Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Song Yeong-gil abruptly ended a live radio phone interview after eight minutes, leaving dead air on the broadcast.
Song was connected by phone Monday evening to CBS Radio's "Park Jae-hong's Hanpan Seungbu" and was fielding questions on current issues, including the launch of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, when he cut off the conversation. "I think I need to wrap up now. I'm sorry," he said.
Host Park Jae-hong pushed back, saying, "That's not possible. It's also not respectful to our listeners — we're live right now." Song replied, "Wasn't it originally set for 10 minutes?"
When Park said, "No. Let's do 10 more minutes," Song countered, "I can't do that. I'm having dinner with the president right now — how could I possibly continue?"
Loud market noise had been audible in the background from the start of the interview. When asked whether he could move somewhere quieter, Song said the president was visiting his constituency and had come to Oknyeon Market, making it difficult to conduct the interview. He then ended the call eight minutes in, citing his dinner schedule.
After the interview was cut short, Park apologized to listeners. "I want to offer my apologies to all our listeners and say that everything is my fault," he said.
The production team of "Park Jae-hong's Hanpan Seungbu" issued a statement Tuesday expressing "strong regret." The team said the time slot allocated to Song covered the entire second segment of the broadcast — 30 minutes including commercials, with about 25 minutes of actual interview time. That account differs from Song's claim that the interview was originally scheduled for only 10 minutes.
To fill the remaining roughly 10 minutes, the production team scrambled to reach Kim Jeong-cheol, a former senior member of the Reform Party who had just finished appearing in the first segment and was heading out, and conducted an unplanned interview with him on the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and prosecutorial reform.
Meanwhile, President Lee Jae Myung attended the 20th World Korean Day ceremony in Songdo, Incheon, that day before sitting down for a dinner lasting about an hour and a half with Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae, Song, and lawmakers Jeong Il-yeong and Lee Jae-gang.
dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com
