NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

The main opposition People Power Party held a convention Friday and elected 36 year old Lee Jun-seok as its new leader to head the PPP through next year’s presidential and provincial elections. Lee garnered close to 93-thousand-400 votes from party members and ordinary citizens versus Na Kyung-won who won 79-thousand votes. He is the first ever 30-something party leader to be elected in the country’s constitutional history. The PPP also elected five Supreme Council members and the new leadership’s term has kicked off immediately.
Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol has announced the extension of current social distancing guidelines by 3 more weeks. The greater metro area is under distancing Level 2 and the rest of the country Level 1.5. The ban on personal gatherings of five or more people will also be extended to July 4. The minister said daily COVID-19 cases have averaged in the upper 500s in the past 6 weeks and the virus reproduction rate has remained around one for the past 4 weeks, noting the outbreak is not subsiding. But Kwon added that attendance ratios will be expanded in phases for sport events and cultural performances where the risk of spread is low, on the premise that basic quarantine measures are observed.
Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-Weon chaired a policy inspection meeting on innovative growth on Friday and called for thorough, concrete measures to achieve full post-pandemic economic recovery. He said the government was reviewing another extra budget and policy directions for the year’s second half to prevent the pandemic from causing further disparities or permanent economic damage. As for the tasks at hand, Lee mentioned vaccine supply, boosting domestic demand and employment and providing support to small business owners and others hit hard by COVID-19.