After condemning former President Park Geun-hye for her handling of the sinking of the Sewol ferry, it was revealed that the top Democratic Party (DP) presidential candidate Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung acted in a surprisingly similar manner during a deadly warehouse fire.
On the afternoon of June 17, there was a fire at a Coupang logistics center in Icheon, Gyeonggi. During the time of the accident, when a firefighter at the scene was caught on fire and eventually died, Lee was filming a YouTube video with Hwang Gyo-ik, a food commentator who was recently appointed by Lee as the president of the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization. Hwang resigned after his comments attacking other DP candidates drew strong criticism. Lee is currently leading all rival presidential hopefuls from the conservative party in hypothetical two-way races.
At that time, Lee and Hwang were eating tteokbokki, or stir-fried spicy rice cakes, at a restaurant in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, which is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) away from Icheon. According to the GPS, it takes about three hours to drive between these two locations.
One of the issues that brought down the approval rating of former President Park was her alleged lack of response to the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014. Over 300 people, mostly young students, died in the disaster. The fall in her approval ratings was exacerbated by another controversial scandal often dubbed as “meddling with state affairs” by her long-time confidante, Choi Soon-sil. Park was eventually impeached by the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court.
In response, the campaign of Lee Nak-yon, a rival of Gov. Lee for the Democratic Party (DP) presidential primary and former Prime Minister under the Moon administration, called for an explanation.
“According to the article, the governor went ahead with the [filming] schedule on the day of the fire and arrived at the accident site at 1:32 a.m. on the 18th, the next day,” said Bae Jae-jeong, spokesperson for Lee Nak-yon’s election campaign. “It was about 20 hours after the fire alarm went off that he finally got to the site, which was an erroneous and reckless action as the commander-in-chief of a disaster occurring in the Gyeonggi province.”
Chung Se-kyun, former Prime Minister under Moon Jae-in and another DP presidential candidate, also criticized Lee for his irresponsible behavior. “Making excuses for a clear mistake is an act of deception to the people,” he said. “You should apologize for what you have done wrong. Making an apology should be fair to everyone, and that is what we call fairness.”
Yoon Hee-sook, a lawmaker from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), pointed out the fact that Lee filed a bill of indictment to charge President Park Geun-hye during the Sewol Ferry incident. She added that “while people in Gyeonggi were in a life or death situation, which Lee is responsible for, he was eating tteokbokki, making jokes and laughing. This gives me goosebumps like when I’m watching a psychopathic horror movie.”
After the tragic Sewol incident, leftist politicians and media questioned the whereabouts of President Park for seven hours when it occurred. She received the report of the incident around 10 a.m. and ordered her key aide to do his best to rescue the people onboard the ferry. Her next public appearance was around 5 p.m. when she attended a meeting at the situation room.
Leftists brought forth a series of conspiracy theories as to what she was doing during the seven hours. They said she may have been meeting a man at a hotel, doing some sort of exorcism, or sleeping after receiving a facial plastic surgery with a propofol injection. The media expanded the conspiracy theories by saying Park brought in a hairdresser to fix her hair for an hour and a half, or that the wrinkles on her face were worked on, in addition to other rumors. All of them turned out to be false, but they were successful in humiliating South Korea’s first female president.
There were multiple investigations into the sinking of the Sewol since 2014, but they did not find any evidence that Park was doing something strange for seven hours or was trying to downplay the incident. Under President Moon Jae-in, another team of special prosecutors was formed to investigate the issue. It concluded earlier this month that “no tampering of evidence, including of surveillance camera footage, occurred relating to the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol.”
What was depressing about the conspiracy theories at that time was that they were not raised by extremists or commentators with low reputation but key political figures, including Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung.
In November 2011, Lee submitted a bill of indictment to the prosecution accusing Park of dereliction of her duty during the seven hours of the Sewol Ferry incident. He argued that Park might have violated a charge of professional negligence resulting in death and that there is a possibility of applying a charge of absence without leave if she was in her residence instead of her office.
As there is a saying “what goes around comes around,” Lee is now facing similar charges for his actions during the deadly fire that occurred in Gyeonggi.
Gov. Lee met with reporters and told them these politicians are attacking him without proper cause. “Park Geun-hye did not try to look into the Sewol Ferry incident site and avoided receiving reports on the case,” he argued. “We the people did not make an issue of her failing to visit the rescue site, but what we are making an issue of is whether she directed the rescue mission or was aware of the situation.”
He said that it is true that he was in the Changwon and Masan region at that time but was briefed on the case in real-time and gave appropriate orders. “I canceled my schedule for the following day and ran to the site without even having dinner for more than four hours,” said Lee.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Government also released a statement that said, “Criticizing the governor for not being at the site right after the fire started is asking for too much and a mere conjecture.”
Lee’s comment that he was not at the site but gave appropriate orders also drew criticism. Yoo Seung-min, a former lawmaker of the PPP and a presidential candidate in the party’s primary, said, “His explanation is just too shocking.”
Yoo’s election campaign shared a link to a news article about Lee’s Twitter post uploaded on April 19, 2014, three days after the Sewol Ferry incident. At that time, Lee compared Park with then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Lee wrote, “Abe appeared [before the public] ‘26 minutes’ after an earthquake and announced his plans even after midnight.” Lee Ki-yin, a spokesperson for Yoo, questioned, “Where is Lee Jae-myung, who compared Abe with Park?”
