What do the books–and the affairs surrounding them–tell us about the current administration’s attitude regarding literature? The government has treated literature as a bygone artifact for scholars or a simple pastime to enjoy. It has not given any recognition or compensation to writers unfairly blacklisted while reducing the budget designated for public libraries. However, the peak of this misconception showed on June 14th, the opening day of the 2023 Seoul International Book Fair at the Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX).

The First Lady of South Korea, Kim Gunhee, came to visit the Fair unannounced; on top of that, the Korean Publishing Association prohibited publishing journalists from entering the exhibition halls while Kim gave her opening speech.

The Book Fair had already been disgraced publicly because it had chosen Oh Junghee as one of its ambassadors. The novelist was infamous for being directly associated with the “cultural blacklist” under former impeached President Park Geunhye’s administration. The “blacklist” was a government-led effort to oppress cultural creators who openly expressed their criticism against the ruling party. After the blacklist was revealed and judged as a violation of the constitution, Oh resigned as the Head of the National Museum of Korean Literature. However, the Korean Publishing Association still chose Oh as one of the fair’s leading faces. Many cultural organizations protested this choice, holding press conferences. On the opening day of the Book Fair, around ten writers stood outside the event hall to protest this choice.

While the First Lady gave her speech, the Book Fair hall was filled with hectic shouts who protested against the political interference of the government in Korea’s cultural industry. The area around the First Lady’s stage was filled with guards, who only let authorized reporters enter based on security issues. The list did not match that of the Book Fair’s, since even reporters with press credentials were not allowed to enter the hall. The chaos got worse when the police force bodily arrested the protesting writers, who were trying to enter. “[The protesting writers, including myself,] were not even trying to go onstage,” poet Song Gyungdong recalled in a Facebook post, “we were just in front of the entrance when tens of people violently isolated us and evicted us out of the hall”. Even the citizens who participated in the Fair were shaken and shocked. Writer Ji-ha Yi wrote on Twitter they were “startled at dull sounds, followed by screams…I got out without even looking around [the Fair] properly because I felt so dispirited.”

What happened after the “startling and dispiriting event”? Writers and creators who were expected to participate in the Fair boycotted the event, such as the singer-songwriter Irang. Novelist Oh Junghee resigned again as the ambassador of Seoul International Book Fair but without any apologies or a hint of repentance in the announcement. Nine literature associations held another press conference on the 18th, the closing day of the Fair, to protest this lackluster response. Lee Wonjae, the manager of the Cultural Action Association, said that “this careless attitude that it’s enough if the Fair is held and finished is what led to the ‘Oh Junghee scandal.’” The associations also required an apology from the Presidential Security Service for the excessive use of force on protesting poets, as well as for preventing even designated literature reporters from doing their job.

The speech that the First Lady gave at the Fair was, in short, that “the power of culture is truly great. This is why the future of AI cannot replace books.” However, the hectic events that surrounded the event halls–and the diminishing budget of content-creating programs, as well as the shutdown of many public libraries–suggest that there is dramatic irony at play, one that cultural citizens certainly cannot laugh at or ignore.