President Lee calls revised ‘Home Prices Have Fallen’ headline ‘second fake news’

[Financial News] On the 4th, President Lee Jae Myung pushed back after some media outlets changed the headline of an article quoting his remarks on real estate from “Home Prices in Free Fall” to “Home Prices Have Fallen.” He said the revised headline still presented his remarks about declines in some key areas of Seoul as if they were an assessment of the entire city, calling it “a second fake news story.”
Following up on his comments earlier that morning, President Lee shared the revised headline on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “The tone of this article suggests that the president said something contrary to fact.” He said, “What I actually said was not ‘Home prices are falling in general,’ but ‘Home prices in Seoul’s major areas are falling—not just in some areas,’” adding that this was “a statement that did not contradict the facts.”
In response to reports that Seoul home prices had risen for 90 consecutive weeks, President Lee said, “It is true that home prices in Seoul have been rising for a long time, but the pace of increase has slowed to 0.09% per week.” He added that “it is true that home prices in the three Gangnam districts (Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa), which have led increases in home prices across South Korea, have fallen sharply by more than 0.3% per week for a dozen or so weeks.”
He added, “I was warning people to pay attention because signs of a decline are growing, including continued increases in the base interest rate, more homes listed for sale and lower transaction volumes.” He said that a remark about declines in some key areas, not everywhere, “is not something that can be quoted as ‘Home prices have fallen’ with the context cut off.” At the end of his post, President Lee wrote, “I hope this will be corrected.”
Earlier, at a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae the previous day, President Lee said listings in Seoul were increasing rapidly and transaction volumes were falling, adding, “Actual transaction prices in key areas are also falling to a surprising degree, although there are areas where that is not the case.” After some media outlets reported this under the headline “Home Prices in Free Fall” and assessed that “only Gangnam was right,” President Lee countered that morning that the areas he had identified were Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa. He also pointed out that even if the wording was considered to convey the same meaning as his actual remarks, words he had not used should not be presented as a direct quote.
[email protected] Seong Seok-woo Reporter