In a video by YouTuber Ko Jae-young, ‘Living on Cash for 7 Days,’ a team member makes a remark about China’s use of cash. YouTube video screenshot
YouTuber Ko Jae-young, who has around 1.46 million subscribers, personally rebutted sudden allegations of being ‘pro-China·left-wing’.
On the 3rd, on the community board of his YouTube channel, Ko wrote, “It is a public holiday, and on top of that an election day, yet I find myself writing this,” and he refuted, point by point, the allegations surrounding him.
It began with a video he uploaded, ‘Living on Cash for 7 Days,’ which has about one million views. In the video, a team member said, “As China stopped using cash, a few good effects supposedly emerged,” and the remark was interpreted politically. In response, Ko said, “Within a day, people were calling me a pro-China leftist communist, even saying I am of Chinese descent.”
Ko said, “I am not pro-China, not left-wing, not a communist, and not of Chinese descent; I have lived only in South Korea for 32 years.” Expressing strong hostility toward the Chinese Communist Party and the North Korean regime, he also denied any financial ties, saying, “I have never received even a single won from China.”
In addition, regarding eating malatang, he explained it is a dish he simply likes, and as for the canned peeled grapes from China he ate, he countered that the manufacturer is a Korean company. On his visit to Gwangju, he said he met a close friend who had moved there, and on the suspicion surrounding the eye-shaped installation in an advertisement, ‘Exhibition Eye,’ he said that, per confirmation with the advertiser, it was merely an installation for a new product launch event.
He lamented that he is being attacked from both sides, “being criticized as pro-China over the cash-related remark, while also being branded far-right for saying I often use Coupang.” Earlier, in a comprehensive clarification video last February, Ko had directly refuted the ‘Chinese·Hwagyo·Joseonjok rumors’ as well.
Ko closed with a three-line summary of his post: “I think China, North Korea, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, and communism are like ○; I have never taken money from China; I am sorry for any discomfort caused while watching.”
