Park Suhyun: "Yoon's 'Knee' Remark Likely an Ad-lib"

Former Blue House Communications Secretary Park Soo-hyun analyzed that President Yoon Suk-yeol's 'Japan knee' remark is highly likely to have been an ad-lib by the president.

On the 26th, Park said on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' that "The president, who read the draft, may have directly instructed to revise it in such a way due to a series of continuing remarks during the recent Korea-Japan summit, or it could have been an ad-lib by the president."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He said, "Every government, including the Moon Jae-in administration and previous administrations, as well as our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has a diplomatic protocol," adding, "Government officials would have had a consistent stance, so why is it that under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, a stance completely opposite by 180 degrees has emerged? That should be seen as an expression involving the president or at least a strong will from the presidential office."

In response to the host's question about whether the interview remarks could be 'massaged,' Park said, "It should be considered impossible," adding, "Even in interviews with domestic media, the president's words are not something that can be massaged."

He continued, "Moreover, this concerns an important issue of historical awareness, which should not be subject to revision," adding, "From my experience in the Blue House, after an interview with foreign media, explaining or revising this to foreign media is extremely rude and unacceptable."

When the presidential office faced controversy over President Yoon's 'knee' remark, they issued a related notice removing the subject 'I am' and circulated the notice, which sparked a 'subject interpretation' controversy. Former Secretary Park said, "Personally, I believe the Overseas Press Secretary's Office recognized that this part could be problematic, so they removed it," adding, "The journalist who wrote the article confirmed that the subject was clearly included, but the secretariat removed it, which should be seen as an intentional deletion reflecting a problematic thought."

However, the 'subject interpretation' controversy ended when the journalist who wrote the interview article released the original interview text with President Yoon, clarifying that the president clearly referred to himself as the subject.

Former Secretary Park said, "The very idea that such parts can be removed shows a serious problem in the attitude toward the media and the public," adding, "The function of aides is to cover up, distort, and downplay mistakes made by the president, which continues, making it impossible to trust them."

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