YOON’S CONTROVERSIAL REMARKS

[Anchor Lead]

Opposition party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol visited the southwestern Honam region to court progressive voters in spite of the in-party conflict. But his visit stirred up another controversy when he said that he was obliged to join the People Power Party and the democratic movement in the 1980s was an imported ideology. The out-of-control controversy even overshadowed the PPP’s real estate policy proposals.

[Pkg]

On the second day of his visit to the southwestern honam region of the nation, People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol said the opposition party is changing and asked voters to open their hearts. In appealing to the voters there, he used the term “unavoidable choice” to describe his decision to join the PPP.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(PPP Presidential Candidate) : "I'm driven to replace this government. I couldn’t join the Democratic Party. So joining the PPP was an unavoidable choice."

He made another controversial comment. Yoon denounced the Democratic Party and the Moon Jae-in administration for sowing division out of their obsession with an outdated ideology.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(PPP Presidential Candidate) : "The democratic movement wasn’t based on the spirit of free democracy, but on an ideology imported from somewhere."

That drew immediate criticism from the liberal parties, accusing him of disparaging the democratic movement and treating Korean history as imported. Yoon explained that his intent was to condemn ideological struggles that continued even after the democratic movement bore fruit.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(PPP Presidential Candidate) : "I’m saying that the movement based on an ideology imported from abroad walked the same path as the democratic movement, not that our democratic movement was imported."

The PPP election committee was embarrassed by Yoon's dubious remarks made just one day after he had said that people in extreme poverty don’t know what freedom is. The election committee decided to divert attention by blasting the current government’s real estate policy and proposing policies that aim to reduce taxes. The opposition camp proposed to lower the declared values of properties to the 2020 level and combine the comprehensive real estate tax and property tax. But people’s attention stayed away from these policies because of Yoon’s questionable remarks. volunteer work and plans to go to midnight Mass at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul.