Kim Woong: "Attacking Celebrities Is Ungentlemanly"…A Sharp Rebuke to Kim Ki-hyun for Criticizing Kim Yoon-ah

"Attacking Politicians and Celebrities Is Shameful"
"You Can Freely Express Your Political Views"

Kim Ki-hyun, the leader of the People Power Party, criticized Kim Yoon-ah, the vocalist of the band Jaurim, calling her a "celebrity without common sense." In response, Kim Woong, a lawmaker from the same party, said, "Even if a popular entertainer expresses their political stance, it is crossing the line for a public official politician to attack them."

On the 14th, Kim Woong posted on Facebook, "A public official refers to someone who performs public duties. Popular entertainers are not public officials. Therefore, it is inappropriate to apply the standards of public officials to popular entertainers," he pointed out.

Kim Woong, member of the People Power Party. [Photo by Yonhap News]

He added, "Popular entertainers can freely express their political views. Even if their expression greatly influences the public, attacking them for that reason is shameful. The problem lies with politicians who have less influence than those entertainers, not with the entertainers themselves."

He also said, "It is the politician's role to inform the public about policies and persuade them in the right direction. If the statements of popular entertainers have more influence than that, it is due to the politicians' shortcomings."

Kim Woong criticized, "Since the Moon Jae-in administration, power has started to attack ordinary people. Cho Kuk even targeted a cafe owner in Gwangju by marking coordinates. At some point, our party has also begun to imitate such behavior."

He continued, "Even public official politicians change their positions from two years ago without changing their facial expressions; how can trust be built? And yet, how can they talk about common sense when it comes to popular entertainers? Politicians can harshly attack and criticize each other, but attacking ordinary people or popular entertainers who have no proper means of defense is unbecoming behavior."

Earlier, regarding Kim Yoon-ah’s post on her social media expressing concern about the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, Kim Ki-hyun said at an event on the 12th, "People say she is a sensible celebrity, but aren’t there too many celebrities without common sense?" which sparked controversy.

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