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President Moon Jae-in publicly demanded an apology, saying he was strongly angry with the "remarks of the former administration's investigation into the liquidation of corruption" by Yoon Seok-yeol, a presidential candidate for People's Strength.

The Democratic Party also launched an all-out offensive, claiming that Yoon had publicly declared political retaliation.



Reporter Kwon Ran reports.



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President Moon Jae-in demanded an apology for the mention of 'the investigation into the liquidation of the former regime's corruption when he came to power' in a media interview by presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol for People's Strength.



[Park Soo-hyun / Chief of Public Communication at the Blue House: Expressing strong anger and demanding an apology for illegally driving the current government as the target of corruption investigations without any basis.]



He continued, “When I was the Chief Prosecutor of the Central Prosecutors’ Office and the Prosecutor General, I pretended not to see the corruption of this government even though I was there. Please answer whether you did it or whether you are planning to create an evil that does not exist as a matter of planning.”



It is unusual for President Moon, who has emphasized thorough political neutrality, to directly target the opposition candidates with less than a month left before his presidential election.



A high-ranking official at the Blue House said, "It's really regrettable that the president was called to the election due to such an issue."



In the Democratic Party, the entire party, including Lee Jae-myung, attacked Yoon.



[Lee Jae-myung / Democratic Party Presidential Candidate: I have never seen a candidate actually profess political retaliation.

I sincerely invite you to follow the path of unity, not retaliation.





[Song Yeong-gil / Democratic Party Representative: We cannot help but be amazed that we publicly showed our intention of political retaliation against the Moon Jae-in government, who brought us without a gate incident.]



Representatives from the Blue House and former and current ministers of the current government also issued statements one after another. They denounced it as a disgraceful remark that promised political revenge against President Moon.