The presidential office says the essence of the controversy over President Yoon Suk Yeol’s crude hot mic comments is an attempt to portray the president as disparaging South Korea’s closest ally.
In an interview with MBC Radio on Tuesday, the top office’s deputy spokesperson Lee Jae-myoung said that if the crux of the issue was the obscenity, the president would have no reason to hesitate with an expression of remorse.
Lee said some media had captioned comments by Yoon that not even experts were able to specify with the implication that his remarks harmed or debased the South Korea-U.S. alliance, adding that the reports were quickly picked up by foreign news media.
Some media outlets and the main opposition Democratic Party argue that he was captured saying with foul language that “Biden” would lose face if the National Assembly does not pass a funding bill, with the National Assembly used as a reference to U.S. Congress.
Yoon's senior secretary for press affairs, Kim Eun-hye, refuted the claims, saying that they were in fact about the opposition-dominated parliament in South Korea not approving Yoon’s funding pledge to the Global Fund.
She said that the word that was heard by others as “Biden” was in fact the Korean word “nalimyeon,” meaning “throwing out,” referring to the Korean parliament’s refusal to pass it.
Presidential deputy spokesperson Lee said which word the president said cannot be confirmed with 100 percent certainty, but relevant experts told the top office that there is very little possibility that it was “Biden."