President Yoon Suk-yeol will no longer receive questions from the press on his way to work beginning November 21. The Office of the President explained that the reason was because of a recent argument between an MBC reporter and Lee Ki-jeong, the president’s public relations secretary.

On Monday morning, the Office of the President announced, “As of November 21, we have decided to suspend the morning press Q&A sessions,” and explained, “In connection with the unfortunate incident that occurred recently, we decided that we could not continue unless fundamental measures to prevent similar incidents in the future were in place.” The presidential office continued and said, “The morning Q&A sessions with the press were granted for open communication with the people,” and added, “We will review resuming the sessions when measures to achieve that purpose can be implemented.”

The unfortunate incident refers to an argument between an MBC reporter and Secretary Lee Ki-jeong immediately after a press Q&A session on November 18. At the time, President Yoon explained that the reason his office banned MBC reporters from boarding the presidential plane was because of their “malicious behavior intended to estrange people with fake news.” The MBC reporter asked, “What was so malicious?” The president refused to answer and headed for his office, and Lee, who was there, criticized, “It is not respectable to talk like that to someone going into the office,” which led to an argument between the two.

In a press briefing on Sunday, a representative of the Office of the President spoke on the issue and said, “The Office of the President sees this issue as a very serious matter.” Reportedly, the presidential office is discussing follow-up measures such as asking MBC to replace the reporter covering the presidential office.

Due to the temporary suspension of the morning Q&A sessions with the press, there was no session on Monday. President Yoon had no outside schedules planned for this day. He only had his regular office meetings including a meeting with his senior secretaries. Usually, the president would have met with reporters on his way to work at the Office of the President in Yongsan and answered questions, but on Monday, he was expected to head straight to his office. On Sunday afternoon, the Office of the President installed a wooden panel between the main entrance of the building and the lobby. Thus the sight of President Yoon heading to work, which was naturally disclosed to the public, was no longer visible.