Fierce Clashes in Final TV Debate Leading Into 'Super Week'

[Anchor]

The final TV debate has been held ahead of the national convention to elect the next leader of the Democratic Party. With the crucial regional primaries in Honam, Seoul, and Gyeonggi approaching, the three candidates engaged in a fierce battle.

Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

Five days ahead of the August 17 Democratic Party national convention, the final TV debate was hosted by SBS.

Candidate Kim Min-seok, who is leading candidate Jung Cheong-rae by a cumulative vote margin of 1.45 percentage points, claimed that during the 2022 presidential election, Jung caused conflicts with the Buddhist community due to his so-called "Bongyi Kim Seondal" remarks, thereby ruining the election.

[Kim Min-seok / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: You ruined the presidential election, so why do you not apologize? Isn't that what you call a betrayal?]

Candidate Jung launched a counterattack by bringing up Kim's history of leaving the party in 2002, labeling it as "betrayal."

[Jung Cheong-rae / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: Candidate Kim Min-seok, please relax your face. It seems you have a lot of trauma from betraying and leaving President Roh Moo-hyun, and from that betrayal.]

Jung also raised the issue of responsibility, pointing out that Kim was prime minister when the enforcement decree for single-stock leverage ETFs was deliberated and passed.

[Jung Cheong-rae / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: I have been repeatedly asking you to offer comfort to those who suffered heavy losses (from the passage of the single-stock leverage ETF) and to make more responsible remarks.]

[Kim Min-seok / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: I have expressed my regret and apologized again today. You seem to have forgotten what I said earlier, but I already did. Did I not also explain the background?]

Sharp expressions such as "cartel" and "political maneuvering" were also exchanged.

[Kim Min-seok / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: Under the guise of progressivism, (the pro-Jung faction) has formed something like a cartel around the party, and I believe it is time to put an end to this.]

[Jung Cheong-rae / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: (Candidate Kim Min-seok) seems very accustomed to moving past conspiracy theories into the realm of political maneuvering under the pretext of asking questions.]

A debate over the national policy tasks of the Lee Jae-myung administration took place between candidates Song Young-gil and Jung Cheong-rae.

[Song Young-gil / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: (The Lee Jae-myung administration's first national policy task) being the end of rebellion sounds somewhat like the primary pledge of the Rebuilding Korea Party. I cannot help but think that (Candidate Jung Cheong-rae) was mentally overly inclined toward the Rebuilding Korea Party.]

[Jung Cheong-rae / Democratic Party Leadership Candidate: Let me ask you right now. Then what is national policy task number 50? (What?) What is national policy task number 50?]

The Democratic Party will hold regional primaries in Honam on August 15 and in Seoul and Gyeonggi on August 16, followed by the national convention on August 17, where the next party leader will be finalized based on total votes, including a 30% public opinion poll result.

(Photo: Yonhap News) (Note: This is a general news report translated from SBS News.)
Reported by Oh Young-chun and Kim Yong-woo | Video by Jeon Min-gyu
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.