Choi Jae-sung "Election referees must not side with teams" vs No Woong-rae "Blaming only referees won't improve skills"

Ruling Party Think Tank Minjuyewon's 'Basic Living Income' Presidential Pledge Controversy
In Response to Song Young-gil's Criticism of Favoring a Specific Candidate
No Woong-rae Dismisses, "Basic Income Is Not Exclusive to One Candidate"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Amid criticisms that the Democratic Research Institute, the think tank of the Democratic Party of Korea, is pushing a specific candidate by including the ‘Basic Living Income’ policy in its presidential campaign pledges, Representative Noh Woong-rae, who heads the institute, responded on the 1st, saying, “If we only blame the referee unfairly, our actual capabilities will never improve.”

This was in response to former Blue House Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Choi Jae-sung’s remark targeting Representative Song Young-gil, stating, “The leadership and office holders are referees. They have never belonged to the team as referees.”

On the same day, Representative Noh posted on Facebook, “The Democratic Research Institute’s study on Basic Living Income was a topic researched during the tenure of former leader Lee Nak-yeon, under Research Director Hong Ik-pyo. There has been no separate research conducted since Representative Song took office.”

He continued, “The topic of basic income does not belong to any one candidate. Similarly, the institute has also conducted research on ‘New Welfare,’ government organization restructuring, and a volunteer military system. We are not supporting the policies of any single candidate but are keeping all possibilities open and supporting policy research as a ‘one team’ for all presidential candidates.”

Representative Noh explained, “The core pledges of the institute that have been exposed to the media are not yet finalized. The Democratic Research Institute is conducting in-depth research on more than 30 policy pledges and will further specify them through consultations with each candidate and the policy committee in the future.”

He dismissed the controversy by stating, “We must achieve regime re-creation through fair and just competition.”