Poet Ryu Geun faces 'double standard' accusations after calling for punishment of Baejae High baseball players

Poet Ryu Geun is facing accusations of applying a double standard after his sharp criticism of the Baejae High School baseball team over a May 18 democracy movement mockery controversy prompted netizens to resurface an old post in which he had defended actor Jo Jin-woong.

Ryu wrote on his Facebook on Tuesday that while some were calling for forgiveness of the baseball players, the adults who had taught them poorly should all be punished.

He argued that the moral collapse of Korean society — which had failed to hold accountable those who ordered jjajangmyeon and pizza in front of the Sewol ferry hunger-strike site — had grown into behavior that now mocks the deaths in Gwangju with chanting and dancing.

He also pushed back against calls for "forgiveness," asking whether forgiving Chun Doo-hwan, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye had improved society even slightly. "It is devastating and bleak," he wrote. "We must be angry and scold them as adults should."

Ryu went on to say that "social deliberation on the juvenile under criminal age system is needed," lamenting, "To think that acting like Ilbe has become a form of play."

He also referenced cases of those who had insulted victims of the May 18 Gwangju uprising, saying, "People like that are the ones who raise demons like Yoon Suk Yeol."

Once his remarks became widely known, however, online users began resurfacing a past post in which Ryu had defended actor Jo Jin-woong, with many questioning whether he was applying a double standard.

In December, Ryu had written on his social media in defense of Jo, who had announced his retirement from the entertainment industry amid a "juvenile offender" controversy: "What young person hasn't been near a juvenile detention center?" he wrote, adding, "Hegel said humans are beings who change and develop, and it is Jesus's teaching that we forgive one another's sins."

Jo had admitted to being involved in a crime as a teenager and serving time in a juvenile detention facility before announcing his retirement from the entertainment industry.

In response, some netizens said, "You said we should forgive someone who had been to a juvenile detention center," and "This is excessive toward high school students."

Meanwhile, the controversy stems from an incident on June 29, when some student players on the Baejae High baseball team repeatedly chanted "Let's go, let's go, let's go to Starbucks" toward the opposing dugout during a match against Gwangju Ilgo at Mokdong Baseball Stadium in Seoul as part of the 81st Cheongrong Flag National High School Baseball Championship and Weekend League Finals.

The chant was widely seen as a taunt evoking the so-called "May 18 Tank Day" event controversy involving Starbucks Korea last month, sparking significant backlash.

As the controversy grew, the Korea Baseball Softball Association's Sports Fairness Committee convened a meeting Wednesday and voted to ban the Baejae High baseball team from all KBSA-organized national tournaments for six months.