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Reform Party's Lee Jun-seok demands presidential spokesperson's dismissal over record alteration

Published: 17 Sep. 2025, 14:50

Reform Party leader Rep. Lee Jun-seok speaks during a parliamentary session at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Sept. 15. [YONHAP]

Reform Party leader Rep. Lee Jun-seok on Wednesday urged President Lee Jae Myung to immediately dismiss presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung, accusing her of undermining public service discipline by altering official records.

“Just as you cannot tamper with a black box to alter the truth of an accident, state records must never be rewritten to suit those in power,” Lee Jun-seok wrote on his Facebook account. “The moment records are manipulated, the foundation of democracy collapses.”

Lee criticized Kang for removing a remark she made at a Monday press briefing regarding Democratic Party Rep. Choo Mi-ae’s call for Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de to step down.

Kang initially stated that she “very much agreed in principle” with the demand, but that phrase was omitted from the transcript distributed by the presidential office.

“It was restored within an hour after protests from reporters, but this was a deliberate attempt to erase the truth once the controversy grew,” Lee Jun-seok wrote.

He drew parallels to past incidents, including the Park Geun-hye administration’s alteration of the official report during the Sewol ferry disaster, illegal revisions to national crisis management guidelines and the deletion of inter-Korean summit records under the Roh Moo-hyun administration.

Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok's post on Facebook condemning presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung [SCREEN CAPTURE]

“Kang repeatedly deleted and restored her words in real time in front of the press,” Lee said.

This either showed that Kang had forgotten her role as the president’s voice or that she had grown arrogant, believing she could act with impunity under presidential authority, according to Lee.

“Kang refused to acknowledge her wrongdoing and instead shifted responsibility to the press,” Lee went on. “This is an arrogant attitude that seeks to neutralize the media's oversight function and manipulate the truth to suit the powers that be.”

Lee warned that if the president’s spokesperson acted recklessly, it could lead to major diplomatic mishaps.

Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung speaks during a press briefing at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on Sept. 15. [YONHAP]

“Attempts by past administrations to erase records or distort statistics ultimately ended with the erasure of their own governments under the people’s judgment,” Lee wrote. “History records the truth through documents and numbers and ultimately passes judgment on power.”

At the Monday briefing, Kang told reporters that the presidential office “agreed in principle” with the ruling party’s demand for Jo’s resignation. After the comment was interpreted as direct support for the demand, Kang later clarified that she was referring broadly to “respect for the separation of powers and elected authority,” and said it was a “misreading and misreporting” to claim otherwise.

Although Kang maintained that her “agreement in principle” remark should not have caused controversy, the presidential spokesperson’s office deleted the phrase from the official transcript, which is classified as a presidential record. After protests from reporters, the office restored the line about 50 minutes later.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]