Choi Min-hee, a candidate for the Democratic Party of Korea's supreme council, delivers her policy speech at a joint campaign event for party leader and supreme council candidates held at the CJB Media Center in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, on Saturday. [Yonhap]
Choi Min-hee, a candidate for the Democratic Party of Korea's supreme council, delivers her policy speech at a joint campaign event for party leader and supreme council candidates held at the CJB Media Center in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, on Saturday. [Yonhap]

Tensions erupted within the Democratic Party of Korea immediately after the first regional primary event of its Aug. 17 national convention. Supreme council candidate Choi Min-hee posted a message on Facebook moments after the joint campaign speech event concluded at the South Chungcheong Transportation Training Center in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, on Saturday. She wrote that she was "devastated" and accused the party of being infiltrated by "ilbe culture" — a reference to the far-right online community known for mockery and harassment — describing the atmosphere as "a one-versus-many campaign to destroy Jung Chung-rae, with ridicule and jeering."

Choi called on party members to help build "a reform leadership under Jung Chung-rae," vowing to "correct things one by one" and "smash the ilbe culture that has infiltrated the party."

Her remarks were widely read as frustration over the shape of the party leader primary, in which pro-Lee Jae Myung candidates Kim Min-seok and Song Yeong-gil have been mounting a joint offensive against Jung Chung-rae.

Lawmaker Moon Jin-seog, who represents Cheonan-gap in South Chungcheong Province, pushed back immediately. "Is a different opinion or a small criticism 'ilbe'?" he said, adding that Saturday's joint event in South Chungcheong "was calmer than any national convention I have seen." He said the only notable incident was a single party member shouting in protest, "Why are you even here again?" — and nothing more.

Moon added that while there had been "that member's outburst and a few sighs," calling it an infiltration of ilbe culture was an overreach. "Some degree of noise and protest has always existed at every national convention," he said. He urged Choi to listen to party members' voices no matter how uncomfortable, asking, "Isn't that what a party of member sovereignty means?" and recommended she "offer a sincere apology."

Moon Jin-seog, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea. [Herald Business]
Moon Jin-seog, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea. [Herald Business]

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