Jung I-han, the Reform New Party’s candidate for Busan mayor, reportedly suffered a concussion after falling while dodging a drink thrown by a man in his 30s. Jeon Do-hyun, the Joguk Innovation Party’s candidate for mayor of Osan in Gyeonggi Province, left a mocking comment about the incident.
According to Maeil Newspaper’s reporting on the 30th, Jeon posted beneath a Facebook post the day before: “(The attacker) sprayed a drink—if he’s hospitalized, was it perhaps a ‘chopstick drink’?” He was invoking the so-called “chopstick remark,” a contentious line that resurfaced from the last presidential campaign after Reform New Party leader Lee Jun-seok publicized a social media comment by candidate Lee Jae-myung’s eldest son, and used it to ridicule the victim of the attack.
Critics responded to Jeon’s comment. One reader wrote, “You’re a candidate yourself—mocking a misfortune that could happen to you looks bad.”
Maeil Newspaper asked Jeon why he left the comment. Jeon replied, “How is that terrorism? During campaigns, people sometimes spit when they don’t like a candidate. Those seeking votes have to tolerate that. The attacker sprayed a drink and Jung was hospitalized, so I asked, ‘Is a drink really such a dangerous object?’ because I didn’t know whether the drink acted like a sharp awl or even a chopstick.”
He went on, “I raised the question, ‘Was he hit by a drink and hospitalized?’—I didn’t state it as a fact. It was an implied expression, not hateful or insulting. The sentence even lacked an explicit subject; as far as I know, there is a famous precedent in our country where the absence of a subject did not lead to punishment. When I said ‘chopstick,’ it seems Reform New Party supporters hit their own panic button.”
“I checked who demanded an apology and found Reform New Party members,” he added. “They appear worried that Leader Lee’s ‘chopstick’ remark could resurface and influence this election. I didn’t mean it that way. The drink could have behaved like an awl, so I softened the image by saying ‘chopstick.’”
Jeon said the drink-throwing incident did not amount to terrorism, a position that diverged from the Joguk Party’s official stance.
A Joguk Party official said, “Candidate Jung was the victim of a terrorist act by a citizen. Election campaigning must proceed as fair, healthy competition. The Joguk Party expresses deep regret over the attack on a candidate. Our official position is that physical violence against candidates is never acceptable in a democratic society.”
As the controversy grew, Jeon sent a written apology to Maeil Newspaper. “If my comment made anyone uncomfortable, I apologize for that,” he said. “My wording was not intended to mock or satirize a specific situation; it was more of a light quotation of a phrase circulating online.”
He added that if people felt offended, that feeling should be fully respected, but he criticized what he called unilateral assumptions about his intent and pressure to conform. “I will be more careful with my words going forward,” he said, expressing regret once more.
