With the 2024 elections approaching, South Korea’s ruling party on Monday vowed to spread of misinformation in an apparent aim at the opposition’s attacks on the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s response to the ocean release of wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant by the Japanese government.
The People Power Party said it would expand efforts to curb "fake news" and conspiracy theories in a resolution adopted at the end of a two-day session to make preparations for next April's general elections at a banquet held in Incheon.
Speaking to reporters, the party’s chair, Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, said rumors and misinformation barred healthy discussions from taking place and threatened democracy. “Freedom of expression is one thing, damaging and misleading disinformation that disrupts public order another,” he said.
At Tuesday’s luncheon, which took place at a raw seafood restaurant in Incheon, the ruling party leader accused the Democratic Party of Korea of "agitating" people by saying that the release of the wastewater threatens the safety of marine products.
Over the Democratic Party’s sessions held the same day, party chair Rep. Lee Jae-myung said Yoon, with his “leniency toward Tokyo,” was “being complicit” with the Japanese government polluting South Korean waters.
The People Power Party also said in the resolution that it would support Yoon’s foreign policies that align South Korea with the rest of the free world. “Under the Yoon administration, South Korea assumed an expanded role in the community of countries with shared values and ideas,” the resolution read.
The ruling party said it would commit to making people’s lives better by undertaking reforms in the pension system, labor market and education. “Reforms in these three sectors are a core task necessary to enable a sustainable growth of our country,” Kim said.
