[Choice Times=Seollae Kim, Staff Reporter]

“After saying ‘xie xie (谢谢)’ to China, are you now going to bring historical fantasies worse than the Northeast Project into state affairs?”

Lee Jun-seok, leader of the New Reform Party, sharply criticized President Lee Jae-myung on the 12th after the president mentioned Hwandangogiduring a briefing by the Northeast Asian History Foundation, saying, “If Hwandangogiis history, then The Lord of the Rings is history as well.”

Lee said he was “astonished” to hear the president ask questions such as, “Do you know about theHwandangogicontroversy?” and “Isn’t Hwandangogia historical text?”
He added, “Hwandangog iis a forgery. It does not appear in any historical sources prior to 1911, contains modern Japanese-style Sino-Korean terms in texts purported to be ancient, and directly contradicts archaeological evidence.” He repeated, “If Hwandangogiis history, then The Lord of the Ringsis history.”

Lee further criticized the president for turning public agency briefings into what he called a “scolding show,” saying, “He throws irrelevant quizzes at agency heads, sets predetermined answers, berates them even when they respond, and scolds them according to a prewritten scenario. Is this how state affairs are supposed to be run?”

Earlier, during a Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport briefing, President Lee publicly rebuked Incheon International Airport Corporation President Lee Hak-jae, saying, “You seem to know less than I do,” and “You’ve been president for three years, yet it feels like you don’t have a proper grasp of your duties.”

President Lee referred to a tip alleging that tens of thousands of dollars in foreign currency were being smuggled out by slipping them between the pages of books like bookmarks, and asked what measures were in place to prevent illegal currency outflows. When Lee Hak-jae failed to give a clear answer, the president reportedly said, “I’m asking whether it’s possible to detect it or not, but you keep dodging the point,” and added, “Are you just killing time somewhere else now?”—remarks widely seen as humiliating.

Lee Hak-jae is a former three-term lawmaker from the Saenuri Party (predecessor of the People Power Party) and was appointed president of the airport corporation during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

Below is the full text of the post Lee Jun-seok uploaded to social media.

President Lee Jae-myung is turning public agency briefings into a “scolding show.” He throws quizzes unrelated to the agencies’ work at their heads, sets predetermined answers, berates them even when they respond, and scolds them according to a fixed scenario. Is this governance?

Isn’t this the same president who couldn’t even properly explain his own campaign pledges during the election, becoming a source of laughter? When “hotel economics” turned him into a joke among younger generations, didn’t he hastily look things up before the next debate and proudly bring up Lucas Zeise to me—without even knowing he was the publisher of a German Communist Party newspaper? Didn’t he also pledge to invest 100 trillion won in AI but fail to explain where exactly the money would go?

I was stunned by his mention ofHwandangogi. The president asked Chairman Park Ji-hyang whether she knew about the “Hwandangogicontroversy.” When she replied that professional scholars’ views were more persuasive, the president’s follow-up question was astonishing:

“Isn’tHwandangogia historical text?”

Hwandangogiis a forgery. It appears in no historical records prior to 1911, contains modern Japanese-style Sino-Korean terms in supposedly ancient texts, and directly conflicts with archaeological evidence. If Hwandangogiis history, then The Lord of the Rings is history.

What’s more serious is the president’s conclusion. He summed it up by saying, “In the end, it’s a fundamental difference in perspective—how and from what standpoint one views history.” Are verified scholarship and pseudo-history merely a “difference in perspective”? That’s like saying flat-earth theory and science are just different viewpoints.

Do you know why we call the period before records the “prehistoric era”? Because history requires sources. After saying “xie xie (谢谢)” to China, are you now going to bring historical fantasies worse than the Northeast Project into state governance?

A president who believes in election fraud, followed by a president who believes in Hwandangogi. I am deeply worried about the Republic of Korea.

#PseudoHistoryDebate
#GovernanceByHumiliation
#HistoricalRevisionism