"Oppa, I Don't Think So"... 'Lovers' Conversation' Included in Official Document Stamped by Chungbuk Governor

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, which included 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 contained 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 for me, this is important, not just while dating but even after marriage. So I think I will continue to be stressed about this in the future. I have already asked you to try before, and I don't think saying it again will change much. I tried to let it go, but it's really hard for me."

This document went through approval by a supervisor and was stamped with the governor's seal before being distributed to the cities and counties. It quickly spread online. As the document was shared, there were criticisms about a breakdown in work discipline and concerns over a lax approval process.

Chungbuk Province explained that this was a system error. During the preparation of the document, the staff member had several windows open, and a personal message written to be sent via messenger was copied and pasted into the official 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 delivered to the cities and counties, the default formatting turned the text black, revealing the message.

A Chungbuk Province official stated, "We regret that such an unfortunate incident occurred. To prevent recurrence, we will review staff attendance management and seek ways to filter out similar situations through the computer system."