President Yoon to hold first official presser in 21 months on Thursday

Politics

Published: 06 May. 2024, 16:23

President Yoon to hold first official presser in 21 months on Thursday

A view of the press briefing room at the Yongsan presidential office in central Seoul on Monday, where President Yoon Suk Yeol is scheduled to hold a rare official press conference on Thursday morning to mark his second anniversary in office. [NEWS1]

President Yoon Suk Yeol will hold a rare official press conference on Thursday to mark his second anniversary in office.

The press conference, the first of its kind in 21 months, will be held at 10 a.m. that day at the Yongsan presidential office in central Seoul, said Yoon's spokesperson Kim Soo-kyung in a briefing on Monday.

She said that prior to taking answers from the press, the presidential office would show a video explaining the Yoon administration's approach to state affairs and policy implementation in the past two years and elaborating on the government's plans for the next three years.

Yoon will enter the briefing room and take questions from journalists afterwards.

This would mark Yoon's first press conference in a year and nine months.

It follows the conservative People Power Party's (PPP) crushing defeat in last month's general election, with its rival Democratic Party (DP) securing a supermajority in the National Assembly again.

The last official presidential press conference was held on Aug. 17, 2022, marking Yoon's first 100 days in office.

Yoon, a former prosecutor general and political newcomer, pledged in his campaign to become a president who better communicates with the press and public.

However, he has had limited question-and-answer opportunities with journalists after suspending his daily "doorstepping sessions" with reporters in the early days of his presidency.

In November 2022, the presidential office halted Yoon's morning doorstepping sessions, despite having become his fleeting trademark of sorts, after an MBC reporter and a presidential aide got into a heated verbal altercation. Yoon has also avoided customary presidential New Year's press conferences for two years, instead opting for interviews with the conservative Chosun Ilbo newspaper in 2023 and public broadcaster KBS earlier this year, which was prerecorded.

The exceptions were diplomatic communications, such as joint press conferences after summits with foreign leaders. Yoon also took a few questions from journalists on April 22, after holding two unexpected press encounters that day to personally announce his new chief of staff and senior secretary for political affairs.

Yoon plans to receive as many questions as possible in Thursday's conference without any restrictions on topics, a presidential official said Monday.

The official said that this is a part of the president's plans to expand communication with the media and "explain in detail what the public wants to know and clarify any misunderstandings."

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]