Lee Jun-seok on 'Shamanism' Controversy Surrounding Yoon Seok-yeol: "Some Presidential Candidates Have Moved Ancestral Graves... Excessive Fuss"

Lee Jun-seok "Kim Gun-hee's Private Call, Difficult to Establish Secondary Harm"

Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] On the 18th, Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, commented on the ongoing controversy surrounding presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol's involvement with shamanism, saying, "Whenever the opposing party reacts excessively, the public who engage in such folk beliefs for fun may see it as an overblown fuss."

Lee appeared on News Tomato's 'No Young-hee's News in Cider' that morning and said, "In the past, some presidents and many presidential candidates even relocated their ancestors' graves to become president. However, we do not label a president who relocated ancestral graves as a failed president," emphasizing this point.

Earlier, a media outlet raised suspicions that a shaman was acting as an advisor in the People Power Party's Network Headquarters. As the controversy grew, Yoon's camp decided to disband the Network Headquarters.

Lee also addressed MBC's 'Straight' broadcast, which revealed part of a 7-hour phone conversation involving Yoon's spouse, Kim Gun-hee, stating, "Compared to the spouses of typical South Korean politicians, our candidate's spouse (Kim Gun-hee) is very cautious when expressing opinions about politics," and emphasized, "I do not expect her to excessively interfere with the candidate or engage in actions that could later be called manipulation."

He added, "Even if the candidate's spouse engages in public activities, I believe there will be no significant issues compared to other politicians' spouses."

Regarding Kim Ji-eun, a sexual violence victim of former Chungnam Governor Ahn Hee-jung, demanding an apology from Kim Gun-hee, Lee dismissed it, saying, "I find it hard to consider private phone conversations as secondary harm," and "I do not think any remarks have defamed Kim Ji-eun's honor."

On the afternoon of the 16th, the MBC program "Straight," which covers the '7-hour phone call' content of Kim Geon-hee, spouse of Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, was being broadcast on the electronic billboard at the MBC building in Sangam-dong, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Previously, MBC's 'Straight' aired on the 16th a recording of Kim Gun-hee's phone call with a reporter from the YouTube channel 'Seoul Voice.'

In the transcript, Kim said about the progressive camp's 'Me Too' issue, "The Me Too movement was first triggered by the Moon Jae-in administration to catch people. Why try to catch them?" and added, "Honestly, I feel sorry for Ahn Hee-jung. My husband (Yoon Seok-yeol) and I are very much on Ahn Hee-jung's side."

In response, Kim Gun-hee apologized in a written statement sent to 'Straight,' saying, "I sincerely apologize to the public for the inappropriate remarks made while criticizing some progressive figures involved in sexual exploitation," regarding her Me Too comments.

However, Kim Ji-eun issued a statement through the Korea Sexual Violence Counseling Center demanding a sincere apology from Kim Gun-hee, saying, "The thoughtless words you uttered became seeds of secondary harm, and I am still suffering from malicious comments."

Meanwhile, former Governor Ahn is currently serving a 3-year and 6-month prison sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court in September 2019 for sexual violence charges, including coercion through his official authority.

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