DP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES CLASH

[Anchor Lead]

The in-house feud is heating up among the Democratic Party’s leading presidential candidates. They had been arguing over the impeachment of the late former President Roh Moo-hyun until Saturday. Now they are bickering about regionalism.

[Pkg]

It began with Lee Jae-myung’s press interview. Over the course of Korea’s 5,000-year history, not once did Baekje or the southwestern Honam region unite the entire peninsula. If Lee Nak-yeon wins the presidential election, people might think it's historic, but the approval rating has changed a lot since then, so expanding the approval rate across the nation has become more important now. Lee Nak-yeon took issue with this remark. He said the Gyeonggi-do Province governor made a serious mistake by questioning a Honam native’s ability to win support across the nation. The former DP leader’s spokesperson argued that the governor may be saying that someone from Honam could never win. Chung Sye-kyun, another presidential candidate from the Honam region, agreed that it was the worst remark to make. He said that the term “regional expansion” itself implies regionalism.

[Soundbite] Chung Sye-kyun(DP Presidential Candidate) : "It’s unacceptable for them to use regional issues to boost their competitiveness in the election."

When criticized for encouraging regionalism, Lee Jae-myung, who happened to be visiting the Honam area at the time, told them to see the entire interview and claimed that his remarks have been taken out of context.

[Soundbite] Lee Jae-myung(DP Presidential Candidate) : "We’re being supported across the board because of trust, integrity and performance. This is what expansion of approval is all about. But they make up stories as if I fostered regionalism."

DP members are concerned as the DP's two leading presidential candidates have locked horns over the title of the rightful heir to ex-President Roh Moo-hyun’s legacy. Now they are engaged in a debate that seems to foster regionalism.

[Soundbite] Park Yong-jin(DP Presidential Candidate) : "It’s a shame that rather than looking after people’s lives, the debates in the DP primaries are reverting to the level of the Baekje era."

Believing that their negative campaigning has come to a dangerous level, the DP’s election oversight committee has summoned each candidate’s campaign manager.