Lee Jae-myung on Kim Eo-jun Defending 'Robot Abuse': "Image Manipulation Crime"

"Robot Abuse Keywords Intentionally Created"
Lee Jae-myung "Restoration Ability Test Is Originally Done This Way"

Broadcaster Kim Eo-jun. Photo by TBS Radio, captured from the video of 'Kim Eo-jun's News Factory'.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, faced controversy over so-called 'robot abuse' after knocking over a walking robot at a robot expo. Broadcaster Kim Eo-jun criticized the related reports as "image manipulation crimes."

Earlier, on the 28th of last month, Lee visited the '2021 RoboWorld' robot expo held at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, and forcefully flipped over a four-legged walking demonstration robot. The fallen robot demonstrated resilience by flipping its body 180 degrees back, and Lee laughed and applauded.

As the video capturing the scene spread through online communities and media reports, some raised concerns about robot abuse.

Former Dongyang University professor Jin Joong-kwon, upon hearing the news, also questioned Lee's character. On the 31st, Jin posted on his Facebook, stating, "It is fundamentally a problem of empathy," and added, "Many people feel uncomfortable with Lee's behavior because their natural expectation that he shares the ability to empathize like themselves was suddenly broken, which seems to express their bewilderment."

Regarding this, Kim said on the morning of the 1st on his TBS radio show 'Kim Eo-jun's News Factory,' which he hosts, "This is a series of function tests, and the video, which has no issues, was edited to deliberately create the keyword 'robot abuse' as if the robot was intentionally knocked down."

Kim argued, "If someone had suddenly run from behind and kicked the robot, it would be within the realm of reporting to question the candidate's character, but the robot abuse articles by conservative economic newspapers last weekend are not reports but crimes of image manipulation," and added, "This is how the presidential election started."

Meanwhile, Lee posted on his Facebook on the same day to clarify the controversy surrounding him. He stated, "Some media outlets criticize that 'Lee Jae-myung intentionally knocked over a robot at the robot expo,'" and rebutted, "The resilience test is originally conducted this way."

He continued, "Those unfamiliar with robot testing might misunderstand, but some media outlets deleted the restoration scenes and only showed the parts where the robot was knocked over, calling it extreme, which is fake news," and criticized, "Proper media should not distort with intent but report the entire facts."

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