SEOUL: President Lee Jae Myung (pic) on Sunday (April 12) reaffirmed his commitment to upholding values of universal human rights while denouncing South Korean politicians and local media outlets for “treacherous” attempts to distort his recent criticism of the wartime killing of civilians.
Lee, who began his career as a human rights lawyer and was active in civic movements, reiterated that his comments reflected his long-held principles and were not a critique of any specific country.
“The sovereignty of each country and universal human rights must be respected, and wars of aggression are to be rejected,” Lee said in a Sunday post on his official X.
“That is the spirit of our Constitution and a matter of international common sense.”
Without making direct reference to Israel in Sunday’s post, Lee stressed that the values of universal human rights and respect for others must underpin relations between states.
“The principle of putting oneself in another’s shoes applies not only to individuals but also to relations between states,” Lee wrote.
“Just as one’s own life and property are precious, so too are the lives and property of others. One must show respect in order to be respected.”
Lee also took aim at opposition parties and local media, urging them not to distort his remarks at a juncture when the main opposition People Power Party and minor opposition Reform Party have ramped up criticism of his X posts.
Over the weekend, the People Power Party continued to leverage Lee's posts as a denunciation of his North Korea policy, urging him to apply the same standard to North Korean human rights issues.
“Those who undermine the national interest for personal gain are called traitors,” Lee said in the same X post.
“There are many who harm the national interest in pursuit of self-interest without even recognising it as wrongdoing — or perhaps they do know and proceed anyway.”
“Even in politics and the media, whose mission is to pursue the public good, such acts of betraying the national interest occur openly.”
Lee underscored that “this, too, is a national task we must collectively address and overcome — a task of restoring the abnormal to normal.”
The controversy began Friday when Lee reposted a video on X that alleged Israeli soldiers had abused a Palestinian child and thrown him from a rooftop, while voicing opposition to wartime crimes and calling for the incident to be verified and fully investigated.
“We will need to determine whether this is true and, if so, what action was taken,” Lee wrote.
In the same post, Lee drew parallels to historical events, including forced sexual slavery under Imperial Japan and the Holocaust, describing them as violations of universal human rights and war crimes.
“The forced mobilisation of comfort women, the massacre of Jews, and wartime killings that we are raising are no different,” Lee wrote.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry later denounced the remarks on X, saying that Lee’s comments, “including the trivialisation of the massacre of Jews on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, are unacceptable and warrant strong condemnation.”
After the Israeli Foreign Ministry directly rebutted Lee by quoting his post, Lee clarified his intent and refuted the ministry's criticism on Saturday in an X post, sharing a local media article covering the ministry’s stance.
“It is disappointing that, despite the criticism voiced by people around the world who are suffering and in pain because of the relentless antihumanitarian and international law-violating acts, there seems to have been no willingness even to pause and reflect,” Lee said.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday expressed “regret that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs misunderstood the intent of the President’s remarks — which were an expression of his convictions regarding universal human rights rather than an opinion on any specific issue — and subsequently countered them.”
“The Government of the Republic of Korea remains steadfast in its opposition to all forms of violence and antihumanitarian acts, including the acts of terrorism pointed out by Israel,” Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said in its English-language statement, referring to South Korea by its official name.
The ministry also paired its principled stance with an expression of sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust, underscoring Seoul’s recognition of the Jewish people’s historical suffering.
“Furthermore, we continue to empathise deeply with the unspeakable suffering endured by Israel due to the Holocaust, and we once again express our profound condolences to the victims of the Holocaust.” - The Korea Herald/ANN
