Lee Jun-seok: "The ruling party may not even secure 100 seats... Traitors are torturing Yoon with false hope"

"Yoon, Always Receives Wrong Reports and Makes Wrong Judgments"
"No Apology During Jamboree... Jeonbuk and Busan So Different"

Former People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok stated on the 1st, "If the election were tomorrow, I can say with certainty that (the People Power Party) would win fewer than 100 seats."

Lee appeared on MBC's 'News Outside' that day and said, "(President Yoon Seok-yeol) is surrounded by sycophants, and he repeatedly hears wrong information and makes wrong decisions."

Referring to the failure to secure the 2030 Busan Expo, Lee said, "Information came through various channels that 'this time (the bid) would be difficult,' but he rejected the correct information," adding, "Instead, he got angry and drove people away, so no one wanted to give proper reports." He continued, "I hope someone asks what kind of reports Yoon's core aides (Yoon Hae-gwan) or sycophants are giving about the general election," and added, "I think they are inflicting a lot of false hope."

Former People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok is speaking at a press conference urging the special investigation law for Marine Corps Corporal Chaesang-byeong to be passed within the year, held in front of the National Assembly main building on the 30th of last month. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Regarding the presidential office's replacement of five senior secretaries the day before, Lee criticized, "If there were any real concerns, they wouldn't have made such appointments. They completely appointed New Right figures and bureaucrats, and I think it's hard to expect anything different. I wonder if these appointments are any better than before."

He added, "When it comes to something as significant as the Expo bid, if the report was wrong and the president was embarrassed, someone?whether a minister or anyone?should have stepped up and taken responsibility, but who did? It's just a routine reshuffle of secretaries. Everyone has already become complacent."

Regarding President Yoon's direct apology for the Expo bid failure, Lee said, "If he was going to apologize, he should have prepared a comprehensive statement. He should have addressed all the issues that made the public upset so far, such as the Private First Class Chae case, the relocation of General Hong Beom-do's statue, and various personnel failures, but it was too rushed." He added, "I think it was a specialized apology with the intention of saying, 'Isn't Busan at risk in the general election? So I should apologize to the citizens of Busan.'"

Lee compared this to the Saemangeum Jamboree incident, when President Yoon did not apologize. He said, "(During the Jamboree) he blamed Jeollabuk-do, and later responded punitively by cutting the Jamboree budget," adding, "The stark difference in how Jeonbuk and Busan were handled is clear, and if they wanted to create a turnaround, it was a mistake both tactically and strategically."