Lee emphasizes "economy" 280 times, highlights "ability"... Yoon focuses on "people" 140 times, concentrates on "judgment"

Message Data Analysis at Campaign Sites... Lee's 'Competent President Strategy' vs Yoon's 'Regime Judgment Theory' to Appeal to Public Sentiment

[Asia Economy Reporters Baek Kyunghwan, Kwon Hyunji, Kim Youngwon] With about ten days left until the presidential election, the key points of public sentiment targeted by the two major party candidates are clearly diverging. Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea, who started the campaign by soothing public sentiment with regional pledges, and Yoon Seok-youl of the People Power Party have recently been frequently mentioning the terms ‘economic president’ and ‘regime judgment,’ respectively. Since next week is effectively the last week of official election activities and major variables such as unification, integrated government, and TV debates are intertwined, the message battle between the two candidates is expected to intensify.

◆ Lee’s Most Mentioned Word: ‘Economy’ · Yoon’s Most Mentioned Word: ‘People’= On the 25th, Asia Economy analyzed the speeches at campaign sites from the 21st to the 24th and found that Lee most frequently used the word ‘economy,’ while Yoon most frequently used the word ‘people.’

Lee mentioned ‘economy’ a total of 280 times across 11 locations including Incheon, Dangjin, and Chungju. This was followed by ‘people’ (182 times), ‘crisis’ (96 times), ‘opportunity’ (94 times), and ‘enterprise’ (88 times). This reflects Lee’s election strategy to turn the COVID-19 economic crisis into an opportunity for economic growth.

From the early stages of the campaign, Lee focused on emphasizing the image of a ‘competent president.’ He highlighted his achievements and performance in attracting businesses during his tenure as Gyeonggi Province governor, stressing that he would be a capable president leading balanced regional development. In his broadcast speech that began the previous day, Lee placed emphasis on economic recovery. He stated, "I will surely and quickly revive the livelihood economy through economic booster shots such as nationwide local currency sales support," expressing his intention to reintroduce nationwide disaster relief funds. He also added additional compensation and support measures such as loan maturity extensions, adjustment and forgiveness of COVID-19 debts, and credit amnesty.

Yoon, on the other hand, focused on words such as ‘people’ (140 times), ‘Democratic Party’ (107 times), ‘economy’ (77 times), ‘corruption’ (49 times), and ‘freedom’ (47 times) across 11 locations including Dangjin, Seosan, and Mokpo. Yoon, who consistently stated, "This corrupt, incompetent, and ruthless regime must not be extended any longer," also declared in Gyeonggi Province, Lee’s stronghold, "I will change the corrupt, incompetent, and ruthless Democratic Party regime that ignores the people." This is interpreted as an attempt to continue stimulating grassroots public sentiment by leveraging criticism of the current government as a call for regime judgment in this election.

◆ Sharp Exchanges over ‘Daejang-dong’ and ‘Shincheonji’ Remarks= The sharp remarks directed at each other by the two candidates have noticeably increased at campaign sites. Lee repeatedly used words such as ‘security’ (53 times), ‘THAAD’ (41 times), and ‘peace’ (40 times) dozens of times to criticize Yoon’s foreign and security policies, and mentioned ‘Shincheonji’ more than ten times to emphasize Yoon’s alleged connection to Shincheonji and his own investigation into Shincheonji.

Yoon also made direct remarks targeting Lee. He mentioned the name ‘Lee Jae-myung’ 23 times, and used words such as ‘left-wing’ (19 times) and ‘Daejang-dong’ (12 times) more than ten times.

It is also notable that both candidates mentioned former President Kim Dae-jung about 20 times each. Both Lee and Yoon invoked the ‘Kim Dae-jung spirit’ to embrace Honam and emphasize their will for national unity. However, the two candidates clashed over their references to former President Kim, leading to another round of mutual slander.

Public sentiment has fluctuated. The gap in approval ratings between Lee and Yoon was as much as 9 percentage points last week but narrowed to 2 percentage points in the latter half of this week. In a Research View survey conducted from the 22nd to the 24th targeting 1,000 adults nationwide, Lee received 41% and Yoon 46%, showing a close race within the margin of error.

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