Seoul National University, Kyung Hee University, and Other Campuses Post Satirical Criticism of 'Moon Jae-in Government'
'New Jeondaehyeop' Posts Large Posters Offline Instead of Online
Criticism of Chu Mi-ae-Yoon Seok-yeol 'Prosecutorial Reform Conflict' and President Moon's Silent Approach
President Moon Jae-in is holding an 'Economic Meeting on COVID-19 Response' at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jung-gu on the morning of February 13. [Image source=Yonhap News]
[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] "President Park Geun-hye, I am sorry." , "Senior, I am ashamed." , "The ruling party should abandon its arrogant thoughts."
Recently, critical posts about President Moon Jae-in have been appearing one after another on university campuses, including Seoul National University. A conservative-leaning group even posted large posters criticizing the current administration on university gates.
A Seoul National University student expressed self-reproach for having criticized former President Park Geun-hye by comparing her administration to the current one. This is a kind of satire implying that the Park administration was better when compared to the Moon administration. At Kyung Hee University, known as President Moon’s alma mater, critical posts also appeared. A Kyung Hee student who wrote the post referred to President Moon as a "senior" and expressed feelings of shame.
The main targets of students' criticism are the conflict between Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae and Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, the legality controversy surrounding Minister Choo’s suspension of Prosecutor General Yoon, and President Moon’s silence on this issue.
On the 27th, a post titled "President Park Geun-hye, I am sorry" was uploaded on 'SNU Life,' a portal board exclusive to current and former Seoul National University students. The author compared the Park and Moon administrations and listed 13 reasons to apologize to former President Park. This is interpreted as satire, implying that although the author had criticized the Park administration in the past, the Park era was better compared to the Moon administration.
The author pointed out issues such as Minister Choo’s disciplinary steps against Prosecutor General Yoon. He said, "I criticized Park Geun-hye for firing Chae Dong-wook for having two households, but seeing Yoon Seok-youl being ousted for surveillance this time, I realized that was not even worth criticizing. I am sorry."
Regarding the 2016 Choi Soon-sil political scandal, he sarcastically said, "I criticized Choi Soon-sil’s daughter for getting pressured into Ewha Womans University, but seeing Cho Kuk’s children forging documents, it seems the Asian Games gold medal was at least earned through sincere effort." He continued, "I criticized the Mir and K-Sports foundations for extorting corporate money, but looking at Optimus and Prime, it seems extorting a few trillion won from ordinary people is worse than taking a few hundred billion won from corporations."
Regarding the ongoing COVID-19 situation with continuous new domestic cases, he compared it to the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak during the Park administration and apologized, saying, "I criticized the poor handling of MERS, but seeing the chaos caused by COVID-19 and people dying after flu vaccinations, it seems the MERS response was a relatively moderate handling."
Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae (left) and Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl (right) [Image source=Yonhap News]
◆ "I support Minister Choo Mi-ae... Petition to suspend President Moon’s duties"
Meanwhile, criticism of the Moon administration also appeared offline. On the 29th, the 'National University Student Representatives Council' (New Jeondaehyup) announced that starting from the evening of the 29th, they began posting about 300 large posters at over 100 universities nationwide. This group is a conservative youth organization that satirically uses the name of Jeondaehyup, a student activist group from the 1980s and 1990s.
On that day, the 'New Jeondaehyup' posted a large poster titled "We support Minister Choo Mi-ae," stating, "We petition the public with a very heavy heart to request disciplinary action and suspension of duties against the president." This is a satirical statement implying that if President Moon could be suspended and disciplined like Minister Choo’s suspension of Prosecutor General Yoon, they would support Minister Choo.
The poster was also posted on a gate at KAIST campus in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. The group criticized President Moon’s pledges and family issues, saying, "In addition to 'a country never experienced before,' many pledges such as 'Gwanghwamun Blue House' were broken," and "He neglected to prevent his own family (President Moon’s daughter) from emigrating to Thailand, a country never experienced before."
