Former Rebuilding Korea Party leader Cho Kuk (left) and Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok [Yonhap]
Former Rebuilding Korea Party leader Cho Kuk (left) and Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok [Yonhap]

South Korean politics has been pulling one social controversy after another into the arena of ideological combat. From a high school baseball team's Starbucks chant to a K-pop idol's use of a regional dialect expression, critics say politicians are stoking needless partisan conflict.

Woo Jae-jun, the People Power Party's youth supreme council member, said Monday at a party leadership meeting at the National Assembly that the dialect endings "no," "na" and "go" are all common in Daegu speech. "Among young people, expressions like 'museopno' are used naturally, almost like an exclamation — there is no political intent behind them," he said.

He then said the controversy showed that Democratic Party politicians were exploiting former President Roh Moo-hyun. "The Democratic Party is leaning on the late president excessively, even during its own party convention," he said. "Both excessive sanctification and political exploitation should be avoided. Leave historical judgment to history."

Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok, also speaking at a party leadership meeting at the National Assembly on Monday, said former Rebuilding Korea Party leader Cho Kuk had "out of nowhere started singing a battle hymn against the Gyeongsang dialect." Lee said he worried that a promising entertainer who had built a following by showcasing her regional roots "might lose her distinctive character — willingly or not — because of Cho Kuk's senseless criticism."

The dispute began when Won-i, a member of the girl group Lisenné and a native of Geoje in South Gyeongsang Province, used the expression "museopno" in a YouTube appearance. Some viewers raised the claim that the word was associated with the far-right online community Ilbe, and the controversy spread to the political sphere.

Cho Kuk, the former Rebuilding Korea Party leader, wrote on Facebook on Sunday that "there are people who defend using 'no' at the end of sentences — the way Ilbe does to mock President Roh Moo-hyun — by claiming it is also used in Busan and the Yeongnam region." In response, People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won wrote on Facebook that the backlash resembled "totalitarian Red Guards," adding: "They are policing ideology and dialect alike — a censorship society where you can't go to Starbucks and can't freely use your own dialect."

The controversy over Baejae High School's baseball team has also continued. The team was handed a six-month competition ban by the Korea Baseball Softball Association after players chanted "Let's go to Starbucks" during a game.

Lee Byung-tae, vice chairman of the Committee on Regulatory Rationalization, wrote on his Facebook page on Friday that the suspension showed "May 18 has become a sacred cow." In response, Democratic Party lawmaker Choi Min-hee wrote on Facebook on Sunday that Lee — who had defended the belittling and mockery of the May 18 Gwangju Uprising and then said after Cheong Wa Dae issued a warning that he did not know what he should apologize for — "does not belong in the Lee Jae Myung government," and called for his resignation.

People Power Party lawmaker Lee Jin-suk sent a congratulatory wreath to the Baejae High School baseball team bearing the message: "What does Starbucks have to do with May 18?" She shared a photo of the wreath on Facebook, writing: "Will the Lee Jae Myung administration put 'handcuffs' on thought itself?"

Concerns are also emerging within political circles that intensifying partisan rivalry is causing social controversies to be recast through a political lens. Kim Tae-gyu, the People Power Party's chief floor spokesperson, appeared on YTN Radio on Monday and said: "Even when a situation looks sensitive, there should be efforts in politics to tamp it down and keep it from becoming a major issue — but instead, politicians are seizing on these things and attaching political meaning to matters that are not a big deal, and that is ultimately what produces this kind of needless conflict."

People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun wrote on Facebook on Monday that "if we try to silence public officials or citizens on the grounds of political influence, or simply because their views differ from the mainstream, our society will ultimately regress into a totalitarian one that permits only a single voice."

Jeong Chun-saeng, a supreme council member of the Rebuilding Korea Party, said at a party leadership meeting at the National Assembly on Monday that "politicians who have packaged hatred and mockery as 'freedom of expression' and used it as a tool for political agitation bear great responsibility," adding that "hatred and mockery cannot be justified in the name of freedom of expression."


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