Joo Ho-young: "No Change in Conviction on 'Sewol Ferry Basically a Traffic Accident' Statement"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy reporters Lee Ji-eun and Lim Chun-han] Joo Ho-young, the candidate for floor leader of the United Future Party, said regarding his past controversial remark that "the Sewol ferry disaster was basically a traffic accident," that "my conviction has not changed."

On the morning of the 8th, at the party members' general meeting held at the National Assembly to elect the floor leader and the policy committee chairman, Joo responded to a question from candidate Kwon Young-se, saying, "Have you looked at the full context of that statement?"

Candidate Kwon cited "reckless remarks" as one of the reasons for the party's defeat in the last general election and asked, "Candidate Joo had some controversy regarding the Sewol ferry issue. I want to ask if your thoughts on that have changed or if you still maintain them." Joo had previously faced controversy for saying that "the Sewol ferry disaster was basically a traffic accident."

In response, Joo said, "While I was the policy committee chairman, I negotiated compensation for the Sewol ferry disaster with the Democratic Party. They brought up exemptions for water, electricity, and inheritance tax, so I made that statement," adding, "If you look at the full statement, it said, 'It was an unthinkable tragic accident that must never happen again, but in terms of compensation, the legal principles of traffic accidents cannot be avoided.'" He explained that this was said in relation to compensation.

He continued, "On that day, the spokesperson asked me not to let the statement be released, but I did not cancel it, and the bereaved families protested," adding, "When the families asked if there was anything wrong with my words after reviewing them, they said, 'No, but it made us feel bad.'" Joo said, "In our country's judicial system, the legal principles of compensation were all upheld in the trial. However, the reason the Sewol ferry victims received a large amount of compensation is because 150 billion won in public donations was additionally provided, and the legal principles of traffic accidents must still be followed according to our judicial principles."

Kwon's running mate, candidate Cho Hae-jin, commented, "What candidate Joo said is correct but it made people feel bad," adding, "Reckless remarks have logic and grounds, but when the target feels excluded and rejected, that feeling is painful. Even if the words are correct and logical, one must consider whether they exclude, reject, or belittle others."

Candidate Kwon also raised objections to candidate Lee Jong-bae, who is running as Joo's policy committee chairman running mate. He said, "A key issue for the 20s to 40s generation in this general election was fairness, and even during the PyeongChang Olympics when the North-South unified team was formed, fairness was heavily discussed. However, during this floor leader election process, the value of fairness was damaged," adding, "The referee suddenly became a player, which is not a good look." Originally, lawmaker Kim Tae-heum, who had withdrawn his candidacy, also objected to Lee, the floor leader election management committee chairman, running as a candidate.

In response, candidate Joo said, "The election management committee chairman only leads the process on the day of the party primary and oversees a few rules," adding, "I did not expect such criticism to arise." Candidate Lee also said, "Apologies for causing confusion," adding, "I wanted to take a position where I could do better and be more helpful to the party."

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