Jo Eung-cheon "Prepare for intrigue? The leadership's audacity"

"Whether the sender is a party member is not essential"
"Feels like fratricide, flinches when seeing watermelon"

Lee Won-wook, a non-Myeong (非明) faction member of the Democratic Party of Korea, revealed so-called 'Gaeddal' texts, but it was found that the sender of the texts was not a party member, prompting the Democratic Party leadership to raise their voices, calling it a 'divide-and-conquer scheme.' However, Democratic Party lawmaker Cho Eung-cheon pointed out that this seems somewhat like a case of blaming the victim and is diverting the issue.

On the 25th, Cho said on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' program, "I want to ask again whether the essence of this situation is whether that person (who sent the text) is a party member or not."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, after it was revealed that the text disclosed by Lee was not from a party member, pro-Myeong (親明) faction Supreme Council member Seo Eun-sook demanded at the Supreme Council meeting the previous day, "On what grounds did you conclude that the sender of the text was a Gaeddal party member, that is, a fervent commander related to the party leader, and demand that the party leader sever ties with Gaeddal?"

However, Cho said, "If you want to confirm party membership, our party has about 2 million members. Then, each lawmaker would have access to the party member database to check whether someone is a member or not, but there is no way to verify that in advance," adding, "They probably inferred from the content that the person wrote the text because they were a party member." In other words, there is no way for a lawmaker to confirm that the sender is a party member.

Cho said, "The term Gaeddal has somehow come to mean a strong party member, or a strong supporter, or a political hooligan, almost like a generic term," adding, "It doesn't necessarily mean Gaeddal as a proper noun, but people say, 'Why do you keep calling me Gaeddal when I'm not?' This is diverting the issue."

He also criticized the leadership's response. Cho said, "The leadership seems to be saying they will investigate the truth, conduct inquiries, and prepare against divide-and-conquer schemes, but isn't this somewhat blaming the victim?" He added, "The real problem is the hypocrisy, moral insensitivity, and deterioration of intra-party democracy. Whether a certain person is one among 2 million or not, to say 'we were deceived by a divide-and-conquer scheme, and we will investigate the circumstances' is somewhat absurd."

Regarding the recent expulsion of a party member who sent abusive texts to a lawmaker, Cho said, "Even if they are expelled, that person can later be reinstated, and it won't really affect their daily life. Rather, filing a criminal complaint would be stronger," suggesting that expulsion alone would not serve as a warning.

He continued, "For example, last week when Representative Lee ate watermelon in Anseong, there was an absurd claim that 'this is a watermelon attack signal.' It was widely reported," adding, "If I were Representative Lee, I would have actively stepped forward to say, 'That's not true, that's nonsense, why are you doing this?' and tried to stop it."

Watermelon is used as a derogatory term referring to someone who is 'different on the outside and inside,' and is used as a slur against the non-Myeong faction. Cho joked, "These days, when I go to a restaurant, watermelon is served as dessert, but I flinch trying to avoid it. It feels like fratricidal conflict."

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