DPK leader urges Yoon to sack senior secretary for intimidating remarks against press

Rep. Lee Jae-myung, right, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, speaks during a party meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, March 18. Yonhap

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung urged President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday to immediately sack the senior presidential secretary for civil and social agenda for making intimidating remarks to reporters last week.

The secretary, Hwang Sang-moo, has come under fire after he told a reporter from public broadcaster MBC during a group luncheon to "listen carefully" while recalling the 1988 stabbing of a journalist by soldiers of the military intelligence command.

The attacked journalist wrote a column criticizing the military at the time, and Hwang's remarks were interpreted as a warning to the media against running anti-government stories.

"The president should immediately sack Hwang and apologize to the people," Rep. Lee Jae-myung, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, said during a party meeting. "The Yoon Suk Yeol administration is truly a regime of violence that oppress people and suppresses and threatens the press."

Hwang offered an apology, and the presidential office said earlier in the day that it has never used "coercion" against members of the press.

Even ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon suggested that Hwang should step down over the remarks. (Yonhap)