| Major presidential candidates pose before their TV debate at broadcaster MBN's studio in Jung District, Seoul, Friday. From left are Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, Justice Party candidate Sim Sang-jung, People's Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo and People Power Party candidate Yoon Suk-yeol. Joint Press Corps |
By Nam Hyun-woo
Minor opposition People's Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo and Justice Party candidate Sim Sang-jung were also invited to the four-way debate.
Lee said the Moon government's COVID-19 response has been successful.
"Though there could be shortcomings, I believe the administration has been doing well to curb the pandemic," he said.
But he admitted that the response measures have not been perfect and there is some room for change,
"It's time to make changes. … It seems that opinions from the field health workers have not been fully reflected in the policymaking process. I believe quarantine and restriction systems also need to be upgraded. Considering that the Omicron variant is highly contagious but has lower risks, it is time to be more flexible in restrictions and focus on critically ill patients," he said.
Yoon disagreed, describing the government's COVID-19 response as "clumsy" and "unscientific."
"First, the Moon government turned a deaf ear to what experts said," Yoon said. "During the early stages of the outbreak, doctors urged the government to ban Chinese from entering Korea, because the virus broke out in China's northeastern city of Wuhan, but the government ignored [the recommendation]."
Yoon went on to say that the government also failed in its management of COVID-19 data.
"With limited resources, the government was supposed to set priority in treating severely-ill patients, but it failed in managing relevant data," Yoon said. "The government's clumsy and unscientific COVID-19 responses caused huge damage to the self-employed and small shop owners."
Ahn also criticized the government's coronavirus quarantine measures, saying the government has "failed" because it did not listen to his advice.
"I said COVID-19 could be more serious than Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, but they ignored my advice. I also urged the government to ban the entry of Chinese tourists, but they didn't heed this advice, either."
Wife risks
Lee took aim at Yoon, reminding his rival of the allegation regarding his wife.
"I wonder if you know the rumor about your wife. Rumor has it that your wife had been involved in stock price manipulation of Deutsch Motors (a BMW car dealer in Korea)," Lee said. "Tens of thousands of victims suffered from the stock price manipulation, and what your wife did goes against fairness that you've mentioned a lot."
Yoon rebuffed the allegation, noting that "the prosecution has investigated those believed to be involved in each allegation" and "there was no illegality revealed in the investigation so far."
Justice Party's Sim slammed Lee for his wife's misuse of a corporate card to purchase meals and other daily necessities for her and her family and abuse of power by her husband who let Gyeonggi provincial government officials run personal errands for her when he served as governor.
Lee apologized and said it was his fault, adding that he should have taken measures to prevent his wife from getting help from Gyeonggi provincial government officials for private matters.
While refraining from commenting on Lee's wife, Yoon lambasted his rival for a land development scandal in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, questioning where nearly 850 billion won of money earned from the development project went and who benefitted from it.
"The prosecution is not investigating the scandal though," Yoon said. "We should reveal the truth about where the money is, and who used it."
Foreign policy
The two leading candidates also clashed over inter-Korean relations and foreign policy with Lee accusing Yoon of trying to trigger confrontation between the two Koreas instead of seeking peace.
"The best case scenario for inter-Korean relations will be that the two Koreas work together to establish the condition where they no longer need to confront each other," he said.
Yoon fired back at Lee, saying he is no different than other DPK members who try to curry favor with China and North Korea while maintaining an anti-U.S. stance.
"His position on national security is not consistent, either, and this is no surprise, considering that he has zig-zagged in other issues and reversed his words so easily," he said. "This is serious because national security is the issue that can make or break the nation and its people."
Moon-Yoon clash
Lee blamed Yoon for his remarks that if elected, he was willing to investigate if people in the Moon government were found to have been involved in any illicit activities or irregularities.
"He threatened political retaliation to President Moon who picked him to lead the prosecution as prosecutor-general," Lee said, vowing he would be the genuine successor of Moon.
"As a DPK member, I would succeed policies if they worked out well. I would fix and upgrade if there's anything wrong with the policies or initiatives that were taken by the Moon government."
Contrary to expectations, the candidates did not spend much time over Yoon's remark on investigating the Moon government's wrongdoings and angry response from the President, apparently because the candidates did not want the confrontation to steal the show.
On Thursday, President Moon expressed his rage after Yoon said in an interview with a local newspaper that he would investigate the Moon government to see if there's anything to clean up from what he referred to as its deep-rooted wrongdoings.
Moon demanded an apology from Yoon, who was the President's hand-picked prosecutor-general, saying the main opposition candidate painted the administration as a faction subject to a corruption investigation. The DPK also lambasted Yoon and accused him of publicly threatening to take revenge on the Moon government.
Yoon later told reporters that the investigation he referred to in the interview does not signify political retaliation, adding that he and Moon are on the same page in terms of conducting thorough investigations into corruption, but did not apologize.