Jeong Cheong-rae Releases 'King Watermelon' Photo "I'm Not a Watermelon"

[Financial News] Jeong Cheong-rae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea running for party leader, responded to some hardline party members' criticism of 'watermelon' (a derogatory term for non-Lee Jae-myung supporters) with a photo holding a 'king watermelon'.

Jeong posted on Facebook on the 13th with the title 'On a hot summer day, a king watermelon is the best' to refute that he is not a watermelon. He shared several photos of himself holding a 'king watermelon' that he harvested while farming after being cut off in the 2016 20th general election.

Jeong recalled, "When I was cut off from the nomination in 2016, 'The party leadership abandoned me, but I will protect the party', 'I will willingly become a sacrifice for the victory in the general election' and I created a campaign team and traveled across the country," he said. "After the general election, I was devastated. I didn't realize it while supporting the campaign, but when I became a former member of the National Assembly, I had no office to go to," he recalled.

Jeong said, "So I started farming hard in the garden. When I worked hard and sweated, for that time, the distractions disappeared, and it was healing and comforting," he said. "Because of the sweat pouring like rain, I could hide my tears. The king watermelon I'm holding in the photo is 12kg, and I succeeded in watermelon farming only once at that time, and since then, I mostly failed. Watermelon farming is difficult," he wrote.

Jeong added, "From my experience in watermelon farming, king watermelon is really difficult. It's hard to grow king watermelon, and it's hard to become king watermelon," he said. "If someone still calls me king watermelon from an unknown source, I can clearly say. Why would I walk the difficult path of king watermelon? No watermelon," he added.

He emphasized, "There may be people stressed by the party convention, and there may be people struggling because of the hot weather, so let's split a watermelon and eat it coolly," he said. "Let's enjoy the party convention like a festival with laughter," he emphasized.

Jeong, who is competing with Park Chan-dae for the Democratic Party leader position, recently revealed that he is experiencing baseless 'watermelon' criticism from some hardline party members. He said on CBS Radio on the 24th of last month, "If someone insults me as a watermelon, who would recognize that? 'Jeong Cheong-rae is being unfairly attacked by strategic forces,' can't it give such an impression?" he said.

hsg@fnnews.com Han Seung-gon Reporter