Lee Jun-seok treated 'Kimjangyeondae' like shrimp... Jeong Jin-seok says "You said treat dolphins and anchovies the same"

"Shrimp Can Never Become Whales" Lee Jun-seok... Last Year He Said "Equally to Anchovies and Dolphins"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Former People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok criticized the 'Kimjang (Kim Ki-hyun-Jang Je-won) alliance,' saying, "Even if two shrimp come together, they are still shrimp and will never become whales." In response, Jeong Jin-seok, the emergency committee chairman of the People Power Party, countered by referring to Lee's past remarks during the presidential primary, where he said that "mackerel and anchovies should be treated the same as whales."

On the 23rd, Chairman Jeong stated on his social media service (SNS), "During last year's presidential primary, I raised an issue that 'Candidate Yoon Seok-yeol should be treated like a dolphin.' Lee then retorted, 'Mackerel and anchovies should be treated equally,' criticizing me."

During last year's primary, former Chairman Lee and then-assemblyman Jeong had a heated exchange over candidate treatment. At that time, Jeong criticized Lee's preliminary candidate general meeting as a "fish farm" on SNS and emphasized that some candidates in their party had already grown into dolphins and deserved different treatment. Lee responded on SNS, saying, "Fair treatment of anchovies and dolphins is the right way to manage the primary."

Chairman Jeong's mention of the 'SNS exchange' from last year appears to be aimed at criticizing Lee's remarks from the previous day. In a lecture at Korea University the day before, Lee said that the 'Kimjang alliance,' a coalition of 'Yoon core insiders (Yoonhakkwan)' who opposed him, was a 'shrimp group' and could never become 'whales.' This has been interpreted as contradicting his earlier stance that "mackerel and anchovies should be treated equally."

Chairman Jeong added, "I want to see whales and mackerel swimming together vibrantly at this party convention," adding, "Dolphins should be dolphins, and mackerel should be mackerel."

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