Kang Yong-seok mocks "Starbucks boycott, do you have two or three people around you?"
Members of the conservative-leaning YouTube channel 'Garosero Research Institute' have come forward to support Chung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae Group. / Photo by Garosero YouTube channel capture
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Ju-hyung] The conservative-leaning YouTube channel 'Garosero Research Institute' (Gaseyeon) has come out in support of Chung Yong-jin, Vice Chairman of Shinsegae Group. Gaseyeon members appeared on broadcasts wearing the uniforms of the professional baseball team SSG Landers and also displayed Starbucks tumbler products. Both SSG Landers and Starbucks have E-Mart, a subsidiary under Shinsegae, as their parent company.
Kang Yong-seok, a lawyer affiliated with Gaseyeon, questioned during a live broadcast on the 10th, "Supporters of the ruling party say they are boycotting Starbucks. Are there really one or two people around you who are doing this boycott?"
He added, "At first, they wanted to boycott all subsidiaries related to Shinsegae, but they got a bit crafty," and criticized, "Since they can't avoid going to other marts, they decided to boycott only Starbucks."
Kim Se-ui, the representative who co-hosted the broadcast with Lawyer Kang, said, "So we went to the Starbucks in front of our office and bought 200,000 won worth of tumblers. The employees seemed to like it," while displaying the tumbler products on the table.
These remarks by Gaseyeon members appear to satirize the so-called 'Chung Yong-jin boycott' initiated by ruling party supporters in opposition to Vice Chairman Chung. In this context, Hyun Geun-taek, spokesperson for the Democratic Party's election committee, tweeted the day before, "I will no longer drink Starbucks coffee." He also shared a tweet saying, "Let's not go to E-Mart, Shinsegae, or Starbucks."
Recently, some Democratic Party supporters created and shared 'Chung Yong-jin boycott' posters calling for a boycott of Shinsegae Group and its affiliates. Modeled after the past 'No Japan' posters, these posters bear the phrase, "Boycott Chung Yong-jin, do not go, do not buy."
Vice Chairman Chung and Gaseyeon members have previously shown their friendship. Chung follows Gaseyeon's account on his social media service (SNS), and it is known that he personally attended the musical 'Park Chung-hee' produced by Gaseyeon in June last year.
When Vice Chairman Chung was engaged in a heated debate with food columnist Hwang Kyo-ik over the so-called 'chicken class theory' in November last year, Gaseyeon defended Chung.
At that time, Lawyer Kang criticized Hwang on the broadcast, saying, "If Hwang dislikes capitalism, it becomes communism, so he dislikes the unheard-of term 'chaebol capitalism,'" "He says whatever comes to mind at the time," and "Kyo-ik, I don't think it's appropriate for someone of your level to criticize someone like Yong-jin hyung."
Meanwhile, as the controversy over the 'annihilate communism' remarks spreads to the political sphere, Vice Chairman Chung posted a lengthy explanation on his Instagram on the 10th. However, he cautioned against overinterpretation, saying, "I will live and die as a businessman, so please don't talk about politics."
He said, "I am a Korean citizen who wants to live peacefully and freely," and questioned, "But those guys (North Korea) are launching missiles and threatening with nuclear weapons, so where is the safety?"
He continued, "When doing business, because of them, I have to pay higher interest when borrowing money from abroad, and when they launch missiles, investments withdraw. Have you experienced this?" and "In some fields, only Korea and Japan have insurance surcharges because of the risks of war and earthquakes. Have you heard of this?"
He added, "For some, 'annihilate communism' is political, but for me, it is reality," and emphasized, "Those who understand why Korea is being discounted cannot criticize me. Businesspeople should do business, and politicians should do politics."
Vice Chairman Chung said, "As a Korean citizen facing the anxious daily life of not knowing when a missile might fly to my country, I expressed a natural feeling," but also added, "If the ability to calculate that my everyday language can be used politically and the sense to quickly know where to tie my 'gat string' is a quality of a businessman, I will cultivate it."
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