PPP Chief Jang Dong-hyuk: "What Statistics Are You Looking At?"

The People Power Party on the 3rd uniformly criticized President Lee Jae-myung's statement that "actual transaction prices of apartments in major areas are dropping at an astonishing rate."

On Facebook that day, Jang Dong-hyuk, chairman of the People Power Party, asked, "I'm dumbfounded. What statistics are you even looking at?" and added, "Do you spend all night watching only left-wing YouTubers?" In response to the president's remark that "the government needs to properly explain objective data," Jang said, "Since housing prices refuse to come under control, it seems he's trying to control the statistics instead," adding, "Some bizarre data will probably come out before long."

Jang also took issue with the president's comment that "only one side benefits when housing prices rise." He said, "We live in a time when anyone publishing articles about a real estate price surge gets muzzled as a fake news peddler," adding, "Go ahead and tell the people that housing prices have fallen. You'll really end up with a nosebleed from IV drips." The remark was a pointed jab at the president, who had recently countered criticism of his frequent overseas trips by saying he was on "overseas travels of such intense work that he was constantly getting IV drips and suffering nosebleeds."

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon brought up the burden of jeonse and monthly rents as his counterpoint. He said, "People live in daily anxiety over when the rent bomb will go off, and I simply cannot understand what the president is looking at as he worries about a housing price collapse first." He added, "Criticism that this government's 'obsession with actual residence' is fueling a so-called 'triple surge'—driving up not only home prices but also jeonse and monthly rents—is no longer just talk among experts; it is pain people feel in their everyday lives."