U.S. Beef Tariff ‘0%’… What Is the Shelf Life of the Presidential Office’s Lies?

[Choice Times=Joo-hyun Park, CEO of Jaedam Entertainment]

On August 4 last year, Kang Yu-jung, spokesperson for the presidential office, responded to a reporter’s request for fact-checking regarding additional agricultural market opening following the Korea–U.S. tariff negotiations. “As Chief Kim Yong-bum has said, there will be no additional opening of rice or meat markets,” she said, adding, “There are also no differing opinions or objections on this matter.”

When asked what she meant by “no objections,” Kang replied, “I’m sorry, but scrutinizing the authenticity of that issue could roughly be detrimental to the national interest,” and explained that “if you read the actual context of the White House’s Twitter post, you can see that it does not explicitly say the market will be opened.” She went on to say, “Refraining from going into further detail here is, in a sense, more consistent with the substance of the negotiation outcome.” (Editor’s note)

I remember the scene in August 2025 when spokesperson Kang was “creatively mistranslating” texts, insisting that “probing the truth is not helpful to the national interest.”
When Donald Trump was proclaiming victory with talk of “full opening,” our government was busy telling the public that “if you look at the context, it’s not an opening at all,” effectively blindfolding and muffling the nation.

That “expiration date of falsehood” has finally arrived—just five months later. In January 2026, news broke that tariffs on 45 U.S. agricultural and livestock products, from beef to milk to citrus fruits, had dropped to “0%.” The government may try to excuse this as a step-by-step procedure under the free trade agreement signed 14 years ago, but the essence is clear.

With the tariff firewall removed, the reality of an opened market stands exposed. The rhetoric of those “boy who cried wolf” figures—who babbled on about how it was “not an opening”—has been revealed for what it was: cheap gaslighting.

It’s hard even to count how many times such bogus briefings have occurred. At this point, they feel less like politics and more like a form of “religious suggestion.” Their claim that seeking the truth harms the national interest was nothing more than an attempt to launder the damage of their own incompetence as “national interest.”

Handing over real benefits as tribute to the White House while telling their own citizens, “Do not ask about the truth,” and clamping their mouths shut—this submissive show of deceit. In a country where hiding the truth is called patriotism, the first thing pronounced dead is the government’s honesty.

And by the way—has the Korean Peasants League failed to show up because it can’t afford tractor fuel? It’s not even funny anymore.

#TradeTruth
#GovernmentAccountability
#TariffZero