Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung speaks at a press conference at the party headquarters in Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap)
Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung speaks at a press conference at the party headquarters in Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap)

Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung said Sunday he will set up a task force to handle the ongoing economic crisis if he's elected president next month.

In a press conference at the DP headquarters in Seoul, Lee said establishing the task force, with the president in charge, will be the first thing he will do "if I am chosen by the people" in the June 3 election.

"Only the candidate and the party prepared to resolve problems that have piled up can overcome this crisis," Lee said. "I will quickly prepare measures to help people's livelihoods that can be implemented immediately and wage a battle against the recession."

Lee said he will try to save small business owners, who he said have been "pushed to the brink by trade issues and changing global security environments" and added the government must come up with "efficient" plans to revitalize the economy.

"Right now, all the energy should be directed toward the economic recovery and restoring livelihoods," Lee said. "Reforming the judicial system, the prosecution and the police is important but not so much that we need to expend too much energy on them early."

Lee called for a supplementary budget to address some pressing needs, with the economy in need of "short-term stimulus."

Lee also said he will consider setting up a new agency to handle regulatory reform to support corporate activities.

Lee said he will look past ideological differences when implementing policies as long as they can help the economy and the people.

Lee also stressed that he will "cut the vicious cycle caused by the politics of confrontations and conflict."

"Over the past three years, the president encouraged the political divide and deepened extreme confrontations, leaving us with deep scars," he said, in reference to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose April impeachment following an ill-fated martial law declaration set up the June election.

"We must end the kind of politics built on hating each other and trying to remove each other. Reviving the culture of coexistence and communication can help restore democracy."

"I am the right person to end the politics of division because I understand better than anyone the ills of political retribution through abuse of power," Lee continued. "While I will sternly punish those behind treasonous acts that threatened the country and the people's lives, I will never engage in political retributions targeting specific individuals."

Lee rejected the view that if he wins the election, then the DP, which controls a majority in the 300-seat National Assembly, would be too dominant of a force in both the legislative and executive branches, calling such an idea "preposterous."

"The ruling party went against the people's wishes, and the people gave the opposition party the majority so that it could keep the ruling party under control," Lee said. "It is extremely inappropriate to say it is a problem when a party has the executive and legislative powers simultaneously."

In response to the conservative side's criticism that his proposal for amending the Constitution to allow two four-year presidential terms would benefit him, Lee said the change, if implemented, would not apply to the sitting president.

"The people would not tolerate a president receiving additional benefits through constitutional amendments," Lee added. "They must stop launching political attacks that can confuse people."

Addressing the buildup to the election, Lee said he was "preparing for the possibility" that two conservative candidates, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party and Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Party, may merge their candidacies to mount a better challenge against him.

Lee Jae-myung also sidestepped a question on whether his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, will join him during the campaign, with Kim Moon-soo's wife, Seol Nan-young, having accompanied her husband.

"I don't even know what my wife is up to," Lee said. "She will decide what she wants to do, and I won't comment further on that."

Kim Hye-kyung has been staying out of the spotlight during the campaign. She has received a court fine for violating election laws after being indicted for allegedly buying meals for wives of lawmakers and her aides in 2021 using a corporate card from the Gyeonggi provincial government, where Lee was governor at the time.

At a campaign rally at an outdoor market in Dangjin, about 80 kilometers south of Seoul, later in the day, Lee vowed to impose crushing punishments on stock market manipulators as a way to revitalize the stock market.

"Stock manipulations will be punished to the extent that offenders are reduced to beggars, and if the stock market is normalized through such measures, I expect stock prices will naturally rise," Lee said. (Yonhap)