Yoon Seok-yeol's Side: "Hong Jun-pyo, Formerly Hong Pan-pyo, Name Given by a Fortune Teller... Speechless"

Yoon Seok-yeol's '王' Character Controversy... Hong Joon-pyo "Give Up Unfair Election"

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol attending the 5th presidential primary debate held on the 1st at Maekyung Media Center in Pil-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul. The character "王" is visible on his palm. Photo by MBN broadcast screen capture.

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] As Hong Joon-pyo, a presidential candidate from the People Power Party, launched an offensive by pointing out former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol's 'palms with the character 王 (king),' Yoon's camp counterattacked on the 3rd, saying, "Isn't the name 'Hong Joon-pyo' also given by a fortune teller?"

Kim Ki-heung, chief deputy spokesperson for Yoon's campaign, issued a statement that day, saying, "It is absurd that Candidate Hong keeps distorting facts about Candidate Yoon and talks about 'magic'."

He criticized, "Despite the fact that people who want a regime change are giving sharp looks to Candidate Hong, who earned the nickname 'Jo Guk Su Hong' for defending Cho Kuk to gain votes from Democratic Party supporters, Candidate Hong seems to be focused on low-level internal attacks as if only conscious of the Democratic Party's support base."

He continued, "Elders wrote characters on Candidate Yoon's palm to encourage him, but Candidate Hong tries to mislead the public by spouting nonsense about 'magic' and 'amulets.' Has Candidate Hong forgotten that his current name, originally 'Hong Pan-pyo,' was given by a fortune teller?"

Furthermore, he raised his voice, saying, "One of the most important things for a person is their name. Isn't Candidate Hong the one who entrusted that to a fortune teller and has been using it until now?"

In conclusion, he said, "I am curious how Candidate Hong, who keeps distorting facts about Candidate Yoon, will excuse himself against the criticism that his own name change is 'magical'." He ended his statement with this remark.

Regarding this, Hong explained the process of his name change on Facebook in November 2017.

He recalled, "When I was a rookie prosecutor at Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office, I was close with Chief Judge Yoon Young-oh of Cheongju District Court. One day, the judge said, 'It's not appropriate for someone who is not a judge to have the middle character of their name as 'Pan (판),' and told me to change it. So, I decided to change the middle name to 'Jun (준),' which has the same meaning as 'Pan,' from fortune teller Ryu Hwa-soo, who was a juvenile guidance committee member at the Cheongju Prosecutors' Office."

Hong Joon-pyo, a preliminary candidate for the People Power Party's presidential primary, is looking at the attendees at the 'JP Hope Camp Busan Election Committee Appointment Ceremony' held at the Busan City Party Office on the 3rd. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, this controversy arose after it was belatedly confirmed that former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol wrote the character 王 (king) on his palm several times while attending the People Power Party presidential primary TV debate.

As the controversy grew, Yoon's camp explained, "An elderly enthusiastic supporter living in the same apartment as the candidate drew it on his palm to encourage him to do well in the debate," adding, "We could not ignore that sentiment and went to the debate with it as it was. Since it was a TV debate, the palm would be fully visible. If it had been controversial, would we have gone like that?"

In response, Hong criticized on his Facebook, "This is the first time I've seen someone running for president with a shaman. I was puzzled, seeing through the media that he always has a shaman with him, wondering if he was trying to become a shaman president, but now that it has been revealed that he carries amulets on his palm, I can only think it's ridiculous."

He added, "The public opinion rapidly worsened due to the absurd rumor that former President Park Geun-hye had shamans perform rituals at the Blue House through Choi Soon-sil. Now, I hope you give up on the amulet election," and directly criticized it as "a childish act that lowers the dignity of politics."

Meanwhile, after attending the 'Yoon Seok-yeol People's Camp Youth Committee Appointment Ceremony' that day, Yoon told reporters, "It was a message from a supporter to do well in the debate. When we were young, elders used to write like this when we were going to take exams or when there were big family events," adding, "But now, thinking about it, I think it would have been better to erase it before going in."

Regarding Hong's claim that "Former Prosecutor General Yoon was originally close to fortune tellers," Yoon rebutted, "Since I was young, even when relatives gave me amulets or such things, I only accepted them out of courtesy and just put them in a drawer. As someone who is going to handle the country and national affairs, that is nonsense."

He also said, "Politicians really like to do these kinds of things," adding, "There is even a rumor that some people wear red underwear, but attacking or slandering someone over this lowers the level of politics in our country."

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