2023-12-12 20:03:34
On the morning of October 25, the day following the JTBC report, we discussed measures with the three secretaries, Ho-seong Jeong, Jae-man Lee, and Bong-geun Ahn, as well as Senior Secretary for Policy Coordination Ahn Jong-beom, Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Woo Byeong-woo, and Senior Secretary for Public Relations Kim Seong-woo. Everyone was of the opinion that an apology should be made for the issue of Director Choi Seo-won (formerly Choi Soon-sil) before it was too late. So I decided to issue an apology, but as a result, this became an irreparable handshake.
At that time, I thought the only problem was that I had personally called Director Choi (formerly known as Director Choi, as he was the director of a kindergarten) to the Blue House and showed him the speech manuscript several times and asked for his opinion. It is true that I delivered the manuscript and asked for his opinion through Secretary Jeong Ho-seong, so if I continued to ignore it, Secretary Jeong was bound to get hurt in the end. That was unacceptable to me. So, my honest feeling was that this issue would be resolved if I made a sincere apology to the public. The focus of the apology was, ‘I have heard opinions regarding some of the president’s materials from Choi Soon-sil, with whom she had a personal relationship following taking office, and she feels sorry if this has caused concern to the public.’
President Park Geun-hye is making a public apology for the leak of various speeches and remarks materials to Choi Seo-won (formerly Choi Soon-sil) at the Blue House Chunchugwan on the followingnoon of October 25, 2016. President Park bowed her head and said, “I am sorry for causing concern, surprise, and pain to the people of the country.” JoongAng Photo
However, the atmosphere of the political circles and media in accepting the apology was completely different. I accepted it as if I had 100% acknowledged various suspicions that I had not even been aware of. These included allegations that Mr. Choi treated the Blue House secretaries as if they were his own hands and feet, that he was deeply involved in state affairs and made important decisions, and that he colluded with me to demand money from companies. I thought it was absurd, but the social atmosphere was going in the opposite direction. It was my fault for not predicting the nature of public opinion.
Some people say that my impeachment was effectively decided by my public apology on October 25th. It’s not that it wasn’t, but following that apology, public sentiment instantly tilted to one side. When I think regarding it now, even if I did apologize, I should have clearly drawn a line between what I would admit and what I did not know. Also, since it takes time to get to the bottom of Director Choi’s case, it doesn’t seem like there was a rush to apologize. In fact, the time when I truly learned what Director Choi had done without my knowledge was when he was being tried while detained following the impeachment.
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