[Interview with Min Young-sam] "Lee Jun-seok Trauma... I Want a Leadership Without Discord"

Min Young-sam, People Power Party Supreme Council Candidate
Internal Criticism Channel 'Sseun-sori Square' Pledge
"If Elected, Will Form a Fake News Response Task Force"

"Party members suffering from Lee Jun-seok trauma want a leadership that will not cause conflicts with the president."

Min Young-sam, a candidate for the Supreme Council member in the People Power Party's March 8 party convention, stated in an interview with Asia Economy, "We must unite to eliminate internal criticism, and with united strength, support the government, achieve government performance, and guarantee victory in the general election."

Min Young-sam, a candidate for the Supreme Council member of the People Power Party, is speaking about his platform as a candidate during a meeting with reporters at the National Assembly Communication Office on the 24th.

Self-proclaimed 'Pro-Yoon' Min served as the National Integration Special Advisor in Yoon Seok-yeol's campaign during the 20th presidential election and resigned after criticizing former party leader Lee Jun-seok. Since then, he has supported President Yoon as a political commentator through the YouTube channel 'Ddadabudda,' which has 1.13 million subscribers.

Min said, "After President Yoon declared his political (presidential candidacy), he called me and said 'Let's go together,' so I helped him," adding, "After resigning from the National Integration Special Advisor position, I did not directly join the election committee, but the party members seem to treat me warmly because they all know how I protected President Yoon."

He has been clashing daily with former leader Lee and the so-called 'Reform Conservatives' candidates known as 'Cheon-A-Yong-In' (Cheon Ha-ram, Heo Eun-ah, Kim Yong-tae, Lee Gi-in). At a joint speech meeting, he listed the party leader candidates but excluded Cheon Ha-ram's name. Min explained, "Next year's general election is actually a midterm evaluation of President Yoon, so we need to achieve government performance, but those people say strange things," and added, "In Cheon’s case, he attacks President Yoon, which is hard for me to accept emotionally."

He shook his head at the criticism that the 'Moon Core Supporters' (key figures from former President Moon Jae-in's side) have changed to 'Yoon Core Supporters' (key figures from President Yoon Seok-yeol's side) raised by the reform conservatives. Min previously served as a deputy spokesperson for the Democratic Party and was the Strategic Headquarters Chief of the National Integration Promotion Committee in Moon Jae-in's 18th presidential campaign. However, he explained that he became fed up with factionalism within the Democratic Party and left. He introduces himself to People Power Party members as a 'defector warrior.' Min said, "I was never a key figure for former President Moon, and the frame is wrong," and criticized, "If we criticize Rep. Tae Young-ho of the People Power Party for praising Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il while he was in North Korea, should we tell him to go back to North Korea? That’s beyond the line."

If he enters the party leadership, there are two main goals he wants to achieve. First is to create a 'Bitter Criticism Plaza.' This means resolving necessary healthy criticism internally. Min emphasized, "Internal bitter criticism is really necessary as light and salt, and it can be done inside as much as needed," adding, "It would be good to melt internal criticism in the Bitter Criticism Plaza like a melting pot."

The other is to launch an organization to fight against 'fake news.' Min said, "Currently, the People Power Party is very weak in responding to the opposition party's low-level political attacks," and added, "I want to create a task force (TF) to respond to this and protect the party."