General Election Candidate Im Jong-seok: "National Income Is Slipping at the Threshold of Developed Countries"

Political Comeback Background
"Everything Has Regressed to the 5th Republic Era" Criticism

Im Jong-seok, former Chief of Staff to the President who announced his candidacy for next year's general election, revealed the background of his return to politics by mentioning that everything has regressed to the era of the Fifth Republic under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In an interview on the 20th with YTN Radio's 'News King Park Ji-hoon,' Im explained the reason behind his decision to run in the next general election, stating, "We are regressing to the era of the Fifth Republic," while referring to the Yoon administration's setbacks in diplomacy, security, and the economy.

He diagnosed, "Our country's economic growth rate this year is generally predicted to be around 1.3%, which is the first time in the past 30 to 40 years, and the economic outlook for next year is also bleak, so it is very serious." He added, "Per capita national income was at the $35,000 level when the Yoon administration took office, but it has now fallen to the $32,000 level. In other words, we are rapidly sliding away from the threshold of a developed country."

Im believes that President Yoon's critical mishandling of diplomacy and security has caused the decline in national income. He said, "The economic chief declared a decoupling from China, and the president's remarks on the Taiwan issue have politically and policy-wise pushed our companies out of the Chinese market." He criticized, "However, the government neither properly diagnoses this problem nor makes every effort to resolve it. Next year also looks bleak."

Regarding President Yoon's recent trip to the Netherlands, where he achieved a series of diplomatic successes such as semiconductor alliances, Im questioned, "He travels abroad so much; how could there be no achievements? He travels accompanied by business leaders, and our companies have made investment promises?what will happen to those? Especially with the effort to host the Busan Expo, bringing business leaders along and making investment promises across the country, we need to see the bill for those promises to understand."