ED Campaign kicks off for June 3

With 22 days left until the presidential election taking place on June 3 is seen at the National Election Commission in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. Yonhap

Campaigning has begun for the June 3 snap presidential election due to former President Yoon Suk Yeol's Dec. 3 martial law declaration and subsequent removal from office. Three major candidates — Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party and Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Party — have started campaigning. Four more candidates joined the race including Kwon Young-kook of the minor Justice Party.

The campaign marks an end to the political crisis prompted by Yoon, the prosecutor who plunged into politics as a novice and ended up putting the nation on edge and eroded the country's potential. The most tangible downside manifested in this year's first quarter, which marked a 0.3 percent economic contraction during the peak of the political crisis in the wake of the short-lived martial law crisis.

Legal battles still rage on. Impeached by the Constitutional Court, the former president is on trial in a criminal case on charges of insurrection. A trial for Lee, the liberal front-runner, has been postponed to after June 3. But the DPK continues to launch salvos against the judiciary for keeping the legal risks alive.

During the martial law debacle, marked by sharp political division and accompanied by the DPK's persistent impeachment motions against the acting presidents, we all experienced what can happen when democratic functions go awry.

The election is an opportunity to offset the decline and restore the positive aspects of our democracy. Candidates are crisscrossing the country with their respective pledges and vowing to resuscitate the economy. Meanwhile, voters must be cautious of picking a leader whose ambition gets the best of him under Korea's strong presidential system. Doing so will require constant vigilance and close attention to the campaigns.

The public needs to strongly signal it is done with the extreme level of power wrangling that has twisted not only political parties, but also different branches of the government. If there ever was an upside to the political crisis, it is that we have seen the naked inability of the parties and government branches to commit to democratic values in favor of personal and partisan interests. Now is the time to stand up and restore democracy. The people want to see conflicts as well as compromise negotiated within the democratic system. Candidates should be wary, and brush aside their complacency.

All three main candidates put forth 10 campaign pledges on Monday. Lee of the liberal DPK pledged to build a corporate-friendly nation, making Korea into a super economic power and promoting new industries such as artificial intelligence (AI). Kim of the conservative PPP pledged to create an environment where companies can thrive in order to create jobs and help the country become one of the top 3 AI power nations. Lee of the New Reform Party pledged to create a good government with fewer ministries and a weaker presidency. He also vowed to give qualified overseas scientists diplomatic-level privileges when passing through the nation's immigration process. These campaign pledges convey that candidates are attuned to the needs of fatigued voters.

The real task for candidates is persuading the people that their pledges are real and will be effective in resolving social conflicts, maintaining independence among pillars of the government and achieving economic growth in an era of AI-led technological change and global trade wars.

To do that, the parties must review and own up to their respective missteps in the months since Dec. 3. The PPP must atone for the martial law fiasco and the ensuing crisis if it wants to restore democracy. It must apologize for the crisis wrought by the former president it produced. The DPK must prove it can restrain the impulse toward a tyranny of the majority in the National Assembly. The New Reform Party should boldly take its advantage as a young party with the least exposure to the political crisis and put forward a vision for a new future. To move forward, we need to come to terms with the erosion of our democracy.