Justice Party's Kwon Young-guk Announces Presidential Candidacy... "A Country Without Discrimination"

Beyond Liquidating Internal Enemies, Toward Great Social Reform
Pledges Include Citizen Minimum Income and Anti-Discrimination Law

Kwon Young-guk, leader of the Justice Party, announced his candidacy for the presidential election on the 16th, stating, "I will take the lead in creating a country without discrimination, a country where labor is dignified, and an equal Republic of Korea."

Kwon Young-guk, Leader of the Justice Party. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

On the same day, Kwon held a press conference for his presidential bid in front of the high-altitude protest site of the Metal Workers' Union Geotonggo branch in Jung-gu, Seoul, saying, "We will achieve a great social reform beyond the regime change demanded by the citizens in the square," and added, "In a political climate where the liquidation of internal enemies overshadows the great social reform, we will protect the lives that are helplessly collapsing."

Kwon said, "If regime change does not change lives, then for whom is the regime change?" He pointed out, "It is despair if the reality where workers are ordered to pay 47 billion won in damages just for striking, and 2,000 workers fail to return home from their workplaces every year, does not change."

Kwon emphasized, "If women's existence is still erased even after the regime changes, then for whom is the regime change?" He stressed, "If social minorities such as sexual minorities, people with disabilities, and migrants suffer from discrimination and hatred to the point of contemplating death, and if whistleblowers are instead disadvantaged and driven out, that is despair."

Kwon stated, "Every year, 200,000 self-employed people close their shops because they cannot repay debts. Farmers plow over their fields due to the collapse of rice prices," adding, "Temperatures rise above 30 degrees in mid-September and snow falls in mid-April. These are not problems that can be solved by regime change alone."

Kwon is a former dismissed worker of Pungsan Metal. After passing the bar exam in 1999, he actively worked in labor fields as a legal representative for the Ssangyong Motor mass layoffs and as the head of the fact-finding team for the Guui Station Kim incident. His main pledges include ▲ electoral system reform ▲ revision of Articles 2 and 3 of the Labor Union Act ▲ citizen minimum income of 1 million won ▲ introduction of a super-rich tax on the top 0.1% ▲ enactment of a comprehensive anti-discrimination law ▲ replacement legislation for the abortion law ▲ legalization of same-sex marriage ▲ and a human rights-respecting refugee law.

Earlier, the Justice Party decided to select its presidential candidate through the 'Great Social Transition Presidential Election Coalition Meeting,' composed of the Justice Party, Labor Party, Green Party, and civic groups, at the national committee and party congress held on the 12th and 13th. In this primary, Kwon and Han Sang-gyun, leader of the Workers' Class Party Construction Promotion Preparatory Committee, are competing. The coalition meeting will hold debates and regional campaigns until the 26th. The primary voting period is from the 27th to the 30th.