Covering the food & beverage industry, beauty, fashion, retail markets, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and related people and entities worldwide
Entertainers resent being called NK sympathizers
.jpg?w=728)
Singers Lee Seung-hwan, left, and Lee Eun-mi
By Ko Dong-hwan
By Ko Dong-hwan
Korean entertainers who are opinionated about social issues are often feeling the downside of living in a country that doubles as Cold War’s last frontier.
Singer Lee Seung-hwan and Lee Eun-mi recently found themselves fighting Internet users accusing them as North Korea sympathizers.
Lee Seung-hwan had invested in the 2012 film ``26 Years,’’ which imagines a plot to kill former South Korean military strongman Chun Doo-hwan whose brutal suppression of democratization protests in Gwangju in 1981 left 166 people dead.
Lee Eun-mi, who has always been a supporter of liberal politics, was scrutinized for her vocal support of Seoul mayoral candidate Park Won-soon.
The 2012 presidential election revealed a sharply divided electorate and Park Geun-hye, who won, appeared to benefit from the template of ideological division left by her father, Park Chung-hee, the dictator who was assassinated in 1979. Public figures who are vocal in their anti-government criticism are often accused as by the Web mob as pro-North Korean.
In his social media postings, Lee Seung-hwan snickered at the accusations and said he found them hilarious. Lee Eun-mi reacted with more anger, wondering whether the highly-politicized Internet is preventing people to speak freely about important issues.