gate means guarding the entrance, which is so ridiculous that people joke whether Watergate means the Battle of the Waterworks."

Yoon will hold a focused campaign rally at 2 p.m. in front of Paldalmun Gate in Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province. Suwon is where the Gyeonggi Provincial Government office is located, where Lee served as governor, and until just a few months ago, it was considered Lee’s home ground. Since Gyeonggi Province has many moderate voters, it is one of the regions where Yoon’s support is relatively weak. Recent polls show that the gap in approval ratings between the candidates is within the margin of error, making it important for Yoon to capture the metropolitan sentiment.

As Yoon has criticized Lee’s ‘Basic Series’ and ‘Daejang-dong development preferential treatment allegations’ during his campaigns in Gyeonggi Province, he plans to continue sharp remarks against Lee in Suwon. In particular, Lee’s spouse, Kim Hye-kyung, is embroiled in controversies such as allegations of illegal use of corporate credit cards and extravagant protocol during Lee’s governorship, which Yoon is expected to target. Kim Eun-hye, the People Power Party campaign spokesperson, said, "The corporate credit card is a representative case of abusing power and authority granted by the people for private gain without distinguishing between public and private affairs." She added, "Who can guarantee that if Lee is entrusted with the country, the national finances will not become Lee’s personal treasury?"

Meanwhile, the People Power Party Youth Headquarters raised allegations of ‘unqualified preferential hiring’ concerning Lee’s eldest son. Jang Ye-chan, head of the Youth Headquarters, said, "Controversy arose after it was revealed that Lee’s eldest son has been working at HYK Partners, a private equity fund, since April last year. It was also revealed that the parent company of HYK, ‘Kyungbang,’ sold a closed factory site for 155 billion won with unprecedented ultra-fast approval from Gyeonggi Province during Lee’s governorship, raising suspicions of illegal preferential hiring of Lee’s eldest son."

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