You can’t keep a foul-mouthed show host down

A posting from Kim Yong-min’s Twitter feed: “It must be disappointing news for Lee Myung-bak, Park Geun-hye, Saenuri Party, Jo-Jung-Dong (Chosun, JoongAng Ilbo, Donga Ilbo newspapers) and corrupt church powers, but I have resumed my business.”

Only days after his defeat in the general election, Kim Yong-min, a co-host of a popular political satire podcast and the Democratic United Party’s unsuccessful candidate, said yesterday that he will resume his activities as a “national foul-mouth.”

Kim, co-host of “Naneun Ggomsuda” (“I’m a Petty-Minded Creep”), was a candidate for the liberal alliance between the DUP and the Unified Democratic Party for Seoul’s Nowon A District in last Wednesday’s general election.

His raunchy, sexist and cruel jokes, belatedly made public by the ruling Saenuri Party on the final days of the campaign, shook the election. Kim was one of the few liberal candidates in Seoul defeated by his Saenuri rivals. The DUP’s defeat in the general election was also largely credited to Kim’s refusal to give up his candidacy and the party leadership’s inability to persuade him.

On Friday, Kim posted a message on his blog and Twitter account that he had committed a grave crime and would impose self-probation. But the probation only lasted two days, as Kim declared his return yesterday morning.

On Twitter, Kim posted a series of messages claiming that his probation was over. “There is a nation’s most popular singer and actor, but no one has achieved the title of the most popular foul-mouth,” he wrote.

“Until now, the public hasn’t been shocked by how badly foul-mouthed I could be. I will speak on behalf of the unprivileged people. The probation for the defeated candidate is over! Here comes the national foul-mouth!”

He also wrote that President Lee Myung-bak, the Saenuri Party and its leader Park Geun-hye, the major newspapers Chosun, JoongAng and Dong-A and the corrupt church power should be disappointed at his return.

“It just takes two days for a churl to get back on his feet,” he wrote. As concerns rose that he would continue to make dirty, sexist remarks, Kim wrote that it would be hard to listen to such words from him in the future. “Wait for destructive, yet not explicit, curses!” he wrote.

He also said he does not care that he was expelled from political, media, educational and religious arenas in over a month. “My political experiment is over,” he wrote. “I will return as a member of the ‘Naggomsu,’ without any party affiliation or political stakes.”

By Ser Myo-ja [myoja@joongang.co.kr]