Official Moves by Moon... The More He Explains, the More It Becomes a Political Battlefield

Ruling Party: "Political Event", "Self-Display"
Opposition: "Here for the Event... Criticizing Yoon? Just the Facts"

Former President Moon Jae-in is continuing his official activities, including attending an event in Seoul for the first time since leaving office, drawing political attention to the background. The People Power Party is focusing on Moon’s criticism of the current government and his meeting with Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticizing that it is inappropriate for a former president to take a prominent political role, while the Democratic Party counters that he was simply visiting Seoul to attend the event.

On the 19th, Moon strongly criticized the economic and security policies of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration at the 5th anniversary event of the September 19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration. Emphasizing that the economic performance under the Moon administration was better than that of the Yoon administration, he stressed that "peace is the economy." This was interpreted as a rebuttal to the recent audit results revealing real estate statistics manipulation during the Moon administration and claims from the current ruling party about the "termination of the September 19 inter-Korean military agreement."

Before attending the event, Moon visited Green Hospital in Jungnang-gu, Seoul, where Lee Jae-myung was continuing his hunger strike in bed. Moon met with Lee and persuaded him to stop the strike, saying, "The sincerity and determination of your hunger strike have been fully shown."

The ruling party views Moon’s actions that day unfavorably. Kim Jae-won, a Supreme Council member of the People Power Party, said, "It must have been very moving for his supporters, but I do not rate it highly."

On the 20th, Kim said on YTN radio, "Many citizens, including myself, view Lee’s hunger strike negatively, so even the scene of Moon comforting him looks like a political event," and questioned, "Did it really give any special impression?"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Former People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok also described it as "self-promotion." On the 20th, on CBS radio’s 'Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show,' Lee said, "From Moon’s perspective, this was a good opportunity to show that 'no one else in the Democratic Party is taking such actions, but I alone can.' I had thought that the authority of a former president would someday shine, and this became an opportunity for that light to shine."

Moon’s meeting with Lee was interpreted as a political calculation to solidify his influence as a former president.

However, Yoon Gun-young, a Democratic Party lawmaker and close aide to Moon, refuted this on the same day on MBC radio and other outlets, stating that the main purpose of the Seoul visit was to attend the 5th anniversary event of the September 19 Peace Joint Declaration. He explained that the visit to Lee was out of concern for Lee’s health due to his prolonged hunger strike.

Choi Jae-sung, former senior secretary for political affairs at the Blue House, also said, "It was very appropriate and natural for former President Moon to visit the opposition leader on his way to the September 19 event to comfort him and request that he stop the hunger strike."

On the 21st, Choi appeared on YTN radio’s 'News King with Park Ji-hoon' and said, "We are worried about the recent situation and the behavior of this administration, which blames all problems on the previous government and conducts audits or seizures without basis on all matters. I believe it is only right for former President Moon to do this. He is a president produced by the Democratic Party."

Democratic Party spokesperson Kang Sun-woo responded to criticism that a former president is taking a prominent political role by saying, "Rather than taking a leading role, he simply had a schedule to attend an event in Seoul that day," and added, "There have been media interpretations that he made strong remarks, but I think he spoke exactly as it was."

On the 21st, Kang appeared on KBS radio’s 'Choi Kyung-young’s Strong Current Affairs' and said, "He spoke based on objective facts and as they are. The economy has fallen out of the world’s top 10 in size, national income has decreased, there is a record-level tax revenue deficit, and exports, trade balance, foreign exchange reserves, price index, and foreign investment were all much better during the Moon administration than now."

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