During a press conference this week, I asked South Korea’s president a relatively simple question about six of his country’s citizens imprisoned in North Korea. 

What I didn’t expect was his response: “That’s the first time I’ve heard of it.”

President Lee Jae Myung’s reply set off a political firestorm that I’m still processing. Within 24 hours, I’d become an unlikely lightning rod in South Korea’s brutal political divide. 

I’ve received warnings about my personal safety, been accused of peddling fake news by a former Moon administration official and watched politicians on both sides of the aisle weaponize my