Kim Du-gyeom demands apology after TV debate, saying rival distorted city records on treasury interest rates and budget carryovers

People Power Party candidates for Ulsan mayor, Nam-gu constituency Assembly member, district chief and city council seats perform a deep bow at the Ulsan Industrial Tower Rotary at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, pledging to take responsibility for Ulsan's development through party reform and campaign pledge fulfillment. [Provided by the Kim Du-gyeom campaign]
People Power Party candidates for Ulsan mayor, Nam-gu constituency Assembly member, district chief and city council seats perform a deep bow at the Ulsan Industrial Tower Rotary at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, pledging to take responsibility for Ulsan's development through party reform and campaign pledge fulfillment. [Provided by the Kim Du-gyeom campaign]

Kim Du-gyeom, the People Power Party's candidate for Ulsan mayor, demanded an apology from Democratic Party rival Kim Sang-uk on Sunday, saying the latter "misled citizens with distorted facts" during a televised candidate debate held May 28.

At the debate, Kim Sang-uk raised two criticisms: that Ulsan's city treasury interest rate ranked 230th out of 242 local governments nationwide, and that the city's budget carryover in 2024 was double the national average.

Kim Du-gyeom's campaign committee issued a statement Saturday under the name of its spokesperson, pushing back on both claims. On the interest rate, the statement said the official benchmark used by the Ministry of Interior and Safety to compare city treasuries nationwide is the rate on deposits of 12 months or longer — by that measure, Ulsan's rate stands at 2.31 percent, not far from the national average of 2.53 percent. Kim Sang-uk had cited only the short-term deposit rate of 1.8 percent, the statement said, making it appear as though the city treasury was being mismanaged. The campaign called the remarks a false statement of fact and an act of candidate defamation.

Kim Du-gyeom had also rebuffed the carryover criticism on Friday, when Kim Sang-uk said Ulsan's budget carryover exceeded 7 percent in 2024 — roughly double the national average of 3.58 percent — and argued this reflected poor budget execution. Kim Du-gyeom said his rival had distorted the nature of continuing-cost carryovers, making them appear as if funds had been handed over to contractors in advance.

"A continuing-cost appropriation does not mean the full contract payment is made at once just because the budget has been drawn up — disbursements follow construction progress, inspections and billing procedures," Kim Du-gyeom said. He added that the large carryover figures stem from major projects such as the roughly 1 trillion won ($724 million) KTX transit-oriented development. Kim Sang-uk's efficiency criticism, he said, revealed that the rival "has admitted to being an administrative outsider who confuses budget appropriation with cash payment."

Kim Du-gyeom's camp also called for an immediate investigation by law enforcement into allegations, recently raised by a YouTube outlet, that Kim Sang-uk had engaged in overseas sex tourism during his time as a lawyer. "The more explanations he gives, the more the suspicions grow," the camp said, pressing Kim Sang-uk to immediately disclose his schedule, expenses, payment records and locations visited at the time. "If you have nothing to hide, release everything now," the statement said.


cityblue@heraldcorp.com