Did Lee Jae-myung drink or eat something out of his tumbler? No, that's not true: the South Korean politician, leader of the Democratic party, has been conducting a hunger strike. He showed on camera the content of his tumbler and let witnesses taste it: it was merely hot water. There's no evidence offerd to support the claim that the politician was surreptitiously introducing any food during the hunger strike that has been recently interrupted for health reasons.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok by @userlxy60hq38a on September 1, 2023, without a title (translated from Korean to English by Lead Stories staff). It opened:
Lee Jae-myung declared a hunger strike, but what he is eating out of the tumbler, instead of bottled water?
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Sep 12 01:30:17 2023 UTC)
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition party, began a hunger strike on August 31, 2023, to protest against government policies. As the hunger strike drew public attention, conservative supporters started to claim that Lee was not on an authentic hunger strike, that he is eating liquid food out of his tumbler, for instance, beef broth or porridge.
However, Lee showed that the content of the tumbler is just hot water in an exclusive interview with CBS news program Kim Hyun-jung's News Show. At the end of the interview, the interviewer asked about the tumbler's contents. Instead of answering, Lee offered the tumbler to him, and the journalist confirmed it was just hot water.
On September 18, Lee was sent to hospital by party officials worrying about his physical health, as he suffered dehydration and fainting after 19 days of hunger strike. He proceeded with his hunger strike for five more days in the hospital but stopped it after being seriously warned by his doctors on September 23. It was his 24th day of the hunger strike.
