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President Yoon Suk-yeol (left) and National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo on Oct. 31, 2022, ahead of Yoon’s 2023 budget address. (pool photo)

The former speaker of the National Assembly revealed that President Yoon Suk-yeol brought up conspiracy theories about the deadly Itaewon crowd crush that occurred in October 2022, remarking that “you can’t rule out the possibility that the accident was instigated and arranged by certain groups.”

Former Speaker Kim Jin-pyo said Yoon also tried to shield Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, remarking that if the conspiracy theories were true, it would be “unfair” if Lee had to step down. Yoon’s presidential office immediately rebutted Kim’s account as “misleading,” but the opposition party vociferously complained that Korea is being run according to the claims of far-right YouTubers.

Kim detailed a private conversation he had with Yoon during a national prayer breakfast on Dec. 5, 2022, in a memoir titled “What Has the Republic of Korea Accomplished?” Excerpts of the memoir were made public on Thursday.

Kim wrote in the memoir that he tried to persuade Yoon to have Lee, the interior minister, voluntarily resign. “Lee Sang-min ought to take political responsibility and tender his resignation. The minister’s voluntary resignation would not only defuse the standoff between the ruling and opposition parties, but would also be advisable in light of his own future,” Kim recalled telling the president.

At the time, the ruling and opposition parties were scuffling over a motion calling for Lee’s dismissal, and it was unclear whether a budget bill would even be passed.

Kim recorded Yoon’s response as follows: “You’re right, but I can’t reach a decision because I currently have serious doubts about the Itaewon tragedy. You can’t rule out the possibility that the accident was instigated and arranged by certain groups.”

Yoon went on: “In that case, it would be unfair if Lee were forced to step down.”

Prior to that conversation with Kim, Yoon had dismissed a chorus of demands for Lee’s resignation during a review of the government’s disaster prevention system on Nov. 7, remarking that “the people who are actually responsible should be held fully responsible.” Then on Dec. 11, he rejected the motion for Lee’s dismissal that the opposition party had pushed through the National Assembly.

Kim recalled being “inwardly shocked” about Yoon’s remarks at the time. “It was hard to believe that conspiracy theories bandied about by far-right YouTubers were coming out of the president’s mouth,” he wrote in his memoir.

“While it’s unclear how serious Yoon was being about his doubts, it was quite a dangerous reaction. I barely suppressed a strong urge to tell Yoon to stop watching those sorts of videos,” Kim said.

The presidential office immediately issued a rebuttal, stating, “It is deplorable for an individual who served as speaker of the National Assembly to go public with a misleading account of a private conversation he had with the president at his own request.”

“Whenever the president attended a meeting with relevant government organizations at the time, he instructed them to investigate all the various accusations raised by the media. And recently, he boldly signed the Itaewon Special Act into law,” the office said in the statement, referring to an act that mandates a new investigation into the Itaewon crowd crush.

Kim’s disclosure unleashed a storm of criticism from the opposition party.

“The president, the highest official in our country who bears the greatest political and moral responsibility [for the tragedy], suspected that it had been orchestrated through some kind of conspiracy. That mindset is not just inhuman — it’s antihuman,” wrote Lee Hae-sik, a senior spokesperson for the Democratic Party, in a post on Facebook.

“The president’s attitude about the Itaewon tragedy is jaw-droppingly shocking. I’ve never seen a president stoop to believing conspiracy theories with the hope of ducking his responsibility to preserve Koreans’ lives and safety,” commented Choi Min-seok, another spokesperson for the Democratic Party.

“The president is marching down the path toward impeachment,” said Shin Jeong-hoon, the chair of the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee.

“Yoon has been running the country based on the far-right YouTuber channels he watches rather than the intelligence and advice provided by his government. Who on earth fed him the manifest falsehood that the Itaewon tragedy might have been ‘instigated and arranged by certain groups’?” said Kim Bo-hyeop, a senior spokesperson for the Rebuilding Korea Party.

By Lim Jae-woo, staff reporter; Jang Na-rye, staff reporter

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

Caption 5-2: President Yoon Suk-yeol (left) and National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo on Oct. 31, 2022, ahead of Yoon’s 2023 budget address. (pool photo)