Lawmaker calls Park a vulgar name
Female lawmakers, right, of the ruling Saenuri Party hold a press conference yesterday in the National Assembly in Seoul to condemn Representative Lee Jong-kul, left, of the DUP, for calling Saenuri’s presidential front-runner Park Geun-hye a vulgar name on his Twitter account. [YONHAP/NEWSIS]
A main opposition lawmaker used an obscenity against the ruling Saenuri Party’s leading presidential candidate Park Geun-hye, and then confirmed that he really meant it.
Lee Jong-kul, a Democratic United Party’s lawmaker in Anyang, Gyeonggi, wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday about the ruling party’s money-for-nomination scandal.
“It’s not ‘a nomination bribery’ but ‘a nomination business,’ ” he said. “All the profits of the business go to the owner, not to employees.
“Their owner is Representative Park Geun-hye, but that bitch is so high and mighty she won’t even make an apology .?.?. ”
That word “bitch” ignited rage from the ruling party and citizens. At first Lee said that it was just a typing error that he decided not to correct.
“In a dark car, I typed the sentences with my iPhone, and tried to type ‘geu-nyeo neun,’ or ‘she is’ in Korean, but mistyped ‘geu nyeon,’ or ‘that bitch,’ ” he said in a radio interview with BBS yesterday. “After my aides told me about the error, I should have revised it, but suddenly I thought it would be better to let it be.”
“It was a mistake originally, but I thought I just wanted to let it be and not fix it,” he said.
After facing protests from the ruling party, Lee fixed the expression into “she is.” But Lee still expressed his hatred toward Park.
“Some even asked me ‘the word is too weak, why didn’t you use a stronger word?’ ” he said.
He also said he won’t stop criticizing Park. “I will continue to inform people of the fact that she is never going to be helpful for the future of Korea, through using more accurate words, not insults.”
His excuses fueled the anger in the ruling party more.
“He is still not sorry,” Lee Sang-il, a spokesman for Park’s election camp, said yesterday. “He should politely make an apology to Park, Saenuri and the people of the country, including all women.”
By Kim Hee-jin [heejin@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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