Jeon Han-gil, a conservative YouTuber who used to teach Korean history, sparked controversy by relaying another person's remark to "put a bounty on President Lee Jae-myung."
On the 5th, during a live broadcast on his YouTube channel, Jeon began by recounting the words of a Korean entrepreneur at a dinner after finishing a speech in the United States the previous day. He said, "A certain chairman I met last night said, 'If you put just $100,000 (about 145 million won) on Lee Jae-myung, many people would step up.'"
He went on, "That person said it doesn't mean 'kill Lee Jae-myung,' but that Lee Jae-myung should be captured, tied to a tree at the top of Namsan, and fed. It was a very funny story." The live video in question has been deleted.
The remark came while discussing the United States putting a $50 million (about 7.24 billion won) bounty on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. State Department raised the bounty in Aug., saying President Maduro is the head of a drug trafficking organization.
In response, Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik said at the National Assembly's House Steering Committee audit the previous day that the office would "take firm action."