Photo: Photo of an American pie. Credit: Office of the President.
One of the highlights of President Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열 대통령’s state visit to Washington was his state dinner with US President Joe Biden, in which Yoon, upon being given a signed guitar from his favorite singer Don McLean, belted out a rousing rendition of American Pie.
This week, the Office of the President 대통령실 shared a heartwarming story, apparently from a Korean American woman who lives in Washington DC. According to the presidential office, the woman wrote: “I was reading the news while having lunch, and I read that President Yoon sang American Pie during the state dinner.
Just as I was searching for a video and hitting ‘play’, someone knocked on my door. It was my neighbor, with whom I hadn’t ever spoken before. She said: ‘Your president sings well. He had a good voice. I was grocery shopping, and I thought of your children when I saw this pie.’ I felt so proud.”
Along with the story, which does not sound made up at all, the presidential office also circulated a photo that the Korean American woman supposedly sent: an apple pie in a box from the Fresh Market, a grocery store that has no outpost in Washington DC. (It does have a location in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington.)
South Korea’s conservative papers, including major dailies such as JoongAng Ilbo 중앙일보, Dong-A Ilbo 동아일보, Maeil Business News 매일경제 and Kukmin Ilbo 국민일보, all ran the story without attempting to verify whether this event actually took place.