Another controversy erupted after South Korea’s President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol became a guest on the popular tvN cable TV program “You Quiz on the Block” on April 20.

“You Quiz on the Block” is a popular talk show hosted by Yoo Jae-suk of “Running Man” and Jo Se-ho.

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s appearance on the program garnered a Nielsen Korea nationwide rating of 4.405 percent, slightly higher by 0.58 percentage point compared to the April 13 episode, which received 3.824 percent.

When it was announced last week that Yoon Suk-yeol, who will assume office on May 10, would be the guest on “You Quiz on the Block,” the bulletin board of the program garnered thousands of comments, mostly negative, criticizing his appearance.

On April 21, another controversy surfaced, accusing CJ ENM, which owns tvN, of favoring Yoon Suk-yeol and rejecting incumbent President Moon Jae-in’s appearance on “You Quiz on the Block.”

Tak Hyun-min, President Moon Jae-in’s protocol secretary, revealed in a Facebook post that the production team of “You Quiz on the Block” rejected the Blue House’s request for the current president to appear on the program last year.

He accused CJ ENM of lying when the company denied news reports that the Blue House requested for President Moon Jae-in to appear on the program last year.

“There is no problem with President-elect Yoon’s appearance on ‘You Quiz.’ Although viewers may have different judgments, his appearance itself is a matter for the production crew and the cast to decide,” Tak Hyun-min wrote.

He added, “However, there is a serious problem with CJ's lies against the Blue House, regardless of whether President-elect Yoon appears or not.”

“First of all, in April of last year and before that, the Blue House inquired about the appearance of the President, the Blue House barber, shoe repairman, and landscaping person in the program,” he said.

According to him, “At that time, the production team, after deliberation, through the CJ Strategic Support Team, expressed their intention of refusing it with the gist of ‘it does not fit the nature of the program,’ and we respected the intention of the production team and did not make any further requests.”

He said he has a text message as evidence of talking to the TV program manager, belying the claim of CJ ENM.

“It was out of respect for the program that we accepted the production team's rejection without words. It was a natural thing, especially since the previous governments often did not observe the obvious,” he said.

He added, “We did not want any program to be affected by any external pressure, and we believed that such an attitude was the most correct attitude to consider culture and art.

Tak Hyun-min said even now, he wants to believe that President-elect Yoon’s appearance on “You Quiz on the Block” was solely the decision of the production team.

“I just hope that there has been no external pressure, and I only hope that the production team's judgment will be the only principle of production in the future. Because that is the way for broadcasters and cultural artists to protect their dignity,” he said.