Cheong Wa Dae press chief tenders resignation

Kim Sang-ho, who oversees Cheong Wa Dae’s media relations, recently submitted his resignation to President Lee Jae Myung, The Korea Herald learned from sources Monday.

Kim serves as head of Chunchugwan, Cheong Wa Dae’s press center that oversees media relations and manages the press corps of more than 300 reporters. He joined the presidential office, then still in Yongsan, on June 4 last year, the day Lee took office.

Kim tendered his resignation Aug. 4, shortly after Lee returned from a tour of the United States and South America. It remains unclear whether the president has accepted it.

A former journalist, Kim began working with Lee in 2017, when Lee was mayor of Seongnam, and has since remained one of his closest media aides. He later served as a media adviser to the Gyeonggi provincial government and held senior communications posts during Lee’s campaigns for the 21st and 22nd presidential elections and his tenure as leader of the Democratic Party of Korea.

Kim’s resignation follows the departure of former presidential spokesperson Kim Nam-joon, another longtime aide dating back to Lee’s days as Seongnam mayor. It also comes amid a recent reshuffle involving the senior presidential secretary for public relations and the secretary for overseas media.

The latest move is expected to accelerate a broader overhaul of the presidential communications operation as the Lee administration enters its second year.

Kim also played a prominent role in the release of a 2024 recording purportedly capturing then-President Yoon Suk Yeol discussing party affairs with self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun. After obtaining the recording, Kim provided it to the Democratic Party, which made it public in October that year.

The disclosure fueled allegations that Yoon had improperly intervened in his party’s candidate nominations, emerging as a major political controversy before his December 2024 declaration of martial law and subsequent impeachment.