The presidential office clarified that President Yoon Suk Yeol's remarks on Thursday about the university entrance exam were not about making the test easier or more difficult.

The top office’s press secretary, Kim Eun-hye, said in a written briefing on Friday that Yoon's directive to the education minister was about ensuring that the College Scholastic Ability Test, known as “suneung” in Korean, includes only material covered by the public education curriculum.

Noting that the president emphasized that the purpose of any test is to determine the academic aptitude of students in a fair manner, she said that Yoon went on to say that while private education programs cannot be banned, the inclusion of such material is unfair and generates a reliance on such programs.

Yoon said that when faced with such a reality, the public will think the authorities and the private education industry are in collusion.

Receiving a briefing on education reforms the previous day, Yoon instructed Minister Lee Ju-ho to exclude materials not covered by public curricula from the test, which sparked confusion  among parents and students about the difficulty of this year's exam.