Democratic Party spokesperson resigns after remarks likening President Lee to Yoon Suk Yeol

Democratic Party of Korea spokesperson Lee Ji-eun resigned Wednesday after remarks she made appearing to liken President Lee Jae Myung to former President Yoon Suk Yeol sparked a backlash.

In a Facebook post that day, Lee wrote that her "language lacked refinement."

The controversy stemmed from comments Lee made Tuesday on a YouTube broadcast, in response to speculation that President Lee had in effect handpicked Prime Minister Kim Min-seok as the next Democratic Party leader. "When we watched Yoon Suk Yeol pick someone to make party leader, we criticized him enormously," she said. "I found myself wondering — is the president doing that now?"

The remarks drew sharp criticism from within the party. Lee is aligned with the faction loyal to Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman Jung Chung-rae, and party leadership discussed whether to discipline her at a closed-door supreme council meeting Wednesday.

In her defense, Lee said she had intended the opposite message. "On the broadcast, I said 'our president is different from Yoon Suk Yeol,' but it seems listeners heard it as 'our president is the same as Yoon Suk Yeol,'" she wrote. "My point was: 'We criticized Yoon so harshly for that — surely our president would not do the same thing.'"

She added that she need not have invoked Yoon's name as a point of comparison at all. "Regardless of my true intent, if my failure to convey it properly has burdened the party, I have no choice but to admit that is itself a sign of my inadequacy as a spokesperson," she said.