Lee Jun-seok: "The face of the People Power Party has 'fraudster' written on it… It’s a party that needs to disappear."
Reform Party presidential candidate Lee Jun-seok stated that he would not unify with any presidential candidate from the People Power Party.
In an interview with Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 23rd, Candidate Lee firmly asserted regarding the unification with the People Power Party candidates, “Those who tried to oust someone who held the top position in the party by turning them into a human disgrace wouldn’t be taken seriously, no matter what they offer. Believing them would be foolish.”
Regarding his talk of a 'Big Tent' unification, he remarked about Hong Joon-pyo, a candidate in the People Power Party presidential primary, “There’s no reason to unify whether Hong becomes the final candidate or someone else does," and further commented on the People Power Party, saying, “It seems they don’t realize that when they offer a handshake now, 'fraudster' is written on their faces.”
He continued, “Those who pressured me to nearly take my own life by framing me with the charges of sexual favors now come and tell me to trust them for the sake of 'greater justice' or I’ll be a traitor; would I trust that?” He added, “It is true that I dislike Lee Jae-myung (Democratic Party presidential candidate) due to his unusual policies, but he hasn’t done me any harm.”
On the same day, Candidate Lee stated, “Even if there is a center-right group wanting to prevent Lee Jae-myung’s election in a two-way race, there is no possibility that another candidate could win.” He confidently stated, “Lee Jae-myung will say all sorts of strange things during the election, but the vessel (alternative) that can contain that is not the People Power Party."
When asked if he could attract support from Lee Jae-myung, he replied, “One of the most impressive things those who voted for me in Dongtan said was, 'I see Roh Moo-hyun in Lee Jun-seok.'”
He added, “I thought there might be people in the (Democratic Party) soft support base who would consider voting for me while seeing Lee Jae-myung, who is the complete opposite of him (former President Roh).”
Candidate Lee also mentioned that he “certainly didn’t watch” the People Power Party primary debate, expressing, “It would have been really cool if someone had talked about disqualifying Yoon Seok-yeol,” referring to the former president.
Furthermore, he criticized, “They suspended my party membership for a year for using the Chinese idiom 'yangduguyuk' (two-headed animal), but they have nothing to say about Yoon. At this point, borrowing Yoon’s words, ‘this party should disappear’ seems fitting.”
Meanwhile, in July 2022, while serving as the leader of the People Power Party, Lee Jun-seok received a severe disciplinary action of ‘6-month suspension of party membership’ from the Central Ethics Committee of the People Power Party.
The reason given was ‘violation of duty to maintain dignity related to allegations of evidence destruction’. This marked the first case of a ruling party leader receiving such severe disciplinary action during their term.
At the time, candidate Lee did not acknowledge the disciplinary action, but the People Power Party accepted the decision and formed a new leadership.
Image source: News1, August 2022, Lee Jun-seok (then the leader of the People Power Party) wipes his tears with a mask during a press conference held at the National Assembly's communication hall in Yeouido, Seoul. / News1
