“Are you good at quarantine? Do you have any questions?” A question that immediately sighs with a smile.

President Moon Jae-in is looking at reporters holding license plates to ask questions at an on-off mixed-style New Year’s press conference held at the Blue House Chunchu Hall on the 18th. [청와대사진기자단]

“You are so good at quarantine, do you have any questions?”

President Moon Jae-in made a joke at the New Year’s press conference held at the Cheongwadae Chunchu Hall on the 18th. The first question-and-answer topic at the press conference was quarantine, because political questions continued to appear. President Moon put a smile on his face. But soon the expression was hard. He also showed him taking a deep breath. This is because a question was raised about the outbreak of mass infection in the Seoul East Detention Center. President Moon replied, “I have a regret that it would have been nice if more emergency measures were taken from the beginning.”

President Moon said, “I respect the Democratic Party’s choice and the Democratic Party members’ choices” regarding the Democratic Party’s decision to nominate the Seoul-Busan mayoral by-election. President Moon said, “As our constitution is not fixed and the constitution can be revised at any time by the will of the people, the party constitution cannot be fixed and unchanged.” “The party constitution is not in a paper document, but the entire intention of the party members is the constitution.” Said.

President Moon Jae-in is answering a reporter’s question at a New Year’s press conference held at the Blue House Chunchu Hall on the 18th. [연합뉴스]

President Moon made the Party Constitution rule in 2015, when he was the party’s representative, saying,’If an elected public official belonging to the party loses his position due to a serious mistake and is forced to hold a re-employment election, no candidates will be recommended to the constituency. However, the Democratic Party decided to change the party constitution through a party member vote when the by-election was held due to a sexual scandal by former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and former Busan Mayor Oh Geo-don.

Regarding the controversy, President Moon replied, “It was difficult to communicate with reporters such as press conferences because of the corona situation.” However, there was only one press conference in 2017 and 2018, before the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). In 2019, there were press conferences, KBS talks, and’talk with the people’. In his inauguration address, President Moon promised, “The main issue is that the President will briefly brief the media.”

President Moon said, “I don’t think that only press conferences are communication with the people.” He said, “I visited the field more than any other president, and even though they were a small group of people, there were many cases where they exchanged two-way conversations with each other.” He also said, “I think we have been making efforts to communicate with the people in various ways.”

On the morning of the 18th, a real estate agent is watching a live broadcast of a press conference for President Moon Jae-in’s New Year at a real estate agent office in downtown Seoul. [뉴스1]

After the press conference, Blue House Protocol Secretary Tak Hyun-min wrote on Facebook that “if we simply compare the number of press conferences (of the former government) and the Moon Jae-in government’s previously scheduled questions, the shame will belong to the previous government.” It was an objection to the point that President Moon had fewer press conferences than other governments.

When asked about the regulation of housing loans that day, President Moon replied, “It is a little difficult for me to answer if you enter the specific and specialized part.” He pointed out that even if the housing supply increases, it is difficult for homeless people to buy a house because of the loan regulation, but President Moon gave another answer, saying that he will announce a housing supply plan soon. When talking about the necessity of returning to Seoul by North Korea’s State Council Chairman Kim Jong-un, he used the expression “return to the south.”

The press conference was held simultaneously on and offline for the first time due to the influence of Corona 19. Twenty reporters attended the Chunchu-gwan site in person, and 100 were connected by video. Reporters connected by video were displayed on the screen around President Moon. About 160 reporters asked questions through KakaoTalk messenger. A reporter who attended via video missed an opportunity to ask questions due to a poor connection.

Reporter Yoon Seongmin [email protected]