 |
| ▲ President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a news conference marking his first 100 days in office at the presidential office in Seoul on Aug. 17, 2022. (Yonhap) |
Yoon-news conference
Yoon unlikely to hold New Year's press conference
SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol is unlikely to hold a New Year's press conference and will instead address the nation through policy briefings, officials said Tuesday.
The presidential office had been considering holding a press conference at the start of next year but decided to put the plan on hold for now, they said.
"The policy briefings to the people will in effect be a New Year's press conference," one official said, referring to a series of government policy reports scheduled to begin Wednesday.
The policy reports will outline each ministry's and government agency's plans for the new year, with Yoon and the relevant minister or agency chief planning to directly explain them to the public.
The presidential office also believes last week's townhall meeting, where Yoon and government officials answered questions from the public on the administration's key policy tasks, served to present the president's vision for the new year.
New Year's press conferences were first introduced under then President Park Chung-hee in 1968 and used to outline the government's policy goals for the coming year.
Yoon, who was inaugurated in May, held a 100-day news conference on Aug. 17.
He also held routine Q&A sessions with reporters on his way to work but suspended them in November following a spat between an MBC reporter and a presidential secretary.
"There's no sign of resuming the doorstepping sessions," a presidential official said, ruling out a resumption before the end of the year.
(END)
(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved
