'This Is the Daekkaemun Free Zone'... Professor Seomin Points Out Jeong Yong-jin's SNS

Professor Seomin: "A President Lenient Only to Himself... Blue House Suffers from Self-Praise Syndrome"

Jung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae Group, posted a message containing the phrase "sorry, thank you" on his social networking service (SNS) on the 4th, sparking ongoing debate among netizens.
[Photo by Jung Yong-jin, Instagram capture]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Professor Seo Min from Dankook University College of Medicine sharply criticized President Moon Jae-in on the 5th, calling him "a president who is lenient only to himself" and saying, "I thought his self-praise syndrome flared up again." Professor Seo continued his criticism through another post titled 'Introducing the Daekkaemun Clean Zone.' He is a co-author of the book "A Country Never Experienced Before," known as the so-called 'Cho Kuk Black Book.'

Professor Seomin, Dankook University. [Photo by Yonhap News]

On that day, Professor Seo opened his blog post by saying, "After the summit ended, watching the Blue House boasting about achievements beyond expectations, I thought the self-praise syndrome flared up again."

He said, "Normally, the people praise the president's work, but this regime praises themselves first," and directly attacked, "'So what has the president done?' There is so little that it silences the mouths of Daekkaemun (a term referring to fervent supporters of President Moon)." He then questioned, "Since the people don't praise, it's embarrassing and petty, but isn't it just that they want to praise and enjoy among themselves?"

Professor Seo also emphasized, "Like the case where the president sued the people, it is easy to criticize clearly wrong actions. But to criticize something ambiguous, you need to write persuasively."

He shared a link to his article titled 'Citizens living under a president lenient to himself are unhappy.' In this article, Professor Seo also claimed that "President Moon is boasting about achievements beyond expectations at the Korea-US summit."

Regarding this, Professor Seo added, "Writing the article criticizing this summit took much more time than other articles because I pressed each word tightly," and said, "It's not exactly thrilling, but I hope people can understand that the summit was not a success."

He also captured comments from some netizens praising the Korea-US summit's achievements and sarcastically said, "Daekkaemun are moved by the great achievements of the Korea-US summit," adding, "The Han River water probably won't dry up because there are so many people who get emotional and tear up over trivial things."

President Moon Jae-in. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier that day, he posted on his blog titled 'Introducing the Daekkaemun Clean Zone,' continuing his criticism of the government.

Professor Seo said, "If five friends gather and one is a Daekkaemun, people become cautious about what they say. They can't even talk about rising house prices, poor business, or how life is getting tougher," adding, "So people think, 'I want to be in a place free of Daekkaemun, even if just for a moment!'"

He continued, "Is there really such a place? Daekkaemun are everywhere. They appear not only in your apartment but also in restaurants, marts, amusement parks, and so on," and claimed, "The same goes for cyberspace. Most large communities have long been occupied by Daekkaemun."

He said, "Recently, a so-called Daekkaemun-free zone has emerged, causing a stir," referring to Chung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae Group's social media.

Professor Seo said, "Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin of Shinsegae was so moved by President Moon's sincere mourning of the Sewol ferry victims that he followed him. Being well-educated, he even wrote 'Sorry and thank you' in English," adding, "The strange thing is that this act of worship became controversial. Daekkaemun were furious, accusing him of mocking Moon Jae-in."

He also said, "For unknown reasons, Daekkaemun are boycotting Shinsegae stores," and "They even don't support Shinsegae's professional baseball team. Thanks to this, many Daekkaemun clean zones have been created."

Meanwhile, Vice Chairman Chung recently posted a cooking photo on his Instagram with the captions 'Goodbye, sorry, thank you' and 'sorry and thank you,' which sparked controversy. The phrase was pointed out as possibly imitating President Moon's Sewol ferry guestbook entry.

President Moon, during his time as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in March 2017, visited the Sewol ferry victims' memorial altar at Jindo Paengmok Harbor and wrote, "Kids, you were the starlight of the candlelight square. Your souls became 10 million candles. Sorry. Thank you," which sparked criticism. At the time, the political circles questioned whether it was appropriate to say thank you when children lost their lives in an unfortunate accident.