With the May 9 presidential election slightly over two weeks away, candidates of major parties on Saturday stepped up their appeal to voters in stump speeches across the nation.

Both presidential front-runner Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party and his archrival Ahn Cheol-soo of the center-left People’s Party visited their hometown Busan and neighboring cities in southeast South Korea.

Hong Joon-pyo of the conservative Liberty Korea Party met voters in the central province of North Chungcheong and Seoul, while Yoo Seong-min of the Bareun Party and Sim Sang-jeung of the Justice Party traveled to the southern provinces of Gyeongsang and Jeolla, respectively.

As electioneering heats up, former Foreign Minister Song Min-soon’s memoir questioning front-running candidate Moon’s role in South Korea’s abstention from a 2007 vote on a U.N. resolution on North Korea’s human rights has emerged as a hot election issue this week. At that time, Moon was the chief secretary to then-President Roh Moo-hyun, who held power from 2003 to 2008.

The memoir insists that the Roh administration consulted Pyongyang before deciding to abstain from the U.N. vote.

Taking the memoir-related controversy as a rare opportunity to narrow gaps with the front-runner, conservative candidates and parties intensified their offensive against Moon.

The Liberty Korea Party decided to push for investigations by parliament and a special counsel into allegations of the Roh administration communicating secretly with North Korea, while Hong accused Moon of threatening Song.

Ahn’s election camp also issued a statement, urging Moon to listen to Song and fully disclose the truth.

“Why does candidate Moon lie about his role (mentioned in the memoir)? Instead of answering Song’s questions, Moon has threatened to hold the former foreign minister fully responsible. That’s anachronistic,” it said.

In addition, Yoo, a conservative candidate, accused Moon of lying about his role in the vote abstention a decade ago.

“Moon’s explanation can hardly be trusted as he has changed his remarks about the controversy four times,” Yoo said, calling on all government agencies to disclose all relevant documents before the election day.

However, Moon and the Democratic Party have launched a counterattack, urging the conservatives and other critics to focus on policy pledges and visions, instead of seeking to benefit from North Korea-related security issues.

“Conservatives are again seeking to capitalize on the North Korea factor,” Moon’s spokesman, Park Kwang-on, said. “We’re giving them a clear warning not to use North Korea in their campaign. Ordinary citizens are already wise enough to see through their intentions.”

Sticking to his campaign schedule, Moon on Saturday unveiled a set of energy policy pledges that include reducing coal-fired power plants and nuclear reactors in the country and expanding renewable energies. (Yonhap)