Lydia Ko says she never gave South Korea’s first lady a golf lesson. Now she’s threatening to sue anyone who keeps saying she did.
On Monday, Rep. Joo Jin-woo of the opposition People Power Party named Ko in a Facebook post as the golfer who accompanied first lady Kim Hea Kyung, the wife of President Lee Jae Myung, per the Korea JoongAng Daily. Joo claimed Kim received a so-called “emperor lesson” from a professional golfer at Taereung Country Club, a military golf course, on Oct. 20.
Joo also pointed to the timing. He alleged the lesson took place on the same day a fire in Seoul injured 19 people, according to The Korea Times.
Ko responded the same day on Instagram. “The article reported today is not true and has nothing at all to do with me,” she wrote. “In particular, I was attending a sponsor’s official event on the date mentioned in the article, and I have no connection whatsoever to what was reported.”
She didn’t stop there. “Going forward, I plan to take legal action, depending on the case, against articles, posts and comments that spread unverified false information or damage my reputation,” Ko added. She closed the post with a hashtag that reads, “It’s not me. Who are you?”
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Joo backed his claim with a video. The roughly minute-and-a-half clip included a scene of a woman receiving a so-called “field lesson” and also featured a photo of Ko, per SBS.
South Korea’s presidential office shot it down. The Blue House called Joo’s allegation “a one-sided claim not based on facts.” It also warned that media outlets could be held responsible for repeating his assertions without verifying the facts.
The ruling Democratic Party went further. The party said it would file a criminal complaint against Joo for “repeatedly spreading false information about the president’s family.” Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Eui-kyeom said, “Because this is an insult to Lydia Ko, First Lady Kim Hye-kyung, Cheong Wa Dae, and our state affairs as a whole, we will take strong legal action.”
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Joo held a press conference at the National Assembly on Tuesday and did not back down. “I raised the issue because scenes that looked like imperial golf, with a professional golfer accompanying or giving lessons, were uncomfortable, but they are twisting the point as if telling me to apologize to the pro golfer,” he said. “Well, if I happen to meet (Lydia Ko) in private, I can apologize as much as needed.”
Joo also claimed Ko’s on-course lesson fees alone run in the tens of millions of won, and he noted that she is the daughter-in-law of a conglomerate chairman. Ko is married to Jun Chung, the son of Hyundai Card Vice Chairman Chung Tae-young. Joo has since acknowledged some errors but has not apologized.
Ko did not compete in last week’s BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea.
