hankyoreh

June 27. (by Lee Jeong-woo

By Son Won-je, staff reporter

Moon Jae-in has let loose a volley of criticism aimed at his competitors in the coming presidential race. The Democratic United Party senior advisor has had words for New Frontier Party lawmaker Park Geun-hye, as well as candidates from his own party, including senior advisor Sohn Hak-kyu and South Gyeongsang province governor Kim Doo-kwan. Moon’s move is being interpreted as an attempt to overcome doubts surrounding his alleged lack of desire for power and to create an image as a powerful candidate capable of winning December’s presidential election.

“I am the only candidate that can beat Park Geun-hye,” said Moon, speaking at a debate at the Kwanhun Club, Korea’s oldest organization for journalists. Moon said, “Her and I were both born in the year of the dragon but we have lived totally different lives.”

Moon continued, “When I was living poverty she was living the life of a princess in the Blue House. When I was fighting against dictatorship, she was at the heart of it. After that, I lived for democracy and human rights, but she still says ‘[Park Chung-hee’s coup d’etat of] May 16 [1961] was a decision made to save the nation,’ and ‘The Yushin dictatorship meant to save the country from crisis.’ Park’s policies on economic democratization and welfare don’t appear to be authentic and her historical consciousness is out of touch with the current zeitgeist. It makes me feel desperate that such a reactionary person enjoys the highest support rate. That’s why I decided to run for the presidency.”

When asked about the prospect of Ahn Cheol-soo running as an indpendent candidate, Moon said, “I am the candidate with the highest level of support from the Democratic United Party, a party that comes from the tradition of the People’s Government and the Participatory Government [of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun]. Since having a support base within the party is a big source of strength, I think I wouldn’t lose to Ahn.”

Moon advised Kim Doo-kwan, “Compete for the nomination while keeping your position as governor.” This amounts to telling Kim not to quit his day job, and that he should wait until the next presidential election. “To be honest, I think he’ll become my most awkward competitor as we’ll be competing for support from the same provincial base.”

Moon said of Kim’s planned resignation, “He could greatly disappoint the people of South Gyeongsang province and could affect our level of support at the election.” He also advised Kim to resign after winning the nomination, or when it appears likely that he could win.

Moon said to Sohn Hak-kyu, who claimed that any opposition candidate from the southeastern Yeongnam region was bound to lose, “It’s wrong to draw regional lines, to say that a candidate from Yeongnam or Honam or wherever cannot win. Rep. Sohn and I are both aiming to bring in a new government, and if we want to do this, it’s up to us to gain support from the public.”

Regarding the “pro-North Korea” controversy, Moon said, “Any pro-North Korea figures should be excluded from [South Korean] politics, but we must not brand people pro-North Korea in the style of a witch hunt.” When asked whether he regarded Unified Progressive Party lawmaker Lee Seok-gi as “pro-North Korean,” he said, “In view of the fact that he said things like the Korean national anthem is not our real national anthem, there are problems with his stance as a public politician. But we must be careful about taking issue with his view of the state in a situation where he himself denies being pro-North Korea and there is no other material to justify branding him as such.”

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