Japan Yomiuri: "Moon Government's COVID-19 Response, April General Election Campaign" Controversy

'Deceptive Election Propaganda Misleading the Public' Column Published
"Premature End Declaration Due to Anxiety Over General Election, Not Simple Optimism"
Moon's "Model COVID-19 Response" Remarks Criticized as Propaganda

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] The Yomiuri Shimbun has published a column claiming that the Moon Jae-in administration's response to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) was a propaganda effort aimed at the April general election, sparking expected controversy.

The Japanese daily Yomiuri ran a column titled "Election Propaganda Deceiving the People" under the name of its Seoul bureau chief on page 7 on the 22nd.

Yomiuri first took issue with President Moon's remark at an economic meeting on the 13th of last month that "COVID-19 will end soon." The newspaper pointed out, "If vigilance had not been relaxed at that time, it might have been possible to prevent the explosive increase in infections."

It then analyzed, "This failure was not simply optimism but caused by the anxiety that the general election was approaching on April 15," adding, "Wasn't the premature declaration of the end made out of concern that continued consumption contraction until the election would be disadvantageous to the ruling party?"

Yomiuri also criticized the South Korean government's response to the entry restrictions imposed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the 5th, calling it 'unfriendly,' and noted that South Korea's reciprocal measures against Japan could be understood as election strategies.

The newspaper introduced remarks from a South Korean government official saying, "We did not want to give up the scenario of realizing President Xi Jinping's visit to Korea before the general election to achieve diplomatic success," arguing that South Korea's decision not to impose entry restrictions on China was for this reason.

The newspaper further disparaged President Moon's March 9 statement that "South Korea is a model in COVID-19 prevention" as "for election purposes," stating that to the people fighting the invisible enemy of the virus, it was "nothing but noise."