President Yoon Denies MBC a Seat on Code One, “Our National Interest Is at Stake in the Overseas Trip”

President Yoon Suk-yeol heads to work at the Office of the President in Yongsan on the morning of November 10. Yonhap News

On November 10, President Yoon Suk-yeol spoke on the latest decision to ban MBC reporters from boarding the presidential plane, Code One, in his upcoming trip to Southeast Asia. He said, “The reason the president spends a lot of taxpayers money to make a trip overseas is because important national interests are at stake, and the convenience was offered to journalists, to help them cover foreign affairs and security issues.” He asked the public to understand the latest decision in this aspect.

Earlier, the Office of the President announced that it would ban MBC reporters from boarding the presidential plane, which will depart on November 11 for the president to attend ASEAN-related meetings and a G20 summit. The presidential office sent a text message to MBC reporters on Wednesday night explaining, “Seats on the presidential plane were provided as a convenience to help the press cover foreign affairs and security issues,” and said, “After considering the fact that MBC has repeatedly made distorted and biased reports on foreign affairs, we decided to no longer offer such conveniences.”

President Yoon also expressed his opposition to a parliamentary inquiry into the Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon. When asked about the opposition’s demand for the parliamentary investigation, the president said, “When an incident resulting in a significant loss of lives occurs, everyone wants the investigative agency to quickly identify the truth based on a scientific investigation and one intended to prevent such disasters from happening again.” He then asked, “Uncovering the truth with a police investigation followed by a swift investigation by prosecutors once the case is transferred, isn’t that what the people want more?”

The press also asked President Yoon if he was planning to take any action against his press secretary Kim Eun-hye and senior secretary for civil and social agenda Kang Seung-gyu, who came under fire after scribbling the note, “what a joke,” during a parliamentary inspection of the Office of the President by the House Steering Committee on November 8. President Yoon said, “A lot of things happened with government officials appearing before the National Assembly,” and added, “I hope the people will accept this in a general way.”

Before receiving questions from the press on Thursday, President Yoon made a comment about his upcoming trip and said, “We pondered deeply on whether I should attend this diplomatic event with the victims of the Itaewon disaster and their bereaved families and the people struggling with the shock and grief. But I decided to go because it is an important event where the economic activities and interests of our people are at stake.” He continued and said, “As the president, I decided it was necessary to attend the meeting to strongly support the economic activities of our companies.” President Yoon said that an important bilateral meeting would follow the multinational meeting during his trip, and added, “A trilateral meeting with the leaders of the United States and Japan has been confirmed.”

This was the first time that President Yoon took questions from the press on his way to work since the tragic incident in Itaewon on October 29. Shortly after the incident, the president designated November 1-5 as a period of national mourning and announced that he would not hold his morning meetings with the press during this time.