There are voices within the Democratic Party of Korea that they need to get out of the fandom politics of strong supporters, but the bombardment of text messages against lawmakers within the party is still continuing.
On the 11th, Democratic Party lawmaker Shin Dong-geun posted a message on his Facebook page that appeared to have been sent by supporters of Lee Jae-myung’s strength, saying, “I tried to be patient with it, but it’s hard to pass it up any longer.”
The published text read, ‘You XX, get out of here. Smash XXX with a stick. XXX guys. We have to throw bombs at the Democratic Party and kill them all.’ It contains abusive language and slander that are difficult to put into words, such as plucking out your eyebrows and uncovering XXX.
Rep. Shin criticized, “The behavior of political hooligans is not a legitimate expression of opinion, but violence.”
He also demanded an apology from those who sent the text message. He said, “For those of you who continue to send me text messages like this until I reveal my cell phone number, please send me a polite apology text by next week. I will wait,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is suffering from measles after the election due to the conflict between the pro-Lee Jae-myung and the existing factions (pro-moon and screaming). In particular, as the group of strong supporters who support Rep. Lee continued to engage in fandom acts such as ‘taking coordinates’, there are voices within the party calling for restraint.
The Democratic Party’s re-election party held a press conference on the 16th and insisted, “We distinguish verbal violence, profanity, coordinate taking, text bombs, and color theory as exclusive fandoms and publicly oppose them.” Woo Sang-ho, chairman of the emergency response committee, also held a press conference at the National Assembly on the 12th of last month and warned that “personal attacks, black propaganda, and sectarian language will be strictly prohibited.”
Rep. Lee also urged strong supporters to wake up on his Facebook page on the 9th of last month, saying, “Activities supporting unfavorable feelings do not help but harm the development of democracy as well as me.”
Han Ji-hye, reporter for Donga.com onewisdom@donga.com