Lee poses 2-edged sword for Rep. Moon

By Jung Min-ho

Lee Jung-hee

The Unified Progressive Party (UPP)’s presidential candidate Lee Jung-hee is likely to target her conservative counterpart Park Geun-hye during Tuesday’s three-way televised debate, but Park’s ideological counterattack could hurt both Lee and Moon Jae-in.

A day before their crucial war of words is set to take place, the minor opposition contender made it clear that Park will be her main target but also said her part in the debate will not be to favor Moon, making it clear that the debate will consist of one-on-one exchanges not two against one attacks.

The presence of the articulate former human rights lawyer is a significant threat, especially to the conservative candidate, but could also make the Democratic United Party (DUP) candidate vulnerable to any ideological counterattack from Park if she refers to them together as a pro-North Korean leftist force: a tactic favored by the political right during election campaigns.

As Lee’s party recently commented controversially, “If North Korea’s upcoming rocket launch is a satellite as they claim, it will be no different to the failed Naro rocket a couple of days ago.” Park is expected to capitalize on this to attack both Lee and Moon.

The first debate will cover four major topics – Political reform, eradicating power-related corruption, foreign affairs and national security – which will be covered in the first of three debates.

Given the UPP’s primary rigging scandal in April, Lee will likely face a setback when dealing with the issue of political reform. She may find it difficult to criticize the recent wrongdoings of government officials under the conservative leadership because it could be seen as an example of ‘a pot calling the kettle black.’

Foreign affairs and national security are also hard ones for Lee, regarding the party’s clearly favorable position on North Korea, which conflicts with many different views that conservative voters have of it. Therefore, Lee is expected to concentrate her offense on political reform to attack Park who has collaborated with the incumbent president Lee Myung-bak and his surrogates for the past five years.

If Lee performs strongly, it may draw some voters from Moon, but any radical change in the positions held by conservative voters seems highly unlikely. Also, given that she only holds support of around one percent as seen in many surveys, her chances of winning the election are extremely slim regardless of her performance. Nevertheless, the “Lee factor” might change the dynamics of the two leading candidates’ campaigns. So, it remains to be seen whether the debate with Lee will positively affect Moon’s poll numbers.

Lee tentatively stopped her campaign Monday to focus more on the debate.

Moon and his surrogates appear to be welcoming and, at the same time, cautious about the progressive politician, stressing that it will be a fair and independent debate.

The election law states that all candidates from parties with more than five seats at the National Assembly have to be included in the three debates. The UPP has six.

Independent candidates Park Jong-sun, Kim So-yeon and Kim Soon-ja will take part in a separate TV debate without Kang Ji-won who decided not to participate.