The People Power Party pushed back against President Lee Jae-myung's message that said, "In a pig's eyes, only pigs are seen," calling it "a mirror and a self-portrait." Earlier, the presidential office said of Lee's message that it was "regrettable that speculation and false claims about corporations' concentrated investments in the provinces are being spread."
Chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yoon of the People Power Party said in a commentary on the 28th, "You called the public 'devils,' and now are they 'pigs'?" adding, "The president's words are exactly a mirror and a self-portrait aimed at himself."
She continued, "It is common sense that politics and the market would express unanimous concern over the government's sudden announcement of semiconductor investments in the Honam region," and said, "It is because the intention to exploit the semiconductor industry, a national hundred-year plan, for partisan purposes timed to the ruling party's internal power struggle during its convention is all too transparent."
Choi also said, "The president is insulting the public by dismissing the reasonable suspicion that the capital of corporations and the nation's future growth engines have been reduced to expendables for 'vote-planting' by the regime as nothing more than 'groundless speculation reflected in a pig's eyes,'" adding, "Because he always looks at the world through the eyes of political calculation and ambition, isn't that why even the public's and the media's legitimate concerns appear to him as partisan smear?"
She added, "We return the president's words as they are. Recognize that the rough, venomous arrows you hurled at the public have ultimately become a mirror reflecting your own inner self," and said, "Arrogant politics that slices up the world through the eyes of power while shutting out the public's criticism and concern will inevitably face the people's stern judgment."
Lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun of the same party wrote on Facebook, "There are neither core demand corporations nor a semiconductor ecosystem in Honam, yet the presidential office publicly mentioned a specific region," adding, "This is not an industrial strategy but a political payoff, and it mobilizes corporations as the means."
Former lawmaker Yoo Seong-min also said, "The Lee Jae-myung administration's Honam semiconductor investment is heading to Honam unconditionally from start to finish in a closed room without any open solicitation process or competition to host," adding, "The president should not demean as pigs the public who demand fair competition."
The president the previous day shared on X an article saying the Yoon Suk-yeol administration had reviewed designating Gwangju and South Jeolla as a semiconductor special zone, and he moved to rebut criticism from the opposition, saying, "This was already officially confirmed in 2023 by the People Power Party government during President Yoon Suk-yeol's tenure."