**On the First Day of the Campaign, Visits Garak Market in Songpa District**
**”Will Create a Nation Where Those Who Work Hard Are Happy”**
**Announced 10 Key Pledges… First Is the ‘Job Creation’ Promise**
**Also Pledged to Ensure Independence of Auditors to Prevent ‘Lee Jae-myung Incidents’**
On the first day of the official campaign for the 21st presidential election on the 12th, candidate Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party visited Garak Market in Songpa District, Seoul, for a commemorative photo with merchants. [Yonhap]
On the first day of the official campaign for the 21st presidential election on the 12th, Kim Moon-soo, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, declared, “I will truly become a market president, a people’s president, and an economic president.”
After his first campaign in the early morning at Garak Market in Seoul’s Songpa District, Kim met with reporters and stated, “I must become the president for merchant Korea,” and added, “I will become a president who fervently serves you all from the lowest position, ensuring that your sweat and hard work yield results.”
He emphasized, “I will make sure to build a Korea where everyone who sweats and works hard is happy—a Korea where they hold on to hope and live vigorously without despair.”
Kim met with merchants at the Garak Market produce section at 5 AM. The merchants encouraged him with cheers like “Kim, stand strong!” and “Go Moon-soo!” Kim responded, “It’s tough, isn’t it?” and “Your business must succeed,” as he took pictures making heart shapes and thumbs-up gestures with merchants. He ate a dish of blood sausage soup while listening to the merchants’ concerns. He explained the visit by saying, “The place that reflects the real state of our economy more vividly than any statistical index is the Garak Agricultural and Marine Products Market.”
Accompanying him were the newly appointed interim leader and the youngest member of the National Assembly, 1990-born Kim Yong-tae, as well as Park Jong-hoon (Songpa-gap) and Bae Hyun-jin (Songpa-eul) from the pro Han Dong-hoon faction. Kim commented, “Our conflicts were not for fighting but the basis for stronger unity and higher leaps forward,” putting an emphasis on resolving post-unification conflicts.
The People Power Party announced Kim’s ‘Ten Great Promises for a New and Forward-Looking Great Korea.’ The first pledge is to create a job-friendly nation with measures such as lowering the maximum corporate and inheritance tax rates and improving the 52-hour workweek based on labor-management consensus to stimulate corporate activity, ultimately creating jobs. He also highlighted his experience persuading Samsung Electronics to invest domestically by attracting a semiconductor factory to Pyeongtaek during his time as Gyeonggi Province governor.
The second pledge focuses on heavy investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and creating an ecosystem to position Korea among the ‘Top 3 AI Nations’ while nurturing 200,000 specialized personnel and ensuring sufficient energy supply through nuclear power development. The third pledge involves providing housing subsidies for nine years (‘3-3-3 Youth Housing Supply Plan’)—three years post-marriage, for the first child, and the second child—and constructing 100,000 youth housing units annually. Other pledges include expanding the Metropolitan Express Train (GTX) to five major regions nationwide, introducing an inflation-linked comprehensive income tax, tax reductions and support for the middle class, regulatory innovations for reconstruction and redevelopment, and security pledges like a NATO-style nuclear sharing.
Notably, the ninth pledge under the theme of ‘Ending Privileges in Government’ includes abolishing the parliamentary immunity privilege and introducing the so-called ‘Lee Jae-myung Preventive Auditor System’ in government, local governments, and major public institutions. This responds to allegations of misuse of corporate cards and official vehicles involving Governor Lee Jae-myung’s wife, Hye-kyung Kim. The People Power Party declared, “By appointing and dispatching auditors from the Board of Audit and Inspection, we will guarantee auditor independence, eradicating superficial audits with favors by leadership.”