Ahn Cheol-soo Says in New Year's Address on Presidential Race: "Two Beasts Are Biting Each Other"

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the People’s Party, is attending the Central Election Countermeasures Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 30th and delivering an opening remark. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Seoyoung] Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the People’s Party, released his New Year's address for the Year of the Black Tiger 2022, criticizing the ruling and opposition presidential candidates.

In his New Year's address, Candidate Ahn said, "The Year of the Black Tiger 2022 is the year when the tiger descends," adding, "The tiger has long been known as a sacred creature that drives away evil spirits. I believe the energy of the tiger will overcome incompetent and hypocritical politics as well as COVID-19." He continued, "More frightening than hohwan (tyrannical politics) or mama (infectious diseases) is moral decay," and added, "History teaches us that a nation or civilization does not collapse due to external attacks but from within."

Candidate Ahn also wrote, "The current state of South Korean politics is like two beasts trapped in a cave biting each other over a single prey." This is interpreted as a remark targeting the main ruling and opposition presidential candidates, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party and Yoon Seok-youl of the People Power Party.

He wrote, "If the competition is not about South Korea’s survival strategy, future vision, and policies but only about candidates’ morality, family issues, and qualifications, I fear that whichever of the two entrenched parties wins, the people will be further divided and South Korea will fall into a greater crisis." Candidate Ahn emphasized, "The goal should not be regime change but making a better South Korea," adding, "Regime change is the beginning and means to create a better South Korea."

Meanwhile, Candidate Ahn stated, "The South Korean tiger must not be trapped in a cave. It must roar on the global stage," and said, "The world is at a great turning point in human civilization history," and "Amid the three mega-trends of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the new US-China cold war, we must solve the three national crises of quarantine chaos, job crisis, and political chaos." He also pointed out, "We must overcome COVID-19 not with the Moon Jae-in administration’s fake K-quarantine or political quarantine but with genuine K-quarantine and scientific quarantine."