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The couple must explain what really happened

Published: 10 Oct. 2024, 20:12

The presidential office’s response to the self-proclaimed “political broker” — who allegedly maintained a “close relationship” with the presidential couple — is not only half-baked but also backfiring. After Myung Tae-kyun, the power broker, stressed his role in helping Yoon Suk Yeol win the 2022 presidential election and arranging first lady Kim Keon Hee’s alleged intervention in the nomination process for the 2024 parliamentary election, the presidential office issued a statement on Monday and Tuesday.

But the messages are contradictory. First, the presidential office said that the presidential couple had met with Myung twice when former People Power Party (PPP) leader Lee Jun-seok and another politician brought him to the first couple, but after the presidential primary was over, the first couple severed their relations with the broker. But the presidential office’s explanation was proved wrong in just a day after former PPP lawmaker Kim Young-sun said she had met the presidential couple with Myung in 2021 — and after Kim Chong-in, former PPP interim leader, testified that when he first met Yoon in a restaurant in July 2021, Myung was with Kim, the wife of the president. If so, the presidential couple met Myung at least four times.

It was also found that the power broker and the first lady had exchanged Telegram messages to help the former PPP lawmaker grab her nomination for a legislative seat before the April 11 parliamentary elections. The explanation the presidential office made one month after the suspicion on Myung surfaced is hardly convincing. The presidential office even used political rhetoric like “[The president] has no memory of talking with Myung or exchanging text messages with him.”

Strictly speaking, how many times the presidential couple met Myung or exchanged Telegram messages with him doesn’t matter. What the power broker said also could be overblown. But if the presidential office continues making inconsistent remarks even without confirming facts, that’s a serious matter. An increasing number of people trust what the power broker says. We wonder how the presidential office can make one conflicting statement after another.

The approval ratings of the Yoon administration are expected to fall below 20 percent largely because the president’s aides only want to see and believe what he wants them to. The presidential couple must look back and be afraid of the people. As the presidential candidate of the PPP in December 2021, Yoon strongly criticized President Moon Jae-in for his lack of humility. Power is finite, but voters have no term. We hope the presidential office clearly explains what really happened when the first couple return from their overseas trip.