Politicians have long been the prime target of public antipathy and cynicism in practically every country and Korea is no exception.This may be attributed to their tendency of prioritizing private interests despite expectations for their contribution to the public good. Worse still, recently, many candidates running for the general elections this April have perplexed the public, further fanning distrust against politicians.
Kim Jun-hyuk, now a candidate of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), has come under a barrage of criticism for his seemingly reckless and sexist remarks mainly against women. It is shame a professor of history made such claims and even used vulgar language. Students tend to believe what teachers tell them. As a result, we feel sympathy for the students who were taught by such an underqualified professor. Kim managed to snatch the DPK ticket for the Suwon Jeong constituency, apparently due to his shameful book, “Letters from King Jeongjo to Lee Jae-myung,” the chairman of the DPK.
The book was largely meant to compare Lee to Jeongjo, who is regarded as one of the greatest kings of the Joseon Dynasty. It is apparent that Kim might have attempted to use his book to curry favor with the DPK chairman to obtain the party ticket in the lead-up to the parliamentary elections. Appearing on a YouTube channel in 2022, Kim claimed, “Helen Kim, the inaugural president of Ewha Womans University had college students sexually serve then U.S. commissioned officers, in the aftermath of national liberation 메이저 (in 1945).”