Lee Jun-seok's 'Rough Mouth' Producing Plosive Sounds... "Self-Aggravation?" Sarcasm Included

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy reporters Lee Ji-eun and Lee Hyun-joo] The level of criticism from former People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok, who opposes President Yoon Seok-yeol, is gradually intensifying. Even before the 'Yangduguyuk' controversy has cooled down, he is comparing President Yoon to the new military regime or Emperor Commodus, who committed acts of impiety. Regarding the heated voices within the party, he sarcastically called it "self-aggravation."

In the petition letter released on the 23rd, Lee stated, "If the current situation is not rectified by the judiciary, the absolute ruler who led this incident may actively exercise the emergency declaration authority attempted this time, similar to the new military regime that expanded martial law, and that emergency declaration authority will remain an indelible danger in the back of the mind, dominating the party regardless of which leadership comes in."

From the overall context of the petition, the "absolute ruler" mentioned here appears to refer to President Yoon. Comparing President Yoon to the new military regime clearly portrays him as the main culprit behind the 'Lee Jun-seok incident.'

Lee also pointed out, "After the local elections in June this year, I received a proposal from someone close to the absolute ruler that if I stepped down from the party leadership until December, they would mediate to properly organize the ethical committee's political procedures and the police investigation against me, and allow me to visit a few places as a presidential special envoy," adding, "After firmly rejecting the proposal, I once desperately hoped that the ensuing series of internal party conflicts would be coincidental, but unfortunately, the outcome was not so."

On the same day, Lee linked an article reporting the party's heated reaction to the release of his petition on his Facebook, saying, "'Crossed the line, aggravated'?they leaked the handwritten letter submitted to the court and are even self-aggravating," and criticized, "They created a PDF file as if they didn't leak it themselves and circulated it to journalists."

He further wrote on another Facebook post, "Seeing them self-leak something marked 'for viewing only' and then self-aggravate, it seems they are under a lot of pressure from the injunction results," and added, "I wonder if it makes sense for a political party to capture and circulate the opponent's handwritten letter marked 'for viewing only' to the media, from the perspective of legal professionals."

Lee also compared himself to Maximus, the gladiator protagonist of the movie Gladiator, and President Yoon to Emperor Commodus. On MBN's Pandora, in response to the host's question, "What if they open the way for you to return as party leader?" he mentioned the movie Gladiator to explain his situation, saying, "Eventually, the gladiator gains popularity among the public, and to suppress that popularity, the emperor himself has no choice but to fight the gladiator."

He continued, "But since the emperor lacks confidence, he stabs himself in the side with a knife before the match starts." The Emperor Commodus mentioned here is a figure who committed impiety by killing his father to become emperor.

Within the party, there is strong opposition to Lee's harsh remarks. A senior party lawmaker hinted, "I feel that Lee Jun-seok is increasingly 'crossing the line.'" Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo criticized Lee on Facebook that day, saying, "Maximus sacrificed himself for his homeland Rome. Maximus never did the despicable act of betraying his comrades to save himself," criticizing Lee Jun-seok.

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