Commentator's remark came while discussing Rebuilding Korea Party's potential new name

Remark criticized as mockery of People's Revolutionary Party case

Cho Kuk calls it evocative of 'judicial murder'

Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok sits in thought during a supreme council meeting at the party's North Gyeongsang Province chapter office in Andong on Wednesday. [Yonhap]
Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok sits in thought during a supreme council meeting at the party's North Gyeongsang Province chapter office in Andong on Wednesday. [Yonhap]

Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok on Thursday criticized a political commentator for making a remark evoking the People's Revolutionary Party (Inhyeokdang) case while discussing a potential new name for the Rebuilding Korea Party, saying the commentator had "crossed the line."

"Public figures must not let their guard down or lose their composure," Kim wrote on his Facebook page Thursday. "Genuine, substantive reflection and an apology are essential."

The controversy began Wednesday when commentator Kim Jun-il appeared on JTBC's YouTube program "Jangneuman Yeouido." As the name "Minjuhyeoksin Party" — or "Minhyeokdang" for short — was floated as a possible new name for the Rebuilding Korea Party, he made the offhand remark: "Minhyeokdang — sounds like everyone's going to be executed." Other panelists laughed along.

The comment drew criticism for appearing to mock the People's Revolutionary Party case, one of the most notorious fabricated security cases of the Park Chung-hee era, in which a number of people were executed.

The Rebuilding Korea Party's youth committee issued a statement Thursday calling the remark "an outrageous statement that cannot be tolerated under any circumstances — hate-mongering dressed up as political commentary." The committee said it was "deeply outraged by the denigration of the history of democratization and the mockery of victims of state violence," and demanded the program be immediately taken off air.

Cho Kuk, the party's director of the Innovative Policy Research Institute, also posted on Facebook, saying it "goes far beyond the pale to snicker while using an expression that evokes the victims of judicial murder." He added that both the commentator and the host must issue formal apologies on their next broadcast, and that the Rebuilding Korea Party would file a complaint with the Korea Press Arbitration Commission.

In response, Kim Jun-il apologized on Facebook, writing that the remark was "inexcusably my own carelessness and fault."


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