Koreans exasperated by spokesman’s unsavory incident

Korean Internet users harshly criticized President Park Geun-hye’s spokesman Yoon Chang-jung for allegations that he sexually assaulted a young U.S. woman during the president’s visit to the U.S. Netizens were in one voice in criticizing Yoon, regardless of their political leanings.

On right-wing online community website Ilgan Best Repository, one wrote, "I`m speechless with anger at Yoon`s wrongdoing. I feel anger as a person who voted for President Park." Another wrote, "I didn`t imagine President Park’s successful visit to the U.S. would be marred by Yoon’s scandal."

Users on Today’s Humor, a left-leaning online community, viewed the incident as a “disaster that was predicted.” Criticizing Yoon’s failure to control himself during an event of major national interest, a user claimed, “Based on his past behavior, it seems that he was confident about ability to cover up such a scandal.”A user of social networking service Twitter who identified himself as right-wing, said, “Yoon Chang-jung is a traitor who betrayed the Republic of Korea, the president who appointed him, and patriots who supported the appointment.”

Jin Joong-kwon, a professor at Dongyang University, wrote on Twitter, “Even if (Yoon) did it at an ordinary time, it would have still become an international topic news. As he has done it during a summit visit to Korea’s most important ally, he disgraced Korea in front of the eyes of the world.”

Jo Gug, a professor of Seoul National University School of Law, wrote on Twitter, “The president’s visit to the U.S. was concluded with Yoon Chang-jung’s sex assault scandal. The president appointed the bad-mouther as her spokesman despite objection by a reasonable majority from both progressives and conservatives. Who could the president blame, as she has caused the crisis herself.” Jo also retweeted another Twitter mention that called for putting an electronic anklet on Yoon.

People also criticized Yoon. A 28-year-old office worker said, “Former spokesman Yoon made an outrageous mistake of getting involved in a sexual assault scandal even though he was working for a woman president who has vowed to root out four major evils including sexual violence.”

Yoon’s books such as “The People Ruins Politics,” “The Fidelity of Intelligence,” “I Deplore Politics,” and “Drunken Power “were objects of ridicule. Netizens parodied the books by changing the titles to “Yoon Chang-jung Ruins Politics,” “The Fidelity of an Intern,” “I Deplore Yoon Chang-jung,” and “Drunken Spokesman.”

They also criticized Yoon, citing his columns that he wrote on his blog before he served a member of the presidential transition committee. After a Saenuri Party lawmaker who was alleged to have sexually assaulted his brother’s wife bolted out of the ruling party due to the scandal, Yoon lashed out at sex criminals, using harsh language. As netizens left messages denouncing his columns Friday, all the posts on the blog were found deleted.