'Treat voters like insects': Busan by-election candidate faces backlash over 'hand-wiping' video

Ha Jung-woo, former senior presidential secretary for AI policy and future planning, brushes his hands off after shaking hands with a merchant at Gupo Market in Busan's Buk district, Wednesday. Captured from X, formerly Twitter

A viral video showing a Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate appearing to wipe his hands after greeting market vendors has sparked fierce criticism from conservative rivals ahead of a highly contested by-election in Busan.

Ha Jung-woo, former senior presidential secretary for AI policy and future planning, visited Gupo Market on Wednesday. Multiple videos circulated online showing Ha rubbing and brushing his hands off immediately after shaking hands with merchants.

Conservative rivals, including the People Power Party (PPP) members and independent candidates, launched a coordinated attack Thursday, framing the gesture as an insult to local residents.

Han Dong-hoon, a former PPP leader running as an independent in the same district, took to Facebook to condemn the DPK's defense of Ha.

"After hearing a DPK spokesperson dismiss this on television, I have to ask," Han said. "Does the party truly believe that ignoring Buk District people will not impact the overall race?"

Park Min-sik, a former veterans affairs minister preparing to run as a PPP candidate, accused Ha of harboring deep-seated elitism and arrogance.

"The hands of the mothers at Gupo Market are not dirt to be brushed off, but a badge of honor that raised us," Park said.

PPP Supreme Council member Kim Jae-won told a party meeting Thursday that Ha "treated voters like insects."

"Former senior secretary Ha shook hands with a few market merchants, only to brush his hands off as if he had touched something filthy," Kim said.

Pro-Han lawmaker Park Jeong-hun criticized the party's candidate selection.

"Wiping his hands after greeting voters seems to be a reflex for him," Park said. "Is this really the kind of candidate they chose to nominate?"

Kim Chong-hyuk, former PPP's Supreme Council member, said that if Ha considers himself an untouchable elite who should not join hands with market merchants, he should stick to having high-minded discussions at Cheong Wa Dae.

Ha Jung-woo, the Democratic Party of Korea candidate for the Busan's Buk-A constituency by-election, greets merchants at Gupo Market in Busan's Buk District, Wednesday. The by-election will be held alongside the June 3 local elections. Yonhap

Ha held a press conference at the Busan Metropolitan Council on Thursday to push back against the criticism. He attributed the gesture to physical exhaustion rather than malice.

"I shook hands with nearly a thousand people in a single day for the first time," Ha said. "My hands were cramping, so I made the gesture unconsciously."

Ha noted that while some merchants wore wet gloves, his actions carried no derogatory meaning. He dismissed the controversy as an example of negative campaigning.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.