Min Hyung-bae: "Isn't a party with many passionate supporters a good party?"

"There Are Infiltrators Who Are Not Party Members"
"The Hardcore Fandom Itself Uses Language That Attacks the Democratic Party"

Min Hyung-bae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea who recently rejoined the party after leaving during the 'Geomsu Wanbak (complete removal of prosecutorial investigation rights)' phase, claimed that the term "hardcore fandom" itself is a language used to attack the Democratic Party.

On the 25th, on SBS's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show,' Min said, "People keep creating terms like passionate fans and hardcore fans to use as language to attack the opposition, but isn't a party with many passionate supporters a good party?"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

This can be interpreted as attaching the label of 'hardcore fandom' even to passionate supporters. He said, "In football, we see very passionate fans. But on the other hand, there are hooligans. As you know, hooligans engage in violent, oppressive, insulting, and beyond-normal behavior," and questioned, "But do those who label Democratic Party's passionate members as hardcore fandom actually mean that they behave like that?"

He revealed abusive text messages he recently received and pressured party leader Lee Jae-myung by asking, "Don't you want to cut ties with the hardcore fandom?" However, it was revealed that the sender of these messages was not a party member. Min said, "Why would the person who sent the messages to me do such a thing? From the presidential election onward, I have observed that there are people who infiltrate despite not being party members?so-called agents or spies. In other words, there are people planning manipulations. We need to distinguish those people from actual passionate party members."

He added, "Using fake party members who have the intention of stirring division within the Democratic Party and labeling them as hardcore fandom to attack is a highly unethical political act. From what I see, (hardcore fandom) does not even exist. You can tell immediately by looking at the comments. If you check the accounts, they are not Democratic Party members."

Regarding the party's response to Kim Nam-guk, who was embroiled in a multi-billion won cryptocurrency scandal and left the party, Min said, "It seems the Democratic Party has something like decision paralysis. When an issue arises, it should be investigated promptly and dealt with strictly, but it is always a step late," adding, "As a result, individual actions keep occurring, and because of those individual actions, the party misses the chance to intervene."

When the host mentioned, "In cases of leaving the party to avoid disciplinary action, measures such as banning re-entry can be taken," Min retorted, "You keep connecting this to my re-entry and making irrelevant remarks," showing irritation.

Min said, "Because of party rules, there is no possibility that (Kim) will rejoin before the general election. Especially in my case, I left while engaged in legislative activities, so it is completely different from me," and added, "In my view, the party will not even consider re-admission."