Yoon's daily chats with reporters are canceled

President Yoon Suk-yeol suspended his daily chats with reporters indefinitely amid ongoing friction with public broadcaster MBC.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, left, answers reporters' questions in a doorstepping session on Friday at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul. The presidential office indefinitely suspended the doorstepping sessions starting Monday. [NEWS1]

President Yoon Suk-yeol suspended his daily chats with reporters indefinitely amid ongoing friction with public broadcaster MBC.

In a statement Monday morning, the presidential office announced its decision to halt the so-called "doorstepping sessions" from that day for an unspecified period of time.

This came after an MBC reporter and a presidential aide got into a verbal altercation during Friday's session.

"In relation to a recent unfortunate situation, we decided that we could not continue without fundamental measures to prevent a recurrence," said Yoon's office. "The doorstepping sessions are designed for open communication with the public."

The presidential office added that it will "review" whether to resume the sessions "if measures are prepared to make good use of that purpose."

At Friday morning's Q&A session, Yoon was asked about the decision to bar MBC reporters from the presidential jet during his Southeast Asia trip earlier this month. Yoon replied, "It was an unavoidable measure as part of the president's responsibility to protect the Constitution."

He said the broadcaster "showed malicious behavior trying to divide the alliance, a key axis of national security, with fake news."

As the president walked away, the MBC reporter called out, "What did MBC do that was malicious?"

A presidential aide intervened, telling him not to ask questions when the president is leaving, and a verbal altercation ensued.

The raised-voice squabble was captured on video by journalists at the scene.

At one point, the MBC journalist told the aide not to speak to him "informally" and compared the presidential office to a "military regime."

Later Friday morning, Lee Jae-myoung, the presidential deputy spokesman, issued a 10-point written statement describing the reasons why MBC's reporting had been "malicious."

MBC, or Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, is one of Korea's three major terrestrial television broadcasters and has been blamed for months by the presidential office for allegedly misreporting a hot mic incident in New York involving the president.

In September, Yoon was caught in a video first released by MBC using an expletive in private remarks to aides at a fundraising event hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Some parts of Yoon's remark in the clip were drowned out by loud music and background noise.

At the time, the presidential office accused MBC of using wrong subtitles for Yoon's remarks to make it appear that he was referring to Biden and the U.S. Congress. The presidential office said that Yoon's remarks had actually been directed at Korea's parliament. It blamed MBC for endangering Korea's bilateral alliance with the United States.

In the statement Friday, Lee said that MBC broadcast subtitles for sound bites "that even experts had a difficult time discerning," asked for comments by the U.S. State Department and White House on the alleged remarks and has not apologized to this day.

The nearly daily doorstepping sessions have been Yoon's trademark and a part of his presidential pledge to communicate with the press and public after he moved his office from the isolated Blue House in northern Gwanghwamun to the Defense Ministry compound in Yongsan in central Seoul. Yoon held his first doorstepping session on May 11, his first day at the presidential office after his inauguration, and Friday's session marked his 61st.

Yoon's unfiltered remarks to the press have sparked controversy and sometimes led to a drop in approval ratings in public opinion polls. However, they have also been an opportunity for the press to ask questions directly to the president.

The doorstepping sessions were suspended twice before, once briefly in July because of Covid-19 concerns, and again earlier this month during a one-week national mourning period for the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush on Oct. 29.

"It was determined that it would be difficult to uphold the original purpose [of the doorstepping sessions] due to unsavory behaviors such as the raising of voices," presidential deputy spokesman Lee in a press briefing Monday. "There were concerns that they will become a hindrance to communication with the public."

Yoon, he said, had a "stronger affinity for the doorstepping sessions than anyone else" and "for the past six months created an unprecedented system."

On Sunday, the presidential office installed a temporary wooden plywood screen in the first floor lobby of the Yongsan presidential office, blocking from view the president's entrance into the building for the press. The screen was installed in the area journalists usually would stand to ask questions to the president.

However, the office said it was for "security reasons" and that the planned installation had nothing to do with the shouting match between the MBC reporter and the aide.

The presidential office is planning to install a glass wall to replace the wooden one to divide the open area in the lobby of the first floor.

A presidential official said that the screen was installed because video reporters recorded closed-door diplomatic events without permission.

In a statement responding to that accusation, video reporters said that members of the foreign press were also present to cover a diplomatic encounter earlier this month and that they did not release the footages upon the request of the presidential office.

Kim Young-tai, a secretary to the president for public engagement, tendered his resignation Monday after expressing "moral responsibility" for the incident, a presidential official said Monday. He was not the aide involved in the altercation with the MBC reporter but has handled press affairs such as overseeing the doorstepping sessions.

When asked if the presidential office is deliberating further measures against the MBC reporter as a step to prevent a recurrence of Friday's altercation, the official told reporters the office wishes to have "consultations with journalists rather than taking any immediate and direct measures."

Such discussions "were not held with a specific measure in mind," the official added.

Disciplinary measures that can be taken by the presidential office could range from requesting the reporter to be replaced or even an entry ban for all MBC journalists.

Earlier this month, journalists from MBC were barred by the presidential office from accompanying Yoon on Air Force One two days ahead of a six-day trip to Cambodia and Indonesia for Asean and G20 summits.

The presidential office took issue with MBC's "recent repeated distorted and biased coverage of diplomatic issues." The move was seen as a response to the hot mic incident.

MBC called the move a "suppression of media" and its journalists traveled to Cambodia and Indonesia by commercial flights. A few reporters joined in a boycott and flew commercially as well to cover the president's trip.

During the Asean tour, the press corps covering the presidential trip complained about limited opportunities to cover diplomatic events, including major bilateral and trilateral summits, and a lack of press briefings from the president and senior officials.

They also protested that the president en route to Cambodia held a separate meeting with selected reporters. The presidential office replied that the meeting on the flight was a "private" one with journalists previously acquainted with the president.

"The indefinite suspension of doorstepping sessions was caused by MBC," said Rep. Park Jeong-ha, a spokesperson for the People Power Party (PPP). "President Yoon prioritized strengthening communication with the media more than any other president or government in the past."

"What President Yoon Suk-yeol installed is not a screen for the media but a wall of arrogance, a wall of intolerance toward the people," Democratic Party (DP) Rep. Park Yong-jin wrote in a Facebook post Monday. "Former U.S. President Donald Trump is infamous for his poor view of media, but that is nothing compared to President Yoon."

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]