President Lee Criticizes Comfort Women Insult Group: "Human Face, Beastly Heart... Must Be Isolated"

President Lee's February 1 Social Media Message
Criticizes Conservative Group for Insulting Comfort Women
Denounces, "There Are Limits to Freedom of Expression"

President Lee Jae-myung is speaking at the National Startup Era Strategy Meeting titled 'K-Startup Creates the Future' held at the Blue House on the 30th. Photo by Yonhap News

On February 1, President Lee Jaemyung criticized a conservative group accused of insulting victims of the comfort women system, saying, "They have the face of a human, but the heart of a beast-inhumanity."

On this day, through his social media account, President Lee stated, "Calling victims of wartime sexual slavery prostitutes-no one who is Korean, or even simply human, could do such a thing."

Previously, Kim Byunghun, head of the National Action for the Abolition of the Comfort Women Law, held unauthorized rallies near Seocho High School and Muhak Girls' High School, where statues of comfort women are installed, at the end of last year. Kim is accused of holding up banners with phrases such as, "Are you guiding students toward prostitution by erecting comfort women statues on campus?"

President Lee questioned, "How can someone wearing the mask of a human be so cruel to those who were forcibly taken to war zones, raped dozens of times a day in fear of death, and ultimately massacred? If you cannot even sympathize with these innocent victims of war crimes, where do you find the passion, money, and time to travel the country for years, insulting them as prostitutes?"

President Lee pointed out, "Freedom of expression has its limits. Just as I have my freedom, others have theirs, and in a society where we live together, there are rules, morals, and laws that must be upheld." He emphasized, "With my rights comes an equal obligation to respect the rights of others."

President Lee also shared a news article stating that the police specified in their search and seizure warrant for the group that the case "clearly exceeded the limits of freedom of expression." He added, "For a world where people can live as humans, beasts that harm others must either be made human or isolated. I send encouragement and support to the police who are working hard."

Earlier, on the 6th, President Lee had also criticized the "comfort woman statue insult challenge" on social media, calling it "utterly senseless... a defamation of the dead."