South Korea’s president has taken a leaf from the Trump playbook and blamed the media to defend himself in the wake of an embarrassing hot mic incident in which he was recorded insulting U.S. lawmakers. Yoon Suk-yeol was last Wednesday caught cursing as he left a meeting with Joe Biden in New York City, describing how the U.S. president would be humiliated if Congress didn’t pass a bill concerning funding for a global initiative. “What an embarrassment... if these bastards refuse to approve it in parliament,” Yoon told Foreign Minister Park Jin in a video, which has since gone viral on social media. His spokesperson previously tried to play down the incident by insisting that Yoon had not mentioned Biden and, in any case, he was referring to the South Korean parliament. On Monday, when asked about the incident, Yoon said: “Well, rather than a controversy, I will say this: Except for one or two or three superpowers in the world, no country can fully protect the lives and safety of its people with its own capabilities. I’d like to say that damaging the alliance with reports that are different from the facts puts the people at great risk.”
