President Lee Approves National Museum of Korea Director Yoo Hongjun's Resignation... 15 Months After Taking Office (Updated)

Resigns amid controversy over personally submitting calligraphy by a pro-Japanese collaborator
Yoo Hongjun: "I undermined trust in the museum... I take full responsibility for all criticism"
Private-sector member of National AI Strategy Committee dismissed after creating KTX ticket-checking macro

President Lee Jaemyung approved the resignation of Yoo Hong-jun, director of the National Museum of Korea, on Oct. 21. He accepted Yoo's resignation less than a day after Yoo offered to step down, taking responsibility for the controversy over incorrectly exhibiting one of his own possessions as a calligraphic work by an independence activist. Yoo, who took office in July last year, will leave his post after one year and three months.

President Lee Jaemyung speaks at a Cabinet meeting held at the Blue House on Oct. 20, 2026. Yonhap News.

Kang Yoo-jung, senior presidential spokesperson, said, "President Lee approved the resignation of Yoo Hong-jun, director of the National Museum of Korea." She added, "He also approved a motion to dismiss a civilian member of the Presidential National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee whose inappropriate conduct had sparked controversy."

Earlier that morning, Yoo issued a statement saying, "I have concluded that stepping down as director is the right thing to do to restore the museum's tarnished reputation," and announced his resignation.

Yoo said, "The deep trust the public has placed in the National Museum of Korea and the values our museum staff have built up were brought down in an instant by my personal mistake," adding, "I take full responsibility for all the criticism I have received."

The controversy erupted when the National Museum of Korea displayed "Our Table," a special exhibition that opened last July, and included "Ilbansigukeun," one of Yoo's personal possessions. The museum presented the calligraphy as a work by patriot Park Won-geun, but later withdrew it from the exhibition after it was confirmed to be the work of Park Jung-yang, a pro-Japanese collaborator who committed anti-national acts.

The controversy intensified after it emerged that Yoo had personally recommended the work for exhibition, having bought it for 50,000 won at an online auction in 2019. In addition to criticism that the work's authenticity and creator had not been adequately verified, questions were raised about a potential conflict of interest over whether it was appropriate for the museum director to use his own possession in an exhibition.

Yoo Hong-jun, director of the National Museum of Korea, answers questions from lawmakers during a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee on Oct. 19, 2026. Yonhap News.

Yoo bowed and apologized at a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee on Oct. 19. At the time, he admitted wrongdoing over having disclosed only later that the work was his own, saying, "As an art historian, I hesitated to make public the fact that I had made a serious mistake." He maintained, however, that he had not intended to obtain personal gain.

But calls for him to take responsibility for damaging the museum's credibility and historical integrity continued, led by opposition parties, and Yoo decided to resign two days after the parliamentary audit.

Yoo is an art historian widely known as the author of the bestseller "My Cultural Heritage Exploration." He served as head of the Cultural Heritage Administration from 2004 to 2008 under the Roh Moo-hyun administration and was appointed in July last year as the first director of the National Museum of Korea under the Lee Jaemyung administration.

In a statement marking his departure that day, he said, "Although my 15 months in office were brief, being able to do the honorable work of preserving the value of our cultural heritage was the greatest blessing and honor of my life."

Meanwhile, the dismissed committee member was identified as a visiting professor surnamed Kim at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The member recently sparked controversy after posting on social media that they had created and used a macro program to check KTX ticket availability.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.