Hong Jun-pyo Playing Golf Amid Floods: "No Matter the Criticism... I Don't Care at All"

Hong Jun-pyo "Why is weekend tennis allowed but not golf?"
Democratic Daegu City Party "Duty inspection must proceed"
Hong "Weekend personal schedule is privacy"

Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo has come under fire over a weekend golf issue.

The Daegu branch of the Democratic Party of Korea issued a statement on the 17th, mentioning that Mayor Hong played golf with an acquaintance at a golf course in Daegu on the 15th, and demanded, "The Prime Minister should immediately order the Prime Minister's Office Public Service Discipline Team to conduct a duty inspection of Mayor Hong."

The Daegu party branch pointed out, "While the entire country was suffering from floods and the government was organizing the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters to prepare comprehensive measures, Mayor Hong went to Palgong CC to take shots."

In response, Mayor Hong stated on Facebook on the 17th, "Fortunately, Daegu did not suffer flood damage and is spending the weekend relatively freely," and rebutted, "Where in the public service regulations does it say you can play tennis on weekends but not golf?"

Mayor Hong said, "I never disclose my personal weekend schedule. That is strict privacy," and added, "No matter how much people nitpick about it, I do not care at all." He also said, "This has been my principle upheld for decades under every administration. It would be different if I were the president, but for other public officials, weekends are free except for emergency duty, and the authoritarian era of nitpicking over such things is over."

Hong Joon-pyo, Mayor of Daegu. [Photo by Yonhap News]

Then, on the same day, Mayor Hong posted again on Facebook, explaining, "The flood-related fatality in Daegu occurred on the afternoon of the 15th at 4:08 PM when a man in his 60s pushed aside a guardrail restricting access to Palgeo Stream, an urban stream where access had been restricted since the 13th, and entered the riverside illegally, slipped, and fell."

He continued, "At that time, there was no heavy rain, and I had attended the opening ceremony of the Sincheon water playground at 10 AM that day. The rain started on Palgongsan around 1 PM, when I stopped exercising," and added, "Forcing a connection between that and my golf outing is problematic. At that time, the Daegu city government did not issue an emergency standby order for all employees, and only the disaster safety office staff were working in shifts as part of their routine duties. Even if you try to twist the facts, nothing changes."

Mayor Hong emphasized, "I had a sports appointment on the 16th as well, but I canceled it after learning belatedly about the fatal accident at Palgeo Stream and the situations in Gyeongbuk and Cheongju. The Daegu city government I am responsible for has been thoroughly preparing for flood prevention so far."

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