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Netizens blast Yoon's apology address for brevity

Published: 07 Dec. 2024, 15:39

College students take part in a rally calling for the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol in Yeouido, wetern Seoul, Saturday. [NEWS1]

The Korean public immediately criticized President Yoon Suk Yeol’s national address on Saturday to apologize for declaring martial law four days earlier, pointing to the speech's brevity, as it lasted less than two minutes.

"This martial law was brought about out of desperation as president, who is ultimately responsible for state affairs," Yoon said in the address at 10 a.m. "In the process, I caused anxiety and inconveniences to the people."

He said he felt very sorry and apologized to the people, who he said must have been very surprised.

Following the address, keywords such as "national address" and "contents of the speech" trended in real time on the social media platform X, with comments online lambasting Yoon's apology.

Netizens criticized the brevity of the speech, posting comments on social media like, “A short national speech,” “I was so baffled I timed it with a stopwatch—it was 1 minute and 56 seconds,” “Since when was a national address a two-minute short video?” “I tuned in to watch it, and it was already over,” “Even ramyeon doesn't cook in that time,” “People have been struggling for days because of him, and he calls this two-minute thing an apology?” “Is he mocking the citizens?” “Even 10 minutes of kneeling wouldn’t suffice, but this was just 2 minutes,” and “Is he incapable of standing for longer than 2 minutes?”

One netizen remarked, “On X, free accounts have a maximum video length of 2 minutes and 20 seconds. If the video exceeds that, it gets cut off, but the national address fits without any trimming—it’s absurd.”

People gather in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Saturday ahead of the vote on the impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk Yeol. [YONHAP]

Others noted that on KakaoTalk, when a message becomes lengthy, users must press “view full text,” but when the full transcript of the address was sent as a message, it could be read in one go.

“This really shows how short the address was—there was no effort,” said another commenter.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly is scheduled to convene at 5 p.m. to first vote on the Kim Keon Hee special counsel probe before proceeding with the impeachment motion against Yoon for his imposition of martial law, which he claimed Tuesday night was an attempt to "eradicate antistate forces." The decree was lifted six hours later in response to the National Assembly's motion to withdraw it.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [[email protected]]