Three types of politicians’ apologies

Kim Hyun-ki
The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

The topics that dominated discussions over the Lunar New Year’s holiday were President Yoon Suk Yeol’s one-on-one interview with KBS and the Korean national football team’s manager Jurgen Klinsmann.

Setting aside different perspectives and values, the commonness of the two topics centered on the absence of an apology. In his first response to the controversy over his wife’s acceptance of a luxury handbag, President Yoon said it was regrettable that his wife had received a Dior handbag from an outsider shortly after being elected president in 2022. But the president didn’t make any apology about the incident regardless of the public’s demand for it. Koreans were also dumbfounded by Klinsmann’s homecoming with a smiley face despite his team’s pitiful performance in the semifinals against Jordan at the Asian Cup in Qatar. Then he suddenly left for the United States without any apology.

Koreans are very sensitive to apologies. They will rage at the other party for not apologizing more than for the misconduct itself. The obsession with apologies suggests a lack of apologies in their society, which is quite different from the United States or Japan, where “I’m sorry” and “sumimasen” are habitually used.

There are three different types of apologies from politicians. One is the Japanese type, in which an apology is often made out of formality. Just think of the halfhearted apology from Japanese leaders, which is often reversed. In Korea, former Justice Minister Cho Kuk is a good example of this. He received a two-year jail sentence in his appeals court last week — the same as in his first trial — on charges of influence-peddling and faking documents to send his children to elite colleges. Handing down the same verdict, the higher court cited a lack of repentance from the defendant.

The former justice minister said he had apologized more than 15 times through public statements. But the court concluded that an apology cannot be sincere if Cho does not admit to his wrongdoings. Earlier this week, Cho announced he would launch a political party to punish the “prosecution-led” governing power. His reaction can hardly be perceived as being apologetic or repenting for his wrongdoings. Although he is an avid critic of Japan, he acts quite like Japanese politicians who often reverse apologies or positions for their own convenience.

Then there is the vending-machine type. An apology comes out mechanically when it is deemed necessary to serve one’s immediate benefit. The majority Democratic Party (DP)’s leader Lee Jae-myung is this type. He bowed four times over the party’s plan to maintain the current — and weird — proportional representation system for the April 10 parliamentary elections. But his apology bears no sincerity. The DP leader apologized for accommodating the novel “semi-satellite parties.” Apologies are meant to atone for a past deed. But he is apologizing for a future action. If he needs to apologize for something he plans to do, he should just stop it now. It wouldn’t be surprising if he later says he had not meant it when he apologized.

Lastly, there is the Donald Trump type, who refuses to admit to his wrongdoings or apologize for them until the very end and circumvents the hot issues. The Washington Post counted 30,573 false or misleading claims from Trump during his four-year term. He has never apologized for any of them. He may have discovered by experience that the moment he admits to his culpability, he would face legal liability. His diehard supporters, as well as critics and the media, no longer expect him to apologize. He may feel lucky for now, but his luck could run out one day.

In his book “Winners and Losers,” American journalist and columnist Sydney J. Harris said that winners make a mistake and say, “I was wrong.” But losers make a mistake and say, “It was not my fault.” Winners walk over snow to make a path while losers wait for the snow to melt. Which category does President Yoon belong to? Is he walking over the snow or waiting for it to melt?

A veteran conservative journalist wrote that scrupulous and methodical leftists won’t let the handbag affair go with just a presidential apology and instead will stretch it to the next stage. Most people, including myself, would have closed the chapter if they got an apology from the president on his wife’s behalf. But an apology cannot be forced. On that note, will we ever hear one from Klinsmann?