Lee Jae-myung "Seongnam, Please Unite"... Lee Jun-seok "Not in Their Right Mind, Abandoning Bundang"

Lee Jae-myung Campaigns at Bundang Yatap Station in Seongnam with Kim Dong-yeon, Kim Byung-kwan
Lee Jun-seok: "If Seongnam is so good, you should have run in Bundang-gap"

Kim Dong-yeon, the Democratic Party of Korea candidate for governor of Gyeonggi Province, held a joint campaign rally on the afternoon of the 21st at Yatap Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, together with Lee Jae-myung, the general election campaign committee chairman, and Kim Byung-kwan, the candidate for the by-election for the National Assembly member of Bundang-gap, Gyeonggi Province.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Lee Gye-hwa] Lee Jae-myung, the General Election Committee Chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, who ran as a candidate for the Incheon Gyeyang-eul by-election, visited Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province on the 21st to support Kim Dong-yeon, the candidate for Gyeonggi Province governor, and appealed, "Our Seongnam raised Lee Jae-myung. Please unite Seongnam’s strength so that Lee Jae-myung can rise again." In response, Lee Jun-seok, the leader of the People Power Party, criticized, "He is not in his right mind. If he abandoned Bundang and went to Gyeyang, he should talk about Gyeyang."

That night, at a campaign rally at Yatap Station in Bundang-gu, Seongnam City, Lee said, "Is this Yatap Station in Seongnam that raised me as a presidential candidate of the Republic of Korea?" He added, "When I was the mayor of Seongnam, you raised me and recognized me, so I went to Gyeonggi Province, and with your support in Gyeonggi Province, I tried to bring change to the Republic of Korea but was temporarily frustrated."

He continued, "I was a young factory worker from Sangdaewon, Seongnam. I was an outsider human rights lawyer and civic activist in Seongnam," and claimed, "Seongnam was known nationwide as a city of evictees, and Bundang residents used to say, 'I don’t live in Seongnam, I live in Bundang.' I changed that so people can now say, 'I live in Seongnam now.'"

Regarding his return to politics two months after losing the presidential election, leading the party in the June 1 local elections, and running directly in the by-election for the National Assembly, Lee said, "It is to take infinite responsibility," and "I accepted playing two or three roles." He then appealed, "Our Seongnam raised Lee Jae-myung, didn’t it? Please unite your strength so that Lee Jae-myung can rise again in Seongnam."

In response, Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, stated on his Facebook on the 22nd, "A resident of Sunae-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam City, which is the biggest asset of Daejang-dong, abandoned his neighborhood election 25 days before the election, moved to Gyeyang-gu to run, and then came to Bundang, where Daejang-dong is located, to support the campaign, talking about his ties to Seongnam."

He added, "If you like Seongnam so much, you should have run in Bundang-gap," and criticized, "As I have repeatedly said, this person is not in his right mind. If he abandoned Bundang and went to Gyeyang, he should talk about Gyeyang."