'New Jeondaehyup' also criticized President Moon’s continued silence amid the ongoing conflict between Minister Choo and Prosecutor General Yoon. The group said, "Hiding behind a single minister, he slandered Prosecutor General Yoon, abused his appointment power, and lowered the nation’s dignity," and "Hiding behind Minister Choo, who caused public disillusionment with her son’s military service issue and the first-ever blunder in constitutional history, he repeatedly divides the people, seriously damaging the dignity and trust as the head of state."
On the morning of July 25 last year, President Moon Jae-in awarded the appointment letter to the newly appointed Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl at the Blue House, and then they moved together to the reception room. Photo by Yonhap News
◆ "When appointing, he said to investigate the living power..."
Meanwhile, at Kyung Hee University, President Moon’s alma mater, a post criticizing the current government was also published. On the 27th at 9:36 p.m., a post appeared on the Facebook page 'Kyung Hee University Bamboo Forest' (a university community on Facebook based on anonymity), addressing President Moon as a senior and pointing out various conflicts surrounding prosecutorial reform and the president’s silence, which has also been criticized by other universities.
The author began by saying, "It is very shameful and disgraceful that President Moon Jae-in and Seoul Central District Prosecutor Lee Sung-yoon are alumni of Kyung Hee University." Regarding the ongoing conflict between Minister Choo and Prosecutor General Yoon, the author said, "Watching the Choo Mi-ae and Yoon Seok-youl incident, I often wonder if justice in South Korea is still alive," and pointed out, "It was President Moon who appointed Yoon Seok-youl, who was demoted while investigating Park Geun-hye, as Prosecutor General."
The author also criticized President Moon’s remarks when appointing Prosecutor General Yoon. He said, "When appointing, he told him to investigate the living power, handing him the sword, but when the blade turned toward the regime and ruling party in cases like Lime and Optimus, he tightened the noose around the Prosecutor General to prevent the investigation from going in the right direction and even suspended him from duty. Is that really right?" He criticized the current administration, adding, "Should investigations only target the opposition party, and should investigations into our side be covered up even if there are wrongdoings?"
On July 25 last year, after awarding the appointment letter to Prosecutor General Yoon, President Moon said in a conversation, "You have received the hope of the people by handling power-type corruption very fairly without being swayed by power, without being cautious, and without being loyal to people. I hope you keep that attitude until the end."
He continued, "I think that attitude should be the same toward the living power, so whether it is the Blue House, the government, or the ruling party, if there is power-type corruption, I hope you will respond strictly," and "Only then will the public feel the political neutrality of the prosecution and it will be possible to prevent power corruption."
Lee Nak-yeon, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Kim Tae-nyeon, floor leader, are attending the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of November 2. / Photo by Yonhap News
The author also criticized communication by ruling party figures such as the Democratic Party of Korea. He emphasized, "Are the ruling party and the Minister of Justice only referring to comments on articles on the portal site Daum, seeing only what they want to see and hearing only what they want to hear? It seems they think that is the opinion of the majority of the people, but I ask you to abandon such arrogant thoughts. The people are not that stupid."
Another author also posted criticizing the Moon administration. The author said, "I am ashamed to have a senior like you," and pointed out, "You say to embrace different opinions, but you suppress other opinions with your number of seats and zealous supporters." He added, "Remember this: a disaster worse than a leader’s corruption is none other than the leader’s incompetence."
Meanwhile, the hearing on the suspension of Prosecutor General Yoon’s duty will be held today (the 30th). The Administrative Court of Seoul, Administrative Division 4, will conduct a hearing at 11 a.m. on the enforcement suspension request filed by Yoon against the suspension of his duties.
Minister Choo and Prosecutor General Yoon will not attend the hearing, and only their legal representatives will attend to represent their positions. The legal community expects that considering the urgency and seriousness of the matter, the court may deliver a decision as early as today or by the next day at the latest. Depending on the court’s decision, either Minister Choo Mi-ae or Prosecutor General Yoon is expected to suffer some damage.
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