Former civil servant Kim Seon-tae, who ran the Chungju city YouTube channel and made a name for himself as "Chungju Man," acknowledged that he received a love call from the presidential office.
On the 27th, Kim Seon-tae appeared on the YouTube channel "Calm Man" and shared what he has been up to. Kim said, "I'm living a busy life. Trying to start fresh and do YouTube turned out to be harder than I thought. There's a lot to take care of," adding, "I even hired one employee and am getting help." He went on, "I set up a one-person corporation. It's twice as hard because I have to keep taking care of an employee."
Kim said, "I did handovers for a year," and noted that he had been considering resigning while consulting with YouTuber Pani Bottle. Pani Bottle said, "He was worried, so I told him he'd get to 500,000 subscribers, but even I didn't expect he'd be this popular." In response, Calm Man said, "Brand power played a role, but I think the timing was good," adding, "He launched when interest was at its peak."
When Calm Man asked, "There was talk that the presidential office sent a love call after you left public office. Is it true or not?" Kim Seon-tae answered, "It's true." He explained, "In the case of the presidential office, it wasn't an offer for a set position," adding, "They asked whether I had any interest."
However, he said allegations raised in some quarters of "tampering (pre-contact)" were not true. He said, "There wasn't any tampering beforehand, and after I decided to leave, I had one meeting," adding, "There were a few such meetings. A few agencies reached out. At that time, many paths were open. Companies (general corporations) also contacted me."
Kim Seon-tae joined in Oct. 2016 and gained popularity by exclusively producing and running Chungju city's YouTube content. After resigning in Feb., Kim launched a new personal YouTube channel last month. He reached 1 million subscribers three days after launch and, as of the morning of the 29th, has 1.65 million subscribers.