Ex-leader Kim Jong-in criticizes ruling party over Gwangju Uprising forum

Kim Jong-in, former interim leader of the People Power Party, has voiced strong criticism against his party for failing to discipline lawmaker Lee Jin-suk, who hosted a parliamentary forum that questioned the legitimacy of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising.

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If the People Power Party listens to people like Rep. Lee and goes in that direction, it will be increasingly difficult to gain public support.

Kim, who famously knelt in apology at the 5.18 Democratic Cemetery in 2020 as the first conservative party leader to do so, stated that the People Power Party would find it increasingly difficult to win public favor if it continued to listen to figures like Lee. "If the People Power Party listens to people like Rep. Lee and goes in that direction, it will be increasingly difficult to gain public support," Kim said in a radio interview.

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The idea of re-examining 5.18 at this late stage is incomprehensible.

The forum, held on May 13, featured remarks such as describing the ten-day unrest in Gwangju as a "riot" and suggesting that the Gwangju issue should be "isolated externally and divided internally" to resolve it. Another statement from the event's co-organizer, the New History National Movement, claimed that defining the 5.18 Uprising as a "massacre planned by state violence" was inappropriate.

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It is not appropriate to define the 5.18 Democratic Uprising as a massacre planned by state violence.

Kim suggested that Lee, who entered the National Assembly through a by-election, organized the event under the guise of an "academic seminar" to create an issue and draw attention to herself. He dismissed Lee's defense of the forum as an exercise of "freedom of expression," stating it was a separate issue from the forum's content. Kim recalled his own apology in 2020 for his party's past remarks, including calling victims' families a "monster group created by pro-North Korea leftists," and emphasized his commitment to inheriting the spirit of the Gwangju Uprising.

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Freedom of expression is a separate issue.