Meets Tsinghua University party secretary at his alma mater in Beijing

Flag badge on suit lapel worn inverted, with red at bottom and blue on top

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok meets with the party secretary and dean of the law school at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Tuesday during his visit to China. [Office of the Prime Minister/Yonhap]
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok meets with the party secretary and dean of the law school at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Tuesday during his visit to China. [Office of the Prime Minister/Yonhap]

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok was photographed wearing an upside-down South Korean flag badge on his lapel during an official engagement in China.

Choi Eun-seok, the People Power Party's chief floor spokesperson, said on his Facebook page Thursday that it had been confirmed Kim wore the Taegukgi badge inverted throughout his schedule at Tsinghua University in Beijing — the final stop of his overseas trip.

Kim visited Tsinghua on Tuesday to meet with university party secretary Chu Yong and others, with the discussion focused on youth exchanges between the two countries. Tsinghua is Kim's alma mater, where he earned a master's degree in law.

Photos the prime minister's office distributed to the media, as well as footage posted on Kim's YouTube channel "Kim Min-seok TV," show the Taegukgi badge pinned to the left lapel of his suit with the red portion facing downward and the blue portion upward — confirming the badge was worn upside down.

"The Taegukgi is the face of the Republic of Korea and a symbol of the nation," Choi said. "The fact that the prime minister of the Republic of Korea — not an ordinary citizen — was publicly seen wearing the national flag upside down at an official overseas event is a national embarrassment in itself."

Choi pressed further, saying no one who filmed the footage, edited it or reviewed it caught the error — and that the inverted flag was even featured in a YouTube Shorts clip the office itself edited and posted. "Was there really not a single person in the prime minister's office who could check which way the Taegukgi was facing?" he said.

"National dignity is not built on grand slogans or flowery rhetoric," Choi added. "I hope they take seriously the fact that it starts with something as basic as wearing the Taegukgi the right way."

Choi also questioned whether Kim had been too distracted by internal party politics to fulfill his duties as the nation's top official. "The prime minister represents the state. If he cannot even keep track of the national flag, how can the public trust him to look after the nation?" he said. "I cannot help but wonder whether the politics of the party leadership race mattered more to him than his responsibilities as prime minister."

Kim was set to wrap up his two-night, three-day trip — which began Monday — and return to South Korea through Seoul Airport in Seongnam after 11 p.m. Thursday.


jshan@heraldcorp.com