PPP CANDIDATES INTERVIEWED BY CRITICS

[Anchor Lead]

Presidential candidates from the People Power Party were interviewed by political critic Chin Jung-kwon and other political commentators ahead of the first cut-off. Some candidates struggled to answer their aggressive questions while some fiercely fended them off.

[Pkg]

Six out of twelve presidential candidates from the People Power Party underwent the first round of the interviews. Mindful of the criticism that their policy announcements were amateurish, the latest interviews were quite difficult. In Hong Joon-pyo’s case, his past remarks were brought up again.

[Soundbite] Kim Joon-il(CEO, NewsToF) : "You said that you don’t like Ewha Womans University girls, that you want to beat them up for lashing out. Isn’t this sexual harassment?"

[Soundbite] Hong Joon-pyo(PPP Presidential Primary Candidate) : "I would admit it if you called them rude remarks, but that’s not sexual harassment."

Yoo Seung-min was questioned about being branded as a traitor to ex-President Park Geun-hye.

[Soundbite] Yoo Seong-min(PPP Presidential Primary Candidate) : "(You may appeal to the moderates...) Frankly, it’s not fair for me. I think you’re referring to the conservatives’ support in the Gyeongsang-do region. But I believe they will change their minds."

Choe Jae-hyeong couldn’t provide details of his pledge.

[Soundbite] Kim Joon-il(CEO, NewsToF) : "Please tell us where you’re planning to build smaller nuclear reactors like SMRs."

[Soundbite] Choe Jae-hyeong(PPP Presidential Primary Candidate) : "I haven’t thought about where to build them in detail."

[Soundbite] Kim Joon-il(CEO, NewsToF) : "Were you saying that you’ll build an SMR plant without any detailed plan?"

[Soundbite] Choe Jae-hyeong(PPP Presidential Primary Candidate) : "I’ll talk about it after looking into it more closely."

After the interview, some candidates complained about the way the session was conducted.

[Soundbite] Hong Joon-pyo(PPP Presidential Primary Candidate) : "Stop holding such pointless events. You could have all of us stand on a stage and let the audience ask questions."

[Soundbite] Yoo Seong-min(PPP Presidential Primary Candidate) : "Professor Chin Jung-kwon openly supported Yoon Seok-youl. I don’t know how the election committee could have invited him as an interviewer."

The remaining six candidates, such as Yoon Seok-youl and Won Hee-ryong, also underwent interviews.