Hong Joon-pyo, a former mayor of Daegu and a presidential candidate of the People Power Party, directly criticized the party leadership, which is struggling with the unification with candidate Kim Moon-soo and the independent presidential candidate Han Duck-soo.
On the 9th, Hong, who announced his retirement from politics along with his departure from the party on the 29th of last month, stated on Facebook, "My 50 years of tightrope-walking bureaucratic life ends so vainly." He continued, "One should depart beautifully so that the entire journey is beautiful. If one exits in greed, caught up in desire, only ugliness remains."
This is interpreted as aimed at candidate Han, who has a long career in bureaucracy.
He also said, "Since the time those two came with Yoon Suk-yeol, the party has been in decline, and now it is falling into an irretrievable pit with another absurd act," adding, "I knew this would happen, so I managed to get out of the dirty field, but the Korean conservative camp is once again facing annihilation." The two people Hong referred to are interpreted as Kweon Seong-dong, the party's emergency countermeasures committee chairman, and Kweon Seong-dong, the floor leader, who are pursuing unification with candidate Han.
Hong also added, "Kim Moon-soo is right," saying, "Yoon and those two will be punished by heaven."