"You Should Crush Ilbe with a Tank": Choi Wook Reported to Police by Civic Group

Charges Include Intimidation, Insult, and Defamation
Seominwi Criticizes Respondents' Remarks as "Inappropriate"

Choi Wook, the host of the YouTube channel 'Maebulsyo', has been reported to the police by a civic group. Previously, he caused controversy after making remarks during a broadcast suggesting that certain online community users should be "crushed."

The Civic Committee for Ordinary People's Livelihood (Seominwi) announced on June 10 that it had filed a police complaint the previous day with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency against Choi and Junhee Jung, adjunct professor at the Department of Information Society and Media at Hanyang University ERICA, on charges including intimidation, insult, defamation, and violations of the Information and Communications Network Act.

YouTube 'Maebulsyo' host Choi Wook. YouTube capture

On June 5, during a broadcast of Maebulsyo, Choi stated, "Ilbe users online should definitely be criminalized, and the reason these things (Ilbe) are coming out into the open is because our system keeps letting them be," adding, "They need to be crushed online with a tank."

On the same broadcast, Professor Jung remarked, targeting some members of the 2030 generation, "It is absolutely necessary to pick up a club in a legal way. Rather than persuading them rationally, they need to be overpowered with authority."

Seominwi criticized these remarks, stating, "Given the 'Tank Day' marketing campaign by Starbucks and the massive losses the company suffered due to the Starbucks Korea boycott, which was triggered by comments from President Lee Jae-myung and even involved the government, the respondent's remarks such as 'crush them with a tank like Chun Doo-hwan' and references to 'clubs' are inappropriate."

Meanwhile, after the controversy grew online, Choi bowed his head and said, "I sincerely apologize."

He explained, "Many people were uncomfortable with my statement suggesting that online far-right extremists who admire Chun Doo-hwan should be crushed online in the very way they admire." However, he added, "This is by no means an apology to the far-right who praise Chun Doo-hwan. I have also seen a lot of fake news claiming that the far-right are being portrayed as young men, but that is completely untrue, and I want to set the record straight."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.