<Anchor>

Yesterday (27th), a Blue House spokesman said that the ban on Chinese entry was "profitless." Listen.

[Kang Min-seok / Blue House spokesman: 1,404 Chinese, 26, the day before 25 days, 1,824 people on the 25th the day before. On the other hand, the number of Koreans entering China is increasing in February.]

The numbers based on this remark were wrong. Reporter Jeon Byeong-nam reports that he misinterpreted the basic statistics.

<Reporter>

The third of the five reasons for not banning Chinese entry is, "Since there are nearly twice as many Koreans going to China than Chinese coming to Korea, Koreans can avoid it."

The statistics presented were like this.

The Blue House said yesterday that the number of Koreans going to China was 3,337 on the 25th and 3,697 on the 26th.

But this figure was wrong.

SBS confirmed with the Ministry of Justice, 1,207 Koreans went to China on the 25th and 1,372 on the 26th.

Compared to the Blue House figures, it is only one third.

What happened? The Blue House was nothing more than the number of Chinese who returned to China on the same day.

Throughout the month of February, it was found that more than twice as many Koreans went to China, but more Chinese visitors.

Only one day yesterday there were more Koreans who went to China than Chinese who came to Korea.

The Blue House acknowledged today that the numerical quote was wrong.

The Blue House official's explanation was that it was "a simple mistake of practitioners."

Still, the Blue House, criticized by the president's remarks that "Corona 19 is about to end," is using the wrong statistics as a reason to create a crisis of trust.

(Video coverage: Jo Jung-young, Jeil, Video editing: Park Jung-sam)