Na Kyung-won criticizes 'totalitarian Red Guards' over dialect controversy

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won criticized former Rebuilding Korea Party leader Cho Kuk on Monday, saying he resembled "totalitarian Red Guards," in response to Cho's comments on a controversy over an idol group member's use of a regional dialect expression.

Na wrote on her Facebook page: "They look like totalitarian Red Guards — judging ideology and even dialect. A censored society where you can't go to Starbucks and can't freely use your own dialect. We're becoming 'Nam Joseon.' Museopno." She attached a screenshot of a news report headlined "Ricense 'Museopno' Ilbe controversy: Cho Kuk says 'there's a way to tell the difference.'"

The controversy began when Won-i, a member of the idol group Ricense, used the expression "museopno" — meaning "it's scary" in the Gyeongsang dialect — during a broadcast. The phrase drew criticism online after some users noted that it resembled a speech pattern associated with the online community Ilbe, where it has been used to mock the late former President Roh Moo-hyun.

Cho weighed in through his social media, saying some people defend attaching the suffix "no" to sentences as a way of mocking President Roh while claiming the usage also occurs naturally in Busan and the Yeongnam region.

"My observation is that Ilbe mechanically attaches 'no' to standard Korean sentence endings," Cho said. A photo he included with the post illustrated the distinction, showing that Ilbe users indiscriminately append "no" to standard Korean endings, whereas actual Busan residents strictly differentiate between endings such as "iga," "eodego," "mwohano" and "bap mweonna" depending on context.

Earlier, on July 1, Kim Hyun-ji, the director of the documentary "Adult Kim Jang-ha," posted on her social media that she was "deeply upset to see a female idol and a producer cheerfully exchanging 'no-no' in a YouTube video." Won-i, who is from Geoje in South Gyeongsang Province, had used the expression naturally as part of her regional dialect, but the remark sparked controversy after some mistook it for a hate speech reference.