Jeong Cheong-rae "Like Messi, bypassing reporters... for protection"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Jeong Cheong-rae, a Supreme Council member of the Democratic Party, who became controversial for pushing away reporters who asked sensitive questions to Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, as he was leaving a prosecution investigation, explained that "I did it to protect the reporters."

On the 13th, Jeong said on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' program, "People say I pushed them away like Messi in the World Cup soccer match."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Messi is a famous Argentine soccer player who led his team to win the World Cup at the recent Qatar World Cup, drawing great attention.

Jeong explained that it was "to prevent accident risks." He said, "In the morning, I also did a safety check in front of Leader Lee before going up, and although it was a bit less crowded than in the morning, when the reporters suddenly surged again, it was dangerous," adding, "It was the process of Leader Lee moving forward, but it was actually an obstruction of his path, and more dangerous than that was that while we were looking ahead and moving forward, there were reporters stepping backward, which was very dangerous," describing the situation at the time.

He continued, "So, in the process of wanting to resolve this quickly, I naturally moved forward using my hands or body, and then the reporter immediately turned away," adding, "I did it to protect the reporters."

Jeong also shared a video capturing the situation on his social media (SNS) and expressed his apology by saying "Sorry." He said, "I don't know what the reporters thought when they saw that, but as a result, I felt sorry for the reporters shown on the screen," adding, "This kind of coverage is often done on the streets, but it doesn't look good and seems like paparazzi-style reporting, which is unpleasant to watch."

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