hankyoreh

A view inside Korea’s Air Force One, which functions as the presidential plane (Hankyoreh file photo)

President Yoon Suk-yeol reportedly held a private meeting with two friendly reporters in a place on the presidential plane reserved for the head of state on Saturday, during Yoon’s tour of Southeast Asia. With Yoon and the presidential office excluding MBC reporters from boarding the plane prior to its departure from Korea for alleged “biased reporting,” Yoon’s view of the media and his seemingly proprietary use of the presidential plane are sure to come under fire.

According to the Hankyoreh’s coverage on Monday, Yoon and his accompanying press corps boarded the presidential plane at 8 pm Sunday, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, after attending the ASEAN summit there and were en route to Bali, Indonesia, the site of the G-20 summit.

During the flight, Yoon reportedly called in reporters from Channel A and CBS for a separate, hour-long talk. About an hour after take-off, the president passed a message through the flight attendants to the reporters, who then proceeded to the presidential space at the front of the aircraft.

The front section of the presidential aircraft is reserved for the president and his advisors, while the back has seats for reporters. Several reporters witnessed their two colleagues go to the front of the plane. The two journalists have reportedly grown friendly with Yoon while on the presidential beat.

Prior to this, the presidential office barred reporters from MBC from boarding the presidential plane on the night of Nov. 9, just ahead of Yoon’s Southeast Asian tour. The presidential office told the journalists it had decided not to extend reporting assistance to MBC, accusing the broadcaster of “having failed to make any corrections for a string of incidents, including manipulating subtitles, attempting to cause frictions with allied nations, failing to notify viewers of the use of stand-in actors, and biased broadcasts.”

President Yoon Suk-yeol waves to the crowd ahead of delivering his keynote address at the B-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Nov. 14. (presidential office pool photo)

Yoon himself told reporters that day that “the president spends a lot of tax money to go on overseas tours because important national interests are at stake,” and that “we’ve been extending this convenience [of allowing journalists to board the presidential plane] to help reporters cover foreign policy and security issues, and you should understand in this regard.”

In response, the Hankyoreh, MBC and Kyunghyang Shinmun are refusing to use the presidential plane in protest of the presidential office’s decision. Instead, they are using commercial flights to cover Yoon’s visits to Cambodia and Indonesia. The Hankyoreh’s reporters concluded their coverage of the ASEAN summit and arrived in Bali via Singapore on a commercial flight on Monday night.

With word emerging of Yoon’s separate chat with two reporters he knows personally aboard the presidential plane against this backdrop, Yoon’s ability to separate the public and the private is likely to come under scrutiny, as will his seemingly personal use of the presidential plane.

Moreover, the presidential office has excluded the press pool from covering Yoon’s bilateral summit with the United States, his trilateral summit with the United States and Japan, and first lady Kim Keon-hee’s itinerary.

In a photo call with the Hankyoreh, Democratic Party floor spokesperson Oh Yeong-hwan said, “President Yoon’s thorough exclusion and attacks on media that isn’t on his side, and his separate talk with certain reporters he thinks will take his side, fully revealed his narrow-minded view of the media.”

The Hankyoreh contacted the presidential office’s senior secretary for public affairs and deputy spokesperson to confirm the facts of the meeting with the two reporters and inquire as to the reasons for it but received no response.

By Bae Ji-hyun, staff reporter; Kim Mi-na, staff reporter; Shim Wu-sam, staff reporter; Lim Jae-woo, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]