Parties use 'fake news' on coronavirus for political gain

By Jung Da-min

While the government is trying to contain “fake news” on the coronavirus outbreak to prevent unnecessary fears among the public, rival parties are taking advantage of it as a political tool to attack each other's policy measures.

Last week, the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) denounced the government's plan to send 3 million protective masks to China, saying the government was mass collecting masks to send to China while people here suffer from a shortage of masks.

But the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said the LKP is buying into fake news since most of the funds for the mask aid came from the private sector, such as alumni associations of Koreans who studied at universities in China, and the government simply offered logistical support. The masks were delivered to China on a plane which the government chartered to evacuate Koreans from Hubei Province, and about half of the planned 3 million masks have been sent so far together along with protective clothes, eyewear, gloves and hand sanitizers.

The DPK also said the LKP's claim that the ruling party and four other minor parties had cut the budget related to masks is also fake news. Rep. Min Kyung-wook of the LKP claimed the five parties reduced this year's budget for masks to be distributed to the underprivileged from initial plan of 57.4 billion won to 46 billion won, but minutes of the Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee and Special Committee on Budget and Accounts showed LKP lawmakers had demanded more reduction of the budget, according to the DPK.

“Spreading fake information that has not been confirmed in a time of national crisis is an act of jeopardizing people's lives,” DPK Rep. Cho Jeong-sik, who heads the party's policy planning committee, said during a party meeting at the National Assembly, Thursday.

DPK spokeswoman Lee Jae-jung also said a day before in a commentary: “LKP leader Hwang Kyo-ahn was at the front in spreading fake news that arouses hatred against foreigners, which is more fatal than the virus.”