Jang Dong-hyeok: 'Not communication — shoring up approval ratings on the left'
Ahn Cheol-soo: Post on Park Won-soon amounts to secondary victimization
The People Power Party on Sunday criticized President Lee Jae Myung's social media activity, calling it "not communication but left-wing base management to shore up his approval rating."
People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok made the remarks in a Facebook post, saying Lee's social media outreach was stoking public anger. Jang used the slang term "jwa-a" — a play on the Korean word for "graceful" with the syllable for "right" swapped out for "left" — to mock what he described as the president's ideologically skewed online presence.
Chief Spokesperson Choi Bo-yun said in a statement that Lee had posted 30 to 40 items per month after taking office, but that the number surpassed 100 in September when his approval rating wobbled. "Is this communication for the people, or communication to rally his base?" she asked.
Choi said Lee's posts were rattling financial markets, driving farmers into the streets and forcing the foreign ministry into damage-control mode. She urged the president to announce policies only after they had gone through Cabinet meetings and ministerial review, and to handle diplomatic and security matters through official channels rather than social media.
Four-term lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo launched a sharp attack after Lee wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he was thinking of the late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, describing Park as the person who had shown him the importance of communication and social media as a tool for it.
![People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo. [Lee Sang-sub]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/10/11/news-p.v1.20261011.588b457ee25d49f7b86adb4530fbe9d7_P1.jpg)
In a Facebook post, Ahn said sexual misconduct had taken place at the official residence where Lee and Park had met. "At the very place where you say you exchanged messages on social media, Park Won-soon sent obscene texts and indecent photos to a young secretary and attempted sexual harassment," Ahn wrote.
He went on to say, "And now you say you miss a sex criminal? First the abolition of supplementary investigative powers, and now the rehabilitation of Park Won-soon — do you want to be a president for criminals?" Ahn demanded that Lee immediately delete the post and apologize, calling Lee's Sunday post "clear secondary victimization."
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon also criticized Lee on Facebook, saying a South Korean president should not publicly praise former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, who committed an abuse-of-power sex crime, never apologized to the victim and died by suicide.
Former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min said in a social media post that the real problem with Lee's online activity lay elsewhere. He said Lee had posted endlessly about real estate without reflecting on policy failures, stubbornly clinging to those failed policies, blaming the previous administration and saying nothing about the jeonse and monthly rent crisis causing hardship for ordinary people.
Yoo added that it was also deeply troubling that Lee's social media posts were directed only at his own camp rather than fostering national unity, consumed by intra-faction power struggles with no bearing on people's livelihoods. "Why must the public watch a family feud playing out on the president's social media feed? People are worn out and angry," he said.
He went on to say he hoped the president would understand that staying up past midnight fixating on trivial matters on social media "in itself makes the public anxious and worried."
Reform Party spokesperson Cha Ho also issued a statement noting that Lee had put up 18 posts over the three-day Gaecheonjeol holiday and 11 posts on Monday alone, yet had held only seven formal press conferences in 16 months in office. "Hold regular press conferences," the spokesperson said. "If daily is too much, at least stand before reporters who ask questions on behalf of the public once a month."
The spokesperson added, "Posting without taking questions is not communication — it is a one-way announcement. And when that announcement goes up at 1 a.m., it gives the public chills."
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