Unification Minister Chung Dong-young dismissed opposition demands for the minister's removal as "red-baiting in 2026," saying that "what should be removed is a biased view of the alliance."
Chung made the remarks while meeting reporters at the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno District, Seoul, on the 12th, adding that "there is nothing wrong at all with the Korea-U.S. alliance." On recent reports that the United States had bypassed the National Intelligence Service, the minister said the accounts were "fake news based entirely on incorrect facts" and "a transcription of a story someone made up to attack the other side."
Chung went on to say that "there are cases where a fragmentary fact becomes a distortion when viewed in the full context," pointing to remarks made in the National Assembly in March about a North Korean nuclear facility in Kusong, which has been cited as the source of recent friction in the alliance. The U.S. side is said to view those remarks as a leak of classified information between allies and has been restricting intelligence sharing between the two countries.
The minister said that "I already spoke about Kusong at a hearing in July 2025, and that was as lawmaker Chung Dong-young," adding that "if the July remarks are deleted and only the March remarks are reported, it creates the impression that the minister improperly leaked information." Chung urged that the full context be considered and said this "misunderstanding" had also been conveyed to the U.S. government and to the South Korean ambassador to the United States.
Chung also assessed the recent series of statements by Kim Yo-jong, director of the general affairs department of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, saying they show "that she is watching inter-Korean relations that closely." On the landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone, the minister stressed that "normal politics means discussing measures to prevent clashes in the DMZ and having the ruling and opposition parties put their heads together so that this never happens again."