Criticism of 'Gimpo Airport Pledge Mismatch' Met with Yoon Ho-jung's "Anti-Decentralization Attitude"

"Local Elections Now... Granting Autonomy for Regional Pledges"

Yoon Ho-jung, the Standing Election Committee Chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the Central Election Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 31st and delivering a speech. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] Yoon Ho-jung, Co-Chairman of the Emergency Response Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea, on the 31st called the People Power Party's criticism of candidate Lee Jae-myung's pledge to relocate Gimpo Airport "nonsense and an anti-local autonomy attitude."

Earlier, on the 29th, Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, criticized the Democratic Party of Korea's internal discord over candidate Lee's 'Gimpo Airport relocation' pledge, calling it "a fragmented identity itself."

On the morning of the same day, Yoon appeared on KBS Radio's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strong Current Affairs' and added, "It is one of the positive aspects of elections that candidates finalize policies through a public discussion process for each pledge, but (the People Power Party) ignores all this and quarrels over why candidate A's and candidate B's pledges differ."

He said, "This is a local election, not a central election," and added, "Because our party is holding local elections, we have granted autonomy to each city and provincial party and candidates to propose pledges necessary for their own regions."

When asked whether the Emergency Response Committee would resign en masse if the local election results were unfavorable, Yoon said, "It is natural to take responsibility if the expected results do not come out," and added, "Even if sufficient results are achieved, I think we must take responsibility for the burden placed on the candidates during the election process."

Regarding the controversy over 'age discrimination' after mentioning the age (70 years old) of Song Ki-yoon, the People Power Party candidate for Jeungpyeong County and former actor, Yoon said, "Since he is a person who succeeded as an actor, I was offering a kind remark hoping he would remain a beloved actor by the people, but my expression was somewhat excessive," and apologized, saying, "Candidate Song must have been displeased, and I apologize."

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