Lee Jae-jung: "Geum Tae-seop's Sense of a Principled Politician Is Gradually Disappearing"

Lee Jae-jung, member of the Democratic Party of Korea./Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Seul-gi] On the 7th, Lee Jae-jung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized former Democratic Party lawmaker Geum Tae-seop, saying, "It is regrettable that the feeling of a principled politician who stands for certain values seems to be gradually disappearing."

Lee said this in a post on his Facebook on the same day, stating, "This person has been appearing in this manner quite frequently lately. It's regrettable."

Lee attached an article containing statements from former lawmaker Geum and repeatedly questioned, "What is making him so impatient?" The article included content that Geum criticized lawmaker Kim Yong-min, who filed a defamation lawsuit seeking damages against former Dongyang University professor Jin Joong-kwon.

Lee added, "Could he really not have known? The discussion about decriminalizing defamation based on factual statements and expanding freedom of expression does not mean completely exempting related responsibilities. It means shifting to the civil domain, to civil liability," and said, "Kim, who has worked harder than anyone else to protect the fundamental rights of the people, chose this measure after his own deliberation to uphold values. Could Geum really have been unaware of the nuance of his junior's concerns?"

Earlier on the same day, former lawmaker Geum criticized Kim, saying, "After the impeachment and regime change, now a Democratic Party lawmaker is filing a lawsuit for damages due to defamation. And this is from a lawmaker who was at the forefront of defending freedom of expression and came from the Minbyun (Lawyers for a Democratic Society)."

He continued, "During the conservative regime, many people fought hard to protect freedom of expression," adding, "There were writings and drawings comparing the president to a rat or a chicken, and there were criticisms that were factually incorrect in specific points, but our argument was that banning or punishing such things would make healthy criticism or satire of public officials impossible."

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