Presidential candidates clashed over economic issues in their first televised debate ahead of the June 3 election. 

In the two-hour debate hosted by the National Election Commission on Sunday evening, the Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung pledged to work toward the prompt implementation of a supplementary budget to boost the domestic economy and benefit ordinary people. 

He also advocated increasing investment in artificial intelligence and putting South Korea’s interests first in responding to U.S. tariffs.

Kim Moon-soo, the candidate for the conservative People Power Party, vowed to create jobs and pursue deregulation to foster businesses.  

Kim also pledged to create a government agency dedicated to innovating regulations.

Lee Jun-seok of the minor Reform Party vowed to revitalize the economy through competence rather than populism and through education and productivity rather than financial handouts, criticizing what he called Lee Jae-myung’s “maverick economics” and saying it involves simply doling out money. 

Meanwhile, Kwon Young-gook of the Democratic Labor Party underscored the issue of inequality, asserting that the nation must confront the hidden inequities behind its economic growth and that the solution lies in raising taxes for the wealthy.