Eonju Lee "Worried About Surveillance Document Controversy"... Seonghun Park "Financial Nonsense"
Park Hyung-jun, preliminary candidate for Busan Mayor from the People Power Party Photo by Yonhap News
[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] In the final debate of the People Power Party's Busan mayoral primary held on the 25th, preliminary candidate Park Hyung-jun once again won according to the debate panel's evaluation, despite the joint attacks from candidates Lee Eon-ju and Park Seong-hoon.
During the People Power Party Busan mayoral 'Joint Vision Debate' held at KNN that day, candidate Park Hyung-jun was chosen by the 'debate evaluation panel.' The debate voting was conducted via ARS voting by a debate evaluation panel consisting of 1,000 party members and citizens immediately after the debate.
In the debate, candidates Lee Eon-ju and Park Seong-hoon focused their attacks on the leading candidate Park Hyung-jun. Candidate Lee Eon-ju pointed to Park Hyung-jun's controversy over the ‘MB surveillance documents,’ while candidate Park Seong-hoon criticized Park Hyung-jun’s ‘lack of financial expertise.’
Candidate Lee Eon-ju said, “The Democratic Party is currently launching an offensive related to surveillance, but the candidate said it was the first time hearing about it,” adding, “According to the materials they released, there are documents said to have been submitted during his time as a secretary, which is concerning.” She continued, “If this issue continues, the Democratic Party will frame it as MB versus the Roh Moo-hyun administration. Can you overcome that?” She then emphasized, “We are free from responsibility,” and “If there are no major weaknesses, we could rather advance strongly in the general election.”
Candidate Park Seong-hoon also continued sharp criticism toward Park Hyung-jun. Regarding Park Hyung-jun’s doubts about his achievements in attracting financial companies to the Busan International Finance Center (BIFC), Park Seong-hoon countered, “After the debate, I received many calls from financial industry workers saying that evaluating the performance of attracting financial institutions by ‘number of people’ or ‘square meters’ is nonsense.”
He also launched an offensive by asking Park Hyung-jun to explain the concept of ‘small license,’ a technical term referring to small-scale permits. When Park Hyung-jun failed to respond properly, Park Seong-hoon emphasized his financial expertise, saying, “No, let me explain again.”
However, despite the two candidates’ attacks, Park Hyung-jun remained composed in his responses. In response to candidate Lee Eon-ju’s mention of the ‘surveillance document controversy,’ he said, “There is no need to worry about the surveillance issue,” and argued, “If illegal surveillance had occurred, I would have stopped it.” He explained that this issue would not become a stumbling block even in the general election.
Regarding Park Seong-hoon’s criticism of his financial expertise, Park Hyung-jun said, “If you felt hurt because I did not acknowledge your efforts, I apologize,” and explained, “I was not belittling the efforts to attract financial institutions but was trying to confirm the current status of progress.”
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