The president of South Korea has denied disparaging a crucial security partner, the United States, alleging that the remarks were mistranslated.
This has increased public scepticism on Friday. Yoon Suk Yeol spoke briefly with President Joe Biden at the Global Fund in New York before being overheard on a hot mic and caught on tape apparently disparaging American politicians.
“If these f****rs don’t get it passed in Congress, how could Biden not lose damn face?” He seemed to be referring to Vice President Biden’s efforts to raise American funding for the Global Fund, which would need legislative approval.
The supposed Korean curse Yoon uttered trended on Twitter as the video gained rapid popularity in South Korea, garnering five million views on YouTube in less than a day.
Yoon, according to Kim Eun-hye, spokesman for the president’s office, “had no cause to speak about the United States or mention the phrase “Biden.”
At a press conference on Thursday in New York, Kim said that Yoon did not really say “Biden” but rather a phrase with a similar Korean pronunciation, and that he was talking to South Korean, not American, MPs. At the event this week, Yoon also promised that South Korea will continue to support the Global Fund, but he would have to fight for their approval in the National Assembly.
One lawmaker from the governing party urged that the television station that initially broadcast the hot mic statements be brought to justice.
On his Facebook page, MP Yoon Sang-hyun said that MBC “should seriously be held responsible for its article that has endangered the precious U.S.-Korea partnership.”
However, there were those online who questioned the government’s approach.
One YouTube commenter said, “It is totally disgusting and disgraceful for our youngsters that our presidential office has come up with such an explanation.”
“I’ve already heard it ten times. It’s definitely “Biden,” “further added
Democratic Party MP Chun Jae-soo stated in a radio broadcast on Friday that the opposition compared Yoon’s formal denial to telling South Koreans they were “hearing challenged.”
With around 27,000 soldiers stationed there to assist counter North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, the US is a crucial security ally of South Korea.
Yoon, a former prosecutor, has dismal domestic acceptance ratings; the most recent poll, conducted on Friday in the wake of the hot mic incident, revealed that it was at 28%.