SEOUL — South Korea’s presidential candidates faced off in their first TV debate on Sunday evening, ahead of a snap election on June 3 to choose a successor to former President Yoon Suk Yeol who was impeached over his short-lived martial law declaration in December.
Sunday’s debate, the first of three TV debates scheduled over the next two weeks, focused on how to revitalize the struggling economy, one of the hot-button election issues.
Lee Jae-myung, the main opposition Democratic Party’s candidate and the frontrunner in the race, came under a flurry of questions in the heated, rapid-fire first debate.
He advocated more investment in artificial intelligence, protection for unionized workers, a 4-1/2-day working week and putting South Korea’s interests first in responding to U.S. tariffs.
There was no need for Seoul to rush to reach a trade agreement with Washington, Lee said.
“I think we should prepare well for this situation delicately and competently,” Lee added, also arguing South Korea needs to nurture high-tech and renewable energy industries to overcome low economic growth.
“We will focus on developing so-called sovereign AI so our people can at least use something like ChatGPT for free like an electronic calculator,” he said.
Kim Moon-soo, candidate for the conservative People Power Party, vowed to create jobs and deregulate to foster businesses.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy contracted in the first quarter as exports and consumption stalled, amid fears over the impact of Washington’s aggressive tariffs and political turmoil at home.
South Korea has begun trade talks with the United States and is seeking a waiver from the tariffs. U.S. President Donald Trump slapped 25% tariffs on South Korea in April, after which Seoul was one of the first countries to hold face-to-face talks with Washington, following in the footsteps of Japan.
