Hong "Bad personality... Not a normal person"
Medical Association President "Participated in rape conspiracy and still not coming to senses"
Daegu Mayor Hong Jun-pyo and Korean Medical Association President Lim Hyun-taek are engaged in a heated exchange that crosses into personal attacks over the issue of increasing medical school admissions.
On the 5th, President Lim wrote on Facebook, "It is shocking enough that a politician participated in drug use and plotting date rape, which are disqualifications for prosecutor appointments, yet he still hasn't come to his senses and talks about standards," adding, "The person who cannot appear on broadcasts due to abandoning a traffic accident victim after drinking must feel very wronged. I sincerely hope he exercises restraint." This was a response to Mayor Hong, who had called him a 'street thug.'
In response, Mayor Hong posted on his online communication platform 'Youth's Dream,' saying, "Before being a doctor, his character is terrible. It's shocking that a person with such a disposition is a doctor," and criticized, "If doctors have such a character, patients receiving treatment from such people should be worried." He added, "I might just sue and have him locked up. No more doctors for him," and wrote, "I spoke logically, but making slanderous personal attacks is not the behavior of a normal person."
This conflict began on the 3rd. Mayor Hong strongly opposed increasing medical school admissions on Facebook, addressing doctors who continue their strike by saying, "Doctors are not individuals or fighters but public officials," and pointed out, "While 80% of the public supports increasing medical school admissions, only doctors persistently oppose it and even refuse to enter the public discourse, which is inconsistent with the Hippocratic Oath."
In response, President Lim retorted, "It is outrageous that a person who participated in sexual crimes using pig aphrodisiacs runs for president and serves as mayor, yet talks about being a public official and the Hippocratic Oath to doctors who do not get a single tax cut," adding, "That is why, despite decades in politics, he has no followers around him."
The 'pig aphrodisiac' remark refers to a controversial passage in Mayor Hong's autobiography. In his 2005 autobiography, Hong confessed that during his first year at university, he overlooked a roommate at his boarding house who used pig aphrodisiacs on a female student he had a crush on, stating, "It was done as a joke, but only after becoming a prosecutor did I realize how serious a wrongdoing it was."
Mayor Hong fired back, saying, "Resorting to slanderous personal attacks when losing in logic is a despicable act done only by people with low character," and added, "For someone who is supposed to be a doctor to do such things is no different from a street thug whose level is questionable. If there is a group that is shaken by such a person, that is also undesirable for Korean society."
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