Kwon Young-se, People Power Party emergency countermeasure committee chair /Courtesy of News1

Kwon Young-se, chairperson of the emergency countermeasure committee of the People Power Party, criticized the noise related to the ‘Growth and Integration,’ a think tank of Lee Jae-myung, candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, on the 28th, saying, “They started to divide positions even before the election.”

Chairperson Kwon said during an emergency countermeasure committee meeting held at the National Assembly that “the controversy over growth and integration revealed the greed and incompetence of the Democratic Party and the absence of the Lee Jae-myung-style legal awareness.”

Launched on the 16th, the ‘Growth and Integration’ has been evaluated as effectively a think tank for the candidate. The launch ceremony was attended by hundreds of current members of the National Assembly, professors, and former officials from the Democratic Party leadership.

However, as discussions within the ‘Growth and Integration’ were reported as the official policies of the Lee Jae-myung candidate camp, and rumors spread that some individuals participating in the camp could occupy key positions in the next government, concerns and voices of restraint within the party increased. There was also an internal judgment that delivering a policy proposal book to a specific candidate's camp might violate election laws.

In response, some committees within the organization issued a statement announcing their unilateral dissolution, prompting co-representatives Yu Jong-il and Heo Min of Growth and Integration to issue a rebuttal statement saying, “This is not true.”

Chairperson Kwon remarked, “The master of illegal, unlawful, and circumstantial tactics, Lee Jae-myung, has reappeared.” He claimed, “As has been the case so far, he employs the Lee Jae-myung-style tactics of taking advantage when it benefits him and spitting it out when it does not.” He added, “Politics that leaves no responsibility and only confusion is the reality of Lee Jae-myung's leadership.”

He said, “It is a mirror image of the past Moon Jae-in administration,” and that “forces obsessed only with their own ideologies and interests are occupying positions and pouring out failed policies like income-led growth and nuclear phase-out.”

He continued, “Now they are gathering around candidate Lee Jae-myung again,” and remarked, “It’s a repetition of the failed policy's rehash and the old mantle of dividing positions.”

He added, “Those who divide positions even before taking power can give the public a good idea of how they will act after coming into power.”