Lee Jun-seok's graphic language in debate leads to human rights petitions: report

The furor surrounding the presidential candidate Lee Jun-seok's repetition of sexually violent language used by another candidate's son continued to grow, as a local media outlet reported Thursday that 35 petitions related to Lee's remarks have been filed to the state human rights watchdog.

According to the Korean-language Hankoreh newspaper, multiple individuals across both genders and different age groups have submitted the petitions to the National Human Rights Commission, complaining that Lee's comments were sexually demeaning to women and overly graphic.

Lee of the minor New Reform Party made the comments during a live TV debate on Tuesday.

"Such comment cannot be considered a simple gaffe or slip of tongue, but a premediated expression of hatred. I would like to urge the NHRC's investigation for infringement of human rights, in that (Lee) has proliferated discrimination and hatred toward women and social minorities in a public area and during election," a female petitioner in her 50s claimed in her petition.

During the TV debate, he addressed the liberal candidates Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea and Kwon Young-gook of the Democratic Labor Party, asking if it could be considered a misogyny if someone said, "I want to put a chopstick inside a woman's genitals."

Both candidates refused to directly answer the question, with Kwon saying he cannot fathom why he is asking such question.

The question was a reference to online comments alleged to have been made by the son of Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung.

The son of DP's Lee was summarily indicted for lewd comment online and was fined 5 million won ($3,600) in 2024, but the remark thought to have been said by him used graphic language for male genitalia.

But Lee Jun-seok argued in a separate interview that the comment cannot definitively determined as referring to male genitalia.

Regardless of the offensive words used by the DP candidate's son, petitioners are issuing complaints over Lee Jun-seok repeating the language on TV.

Another petitioner surnamed Jeong, a man in his 20s, pointed out that the New Reform Party candidate has repeatedly used remarks that can be seen as discriminatory toward women, physically disabled, senior citizens and other social minorities.

The NHRC officially described one of Lee's comments as an example of a hate speech in its booklet published in November of 2021.

The comment was made during an interview on May of 2021, Lee said, "Through movies and novels, women in their 20s and 30s have clearly developed a groundless victim mentality that they are being discriminated.”

Lee Jun-seok initially stated Wednesday morning that his comments were just to reaffirm the two candidates' position on "unbelievable level of comment made by someone online," criticizing what "the hypocrisy of the liberal faction."

But after a barrage of criticism against him, he issued a public apology.

"I knew of course that some of the public would have been uncomfortable watching that (comment on TV debate), and for that, I offer my sincere apology," he told reporters after a campaign rally in Seoul.

He maintained defense of his comments, saying the issue deserved to be scrutinized.

Lee went onto say that he does not know how else to tone down the language on the comment, and said DP's Lee has not sufficiently offered explanations about his son.

Lee held a press conference on Thursday morning, and claimed that his comments are not his own creation, but a "toned down version of what Lee Jae-myung's son wrote on an online community."