The main opposition Democratic Party(DP) called on President Yoon Suk Yeol to stop making pledges during the ongoing new year public debates, accusing him of mobilizing government power for election campaigning ahead of the April 10 general elections.

In a press briefing in writing on Tuesday, DP spokesperson Lee Un-ju said the president, who should be protecting the country, is instead preoccupied with supporting the ruling People Power Party(PPP) ahead of the elections.

Asking whether Yoon is a co-chair of the PPP's election steering committee, Lee said the public will unlikely find sincerity from the ruling camp's acts of populism ahead of the elections.

The spokesperson claimed that it would cost one quadrillion won, or around 746 billion U.S. dollars, to implement all the pledges made during the public debates.

She then urged the president to stop the pledges and to either reveal how he plans to finance the pledges or to admit that the populist pledges are lies.