Ministry of Foreign Affairs "Deeply Regrets Opposition's Insult to Foreign Minister's Father and Grandfather in Reports on German Martial Law"

As German public broadcasting produced a documentary that portrayed the December 3 emergency martial law incident in a biased manner, sparking controversy, the Democratic Party of Korea launched an offensive calling it a 'diplomatic disaster,' prompting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to express regret on the 10th.

An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that "Minister Cho Tae-yeol was on an overseas business trip performing official duties at the time (March 6) when domestic media reported based on the German broadcaster's footage," and added, "We were not even internally informed that such reports existed," expressing deep regret.

The official continued, "Criticizing the minister with personal attacks without knowing the facts, and even insulting him by mentioning the real names of his late father and grandfather, is not the proper attitude of a political party toward a public official," and sharply criticized it as "an extremely unfair and inappropriate form of criticism."

Earlier, the German public broadcasting channel 'Phoenix' was scheduled to air a documentary about the December 3 emergency martial law incident, approximately 28 minutes long, on the 6th (local time). The documentary was first released on the broadcaster's website on the 25th of last month before the broadcast, but it included interviews with Pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon and far-right YouTubers who supported the martial law, causing controversy. As criticism arose locally that the content was biased, the broadcast was canceled, and the video was later removed from the website.

In response, the Democratic Party's International Diplomatic Cooperation Headquarters issued a statement on the 7th titled "Is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea a far-right diplomatic cooperation department?" saying, "Minister Cho and Ambassador Lim Sang-beom (to Germany) must be pleased to be collaborators in branding the Republic of Korea as a far-right country and its people as far-right forces."

In particular, the statement demanded, "Minister Cho should take a stance that is not shameful before the names of Cho Seung-gi, Cho Heon-young, and Cho Ji-hoon." Poet Cho Ji-hoon of the 'Cheongnokpa' was the minister's father. Former National Assembly member Cho Heon-young was the minister's grandfather, and independence activist and militia leader Cho Seung-gi was the minister's great-great-grandfather.