President Lee Accepts Resignation of National Museum of Korea Director Yoo Hong-jun Over 'Self-Submitted' Calligraphy by Pro-Japanese Collaborator

President Lee Jae-myung today (October 21) accepted the resignation of Yoo Hong-jun, director of the National Museum of Korea, who offered to step down amid controversy over the exhibition and verification of a pro-Japanese collaborator's calligraphy.

Senior Presidential Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung announced to the press this afternoon, "President Lee has approved Director Yoo's resignation."

Earlier, Director Yoo publicly tendered his resignation, stating, "The deep trust that the public placed in the National Museum of Korea and the value built up by our museum staff collapsed in an instant due to my personal mistake."

Recently, calligraphy personally owned by Director Yoo was submitted to a special exhibition at the National Museum of Korea as the work of independence activist Park Won-geun, but controversy arose after it was revealed to actually be the writing of Park Jung-yang, a pro-Japanese collaborator.

In the process, it was also revealed that Director Yoo had purchased the calligraphy for 50,000 won via an online auction in 2019 and recommended it as an exhibit item about two months before the exhibition opened.

Meanwhile, Senior Spokesperson Kang stated, "A dismissal measure was also approved for a civilian member of the Presidential National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee who caused controversy through inappropriate conduct."

The dismissed member is a visiting professor surnamed Kim at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), who recently sparked controversy after posting on social media that he had created and used a macro program to search for KTX train tickets.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.