People Power Party: "'Lawyer Lee Jae-myung' Unfit for Presidency... Must Withdraw Candidacy"

Yang Geum-hee, Chairwoman of the Central Women's Committee, asks, "Are 'Lawyer Lee Jae-myung' and 'Presidential Candidate Lee Jae-myung' different people?"

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, is giving a greeting speech at the launch ceremony of the Gwangju Great Transformation Election Committee held at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Seo-gu, Gwangju on the 28th. 2021.11.28 Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] The People Power Party has called for Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, to withdraw his candidacy.

Yang Geum-hee, head of the People Power Party's Central Women's Committee, held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Office on the 29th and stated, "Candidate Lee is not qualified to become the President of the Republic of Korea in 2022."

Yang said, "In Korea, even criminals have the right to legal counsel, and lawyers can defend shameless fraudsters or brutal murderers alike," but added, "(The problem is) that Lee Jae-myung, who defended a murderer who brutally killed his girlfriend and family, has now become the ruling party's presidential candidate."

She continued, "When it was recently revealed that he defended his nephew in a brutal mother-daughter murder case, he downplayed it by saying he defended a 'serious crime caused by dating violence' and lied. When that lie was exposed, he claimed he had no intention to deceive and only used immature expressions, and then lied again by saying he had no choice but to take the case because it was a relative," questioning, "Is 'Lawyer Lee Jae-myung' a different person from 'Presidential Candidate Lee Jae-myung'?" She added, "Candidate Lee thoroughly deceived the public by pretending to be a human rights lawyer and civic activist."

She also asked, "To the Democratic Party of Korea: Why are you silent about your party's presidential candidate's history of defending murderers and the continuously revealed history of defending cases of violence against women?" and demanded, "How far will this double standard go? Withdraw the nomination of this candidate."

Meanwhile, the People Power Party's Central Election Committee announced on the same day that it has formed a 'Serious Crime Response Task Force' under the Clean Election Strategy Headquarters to devise reasonable improvement measures for serious crimes. The party pointed out that when candidate Lee defended his nephew in the past for the 'Gangdong-gu mother-daughter murder case,' he argued for a 'reduction of sentence due to diminished mental capacity.'