Naturalized Korean Faces Racist Remarks from Former Head of Ruling Party

It is not so much that Lee Jun-seok switched to English, but what he said, “You became one of us but you don’t look like us as of now” that is really racist:

Naturalized South Korean doctor Yohan Ihn’s appointment as reform head of the ruling People Power Party in October came as a surprise move in a country with a relatively short history of racial or ethnic diversity in politics.

Following his appointment, the 64-year-old Ihn, also known as John Linton, who is white and the descendant of US missionaries, has faced personal attacks over his ethnicity from political opponents who sought to undermine his power, overshadowing his reform agenda.

At the same time, the issue has opened up opportunities for counterattacks by Ihn’s supporters over the bigoted nature of the attacks.

On Saturday, Ihn made a surprise appearance at a conference in Busan, where disgraced ex-People Power Party Chair Lee Jun-seok was scheduled to speak. Ihn attended the conference to meet Lee face-to-face, two days after his party membership suspension was lifted upon Ihn’s recommendation.

Lee appeared to give Ihn the cold shoulder and, while onstage during the conference, switched to English and argued to Ihn that he thought it was not the right time to hold such a meeting.

Lee said that Ihn had “failed to meet the prerequisites” for an in-person meeting with him on the grounds that, he believes, Ihn represents the current leadership of the party over which President Yoon Suk Yeol holds sway. Lee further believes that the party leadership has not learned its lesson from its critical by-election loss in Seoul’s Gangseo-gu in October.

“The reason I spoke to you in English is,” Lee said in Korean, before switching back to English to continue: “You became one of us but you don’t look like us as of now. Please be (on) our side, and speak in the same language as we do, and speak in the language of democracy with us, please. I said please.”

Korea Herald

Dr. Ihn has also faced attacks from local media for talking positively about the late General Paik Sun-yup who is arguably one of the most important Koreans in the ROK’s modern history:

The critical public reception of Ihn has not been hard to notice in Korea over the last few weeks. Citizens’ Press Dandelion, a local citizens’ media outlet, in October described Ihn as a “special Korean” who has a “lopsided and superficial understanding of Korea’s history and politics.”

The comments were made in criticism of Ihn’s past remarks praising a controversial historical figure, the late former Gen. Paik Sun-yup, in a news report headlined, “Heavy burden on Yohan Ihn, who loves Korea but does not know much about it.”

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