Private Conversation Included in 'Attachment' Section
Chungbuk Province Explains: "System Error"
There is controversy over an official document from Chungbuk Province, bearing the governor's seal, that contains private messages intended for a romantic partner.
According to Chungbuk Province and other sources on December 25, the province distributed an official document titled "Notification of Changes to the 2026 Solution-Oriented Smart Livestock Equipment Package Supply Project Model" to 11 cities and counties in the province the previous day, regarding next year's smart livestock equipment package supply project, Yonhap News reported. The issue was that the 'Attachment' section at the bottom of the document included a conversation between lovers, which was entirely unrelated to the business at hand.
Official document from Chungbuk Province containing private conversations between lovers in the 'Attachment' section. Yonhap News
The 'Attachment' section at the bottom of the document included the following message: "Oppa, I think it's right for lovers to know whether each other got home safely before going to sleep, but I don't think you feel the same way. It may not be your view on relationships, but this is important to me, and I think it's important not only when dating but also after marriage. So I think I'll continue to be stressed about this issue. I've mentioned before that I want you to try, and I don't think saying it again will change much. I've tried to let it go, but it's really hard for me."
This document went through approval by supervisors and was stamped with the governor's seal before being distributed to the cities and counties, after which it quickly spread online. As the document was shared, concerns were raised about a breakdown in work discipline and criticism emerged over the laxity of the approval system.
Chungbuk Province explained that this was a system-related issue. During the drafting process, the staff member had several windows open, and a personal message prepared to be sent via messenger was copied and pasted into the document. The message text was formatted in white, making it invisible in the electronic document, so it was not detected during the approval process. However, when the document was forwarded to the cities and counties, the default formatting made the text appear in black, revealing its contents.
An official from Chungbuk Province stated, "We regret that such an unfortunate incident has occurred," adding, "To prevent recurrence, we will review employee attendance management and seek ways to filter similar situations through the computer system."
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