Lee Jae-myung's "Media Lapdog" Remark Draws Fierce Criticism from People Power Party
On the 15th, the People Power Party directly criticized Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, for calling the media "the prosecution's pet dog," saying, "This is a behavior that shatters the rule of law, controls the media, and uses power to avoid imprisonment. It is a typical criminal's behavior."
Lee, attending a trial at the Seoul Central District Court the previous day on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act, referred to the prosecution's indictment of him over allegations of remittances to North Korea by Ssangbangwool as "an unprecedented fabrication," and said, "(The media) are not reporting the truth but are instead zealously distorting and fabricating like the prosecution's pet dogs."
Senior spokesperson Yoon Hee-seok criticized Lee in a statement that day, targeting him over the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case indictment, saying, "Yesterday, he even showed a side of berating the media by disparaging them as 'the prosecution's pet dogs'." He emphasized, "If Lee's claim that his criminal charges are the result of 'political prosecution's fabrication' is true, he should confidently face the investigation and trial."
Assemblyman Ahn Cheol-soo of the same party also pointed out on his SNS, "Since he finds it difficult to escape his crimes, he is trying to shake and control even the investigative agencies and judicial system through a special prosecutor. His intention is to turn not only the police and prosecution but even the judiciary into his loyal dogs." Ahn said, "Ultimately, Lee's unprecedented slander is not only an insult to the media but also an insult to the people and a denial of liberal democracy," adding, "In liberal democracy, even an imperial ruler cannot reign above the constitution."
Former Assemblyman Yoo Seung-min also wrote on SNS, "If there were media outlets that 'receive information from the prosecution and zealously distort and fabricate' as Lee claims, he himself should have evidence and either request arbitration or file a lawsuit against those media outlets." He added, "Hearing such gangster-like abusive language that condemns the entire media as 'the prosecution's dogs' only makes me think that if such a person becomes president, the country will be ruined."
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