What They Said is a weekly series on the quotes behind the headlines.
On November 11, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee arrived in Cambodia for their first official visit to Southeast Asia. The purpose of their trip was to attend the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit and other related meetings, but what captured the attention of the Korean media, as well as some politicians, were the first lady’s private visits to a local hospital and to the home of a boy with congenital heart disease. Photos and videos of her purportedly undisclosed visits were in fact released by the Office of the President.
Park Jie-won, former director of the National Intelligence Service, commented:
“I said that Ms. Kim Keon-hee was doing a good job. And this time, rather than going to the official events reserved for the spouses of the heads of state, she visited a patient’s home to do Audrey Hepburn ‘cosplay’[1] wearing a sleeveless dress like Jacqueline Kennedy. Dressed the same, in a sleeveless dress, she went and linked arms with Biden, and took stylish pictures. That is just ridiculous.”
[2]— Park Jie-won, former director of the National Intelligence Service, November 14, 2022
Others, even from the opposition Democratic Party, came to her defense. The Democratic Party’s Lee Sang-min said:
“As the president’s wife, she has to do what she has to do, and I don’t think it’s necessary to be overly sensitive about it.”
[3]— Lee Sang-min, member of the Democratic Party of Korea, November 14, 2022
During her visit to the local hospital, Kim fist-bumped a young patient and then asked him to look at the camera and repeat the fist bump, prompting complaints that she was drawing attention to herself rather than focusing on the children.
There was even harsher criticism from another Democratic Party member.
“Without a doubt, once again, there was a diplomatic disaster. First Lady Kim Keon-hee’s poverty porn photo shoot was controversial. Cambodia is working hard to improve its national image by hosting the East Asia Summit. Accordingly, the spouses of the heads of state were invited to visit the world-famous landmark, Angkor Wat. Yet, despite the host country’s invitation, First Lady Kim Keon-hee canceled her official schedule and visited the home of a boy suffering from congenital heart disease in Phnom Penh. It is discourteous to refuse an official invitation made by the host country of a diplomatic event, and it is even more discourteous to use a visit to those who lack access to medical care as a means of self-promotion.”
[4]— Jang Kyung-tae, member of the National Assembly for the Democratic Party of Korea, November 14, 2022
The term “poverty porn” (빈곤 포르노, ‘bingon poreuno’) isn’t well known in South Korea and its use by Jang brought on an onslaught of responses that seemed to miss the point, including one from National Assembly member Kim Yeungshik:
“[A supreme council member of the Democratic Party of Korea] has made an unbelievably absurd remark claiming that First Lady Kim Keon-hee’s visit to see a child suffering from heart disease… was a poverty porn photo shoot. I would like to say that when I first heard this, it was just too much. I see this as a real insult and close to political terrorism…. Regardless of the intention, there are things we can say and things we shouldn’t say. Still, [Kim Keon-hee] is the gungmo[5] of the Republic of Korea.”
[6]— Kim Yeungshik, member of the National Assembly for the People Power Party, November 15, 2022
Kim’s remarks were not well received, as gungmo is a word specifically reserved for the wife of the king or the mother of the king, used back in the days of the monarchy.
Another People Power Party member then claimed that using the term “poverty porn” was akin to sexual harrassment:
“[The term poverty porn] is in the dictionary and in academic papers, but the general public doesn’t know it well. I didn’t know [what it meant]. So I looked it up. Imagine, for instance, if your younger sister went to volunteer and help people in need, and your colleague said something like, ‘She went to do poverty porn,’ wouldn’t you feel insulted? It’s not about whether or not this term is in the dictionary. Words are all about perception. About how the listener understands them. Even someone like myself had to look it up in the dictionary. So, porn—I believe that National Assembly member Jang Kyung-tae intentionally planned and chose that particular word, and as a result sexually harrassed [Kim Keon-hee] in a way.”
[7]— Jo Eun-hui, National Assembly member for the People Power Party, November 17, 2022
Seeing that the issue was getting out of hand, former People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok weighed in:
“We recently lost the expression, yangduguyuk[8], and today we lose the term ‘poverty porn’, which we must intensely debate and think about going forward.
Poverty porn is an outdated custom that must be discussed, just as much as the issues surrounding Solidary Against Disability Discrimination. It needs to be done away with at some point, particularly because of the fact that the wide and numerous demands for social welfare are monopolized by organizations that work with broadcasting stations to put out poverty porn.
Korean meokbang[9] is referred to as ‘Korean food porn’ abroad. Are you then saying that these meokbang youtubers are porn stars?
Those who are fixated on the word ‘porn’ in ‘poverty porn’ have only confirmed the fact that they have never thought about this age-old controversy [of poverty porn]. Let’s be rational.”
[10]— Lee Jun-seok, former People Power Party leader, November 16, 2022
This squabble has overshadowed the more important issues of the week, such as the Korea-United States summit, Korea-Japan summit, and Korea-United States-Japan summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as well as the Korea-China summit in Bali, Indonesia, which was the first in nearly three years. In addition, the Korean presidential delegation banned the press pool from covering the Korea-Japan and Korea-United States summit meetings, raising concerns once again that the Yoon administration was attempting to restrict the freedom of the press. Moreover, on November 18, at the first morning briefing with the press after his return from Southeast Asia, Yoon implicitly accused MBC of harming the people through their reporting, and when an MBC reporter asked, “What did MBC do that was malicious?” Yoon refused to answer.
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