I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
Moon, Ahn display signature styles
Moon Jae-in, left, the main opposition Democratic United Party candidate and independent Ahn Cheol-soo greet each other before their televised debate at the Kim Koo Museum and Library in Seoul, Wednesday.
By Kang Hyun-kyung
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo displayed their unique styles of speaking Wednesday during their first and only televised presidential debate, a watershed event in the selection of a unified liberal candidate.
Their carefully chosen dress code signaled that they had paid a lot of attention to the way they were viewed by voters. Ahn, the independent, wore a black suit with a light purple necktie. Rep. Moon of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) also opted for a black suit but with a red striped tie.
Starting at 11:15 p.m., the 100-minute-long debate was moderated by Jeong Kwan-yong, a professor at Hallym University and also political commentator.
The two candidates delivered their messages in a quite manner, using carefully chosen words.
Both of them have experience as public speakers as they have had plenty of opportunities to deliver their ideas in public through which they could hone their public speech skills.
Before the Wednesday debate, Rep. Moon, a lawyer-turned-presidential candidate, faced off his rivals from within in TV debates during the DUP primaries.
His past profession also trained him to be an eloquent speaker. He made eye contact with a moderator or his rival; was logical and convinced his audience by going into background details and addressing problems.
The former presidential chief of staff to the late former President Roh Moo-hyun used a lot of hand gestures that helped his audience focus on his remarks.
But his strong southern dialect sometimes bothered his audience, making it hard for them to understand his points. The candidate also spent too much time explaining a particular issue as he tried to go over every detail.
Compared with Moon, Ahn is a novice in TV debating. The former Seoul National University professor did a lot of public speaking before entering politics. He gave numerous lectures at universities nationwide in which students were his major audience. Ahn has been a well-known mentor for college students, answering their questions on their choices of career, unemployment, and social and public policy issues.
He is widely known as a listener; after which he summarizes their concerns in a simply manner and tries to give answers and observation to help them troubleshoot their headaches.
Ahn was a popular speaker before declaring his bid to run in the presidential election. But as a presidential candidate, he has revealed some limitations as a politician.
He hardly got into the issues in question and answered in a broad and vague manner. The independent candidate used the term “convergence” without clarification when answering reporters’ questions.
Analysts said he appeared to have hard time adjusting to the TV debate which requires candidates to go back and forth and use interactive speaking styles.
Ahn is familiar with being a public speaker delivering his message in his own way, they said. TV debates are different, and this probably posed a challenge to the former university professor, they said.