Presidential Office: "First Lady Kim Keon-hee, 'Meet Tak Hyun-min?'... Absolutely Not True"

First Lady Kim Keon-hee, wife of President Yoon Suk-yeol, is seen talking with Agata Kornhauser Duda, wife of Polish President Andrzej Duda, at the official state welcome ceremony held on the lawn in front of the Yongsan Presidential Office in Seoul on the 24th. Photo by Yonhap News

The Presidential Office stated on the 24th that former Blue House Protocol Secretary Tak Hyun-min's claim that he "received a contact from First Lady Kim Geon-hee expressing a desire to meet" is "completely untrue."

A Presidential Office official released this position through a media notice on the same day.

Earlier, former Secretary Tak said on MBC Radio's "Kim Jong-bae's Focus" that "through a sufficiently trustworthy person, First Lady Kim conveyed that she 'definitely wants to meet once.'

Tak said, "Although First Lady Kim did not send a message saying 'Please help with our affairs,' when she asked to meet, it was obvious why she wanted to meet. When she asked to meet me, I naturally thought it must be for that reason."

He added, "I told the messenger that I had no intention of meeting her, and after that, there was no further communication."

Tak Hyun-min was responsible for presidential protocol and Blue House events during the Moon Jae-in administration.