Ruling Party Faces Embarrassment Over Repeated COVID-19 SNS Blunders Ahead of General Election

On the morning of the 9th, Lee Nak-yeon, the chairman, is speaking at the 1st meeting of the Democratic Party of Korea's COVID-19 National Crisis Overcoming Committee held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] The ruling party is facing difficulties due to a series of controversial remarks on social network services (SNS) related to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) crisis.

Kim Jeongjae, floor spokesperson of the United Future Party, said in a statement on the afternoon of the 8th, "The entire nation is spending days of crisis and tragedy in anxiety and fear over the increasing number of confirmed cases and deaths," adding, "In the midst of this, the Democratic Party has revealed its ugly face trying to exploit the national crisis and tragedy for elections with remarks that are hard to even put into words."

This was aimed at a Democratic Party Busan City Party official who said on his Facebook the day before, "The threat of Shincheonji and COVID-19 is nationwide, but the reason it is particularly severe in Daegu and Gyeongbuk is largely due to the incompetence of the Korean Party and the local residents who are fanatics of them."

Floor spokesperson Kim criticized again, saying, "They are showing an atrocious and heartless extreme, digging into the painful hearts of Daegu and Gyeongbuk residents," and "Do you consider the residents of Daegu and Gyeongbuk as 'abandoned citizens'? Even if you apologize profusely, this is an unforgivable remark."

On the 1st, a policy committee member of the Democratic Party's National Youth Committee caused controversy by posting on an online community, "Daegu and Gyeongbuk are United Future Party (Mirae Tonghapdang) regions," and "No matter how much the number of COVID-19 infections explodes in Daegu and Gyeongbuk, it is not a problem as long as it does not spread to other regions."

Daegu lawmakers belonging to the United Future Party issued a statement on the 8th, urging, "The Democratic Party should bow down and apologize to the citizens of Daegu."

Earlier, Lee Mo (38), son of Lee Nak-yeon, co-chairman of the Democratic Party's joint standing election committee, also caused controversy by making jokes related to COVID-19 on the YouTube channel 'Biondwi'. Lee, who works as a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at a university hospital in Seoul, was reported to have laughed while joking, "Corona comes out of the nose," on a YouTube broadcast on the 14th of last month.

Following the controversy, on the 4th, Lee expressed his apology through Lee's Jongno election campaign office and announced that he would immediately suspend all external activities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.