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| Ko Min-jung, left, former Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman, and Yoo Song-hwa, former director of the Chunchugwan press center, deliver their farewell speeches at the center, Wednesday, after resigning their posts to run in the April 15 general election. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-seok |
Opposition parties slam Cheong Wa Dae for playing role of 'election camp'
By Jung Da-min
A dozen aides to President Moon Jae-in have left Cheong Wa Dae in recent weeks to run in the April 15 general election. Including those who left earlier, nearly 60 to 70 former presidential officials are preparing to seek National Assembly seats.
This situation raises concerns that Cheong Wa Dae is serving as a means for ruling party candidates to boost their resumes, and that the mass departure will lead to a vacuum in state affairs.
The most recent to depart was presidential spokeswoman Ko Min-jung, who quit, Wednesday, a day before the Jan. 16 deadline to run in the April 15 elections. Civil servants are required to resign from their posts at least 90 days before the election, according to the Public Official Election Act.
"I have served as the President's mouthpiece for the past three years. Now I want to serve as the people's voice for my political beliefs and goals," Ko said during a press conference at Chunchugwan, the press center of the presidential office.
It has yet to be seen which constituency Ko will run for in the election, but speculations are that it could be one in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, as Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae and Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee, who currently hold Assembly seats in two constituencies of the city, said they will not seek reelection and complete their commitment to the tasks of the Moon government.
Others who recently resigned from their Cheong Wa Dae posts to run in the election include Yoo Song-hwa, director of Chunchugwan; Kwon Hyang-yup, secretary for balanced personnel affairs; Joo Hyung-chul, a presidential adviser for economic affairs; and Youn Kun-young, director of the State Affairs Planning and Monitoring Office.
It has been common for Cheong Wa Dae officials and ministers to quit and seek an Assembly seat or a municipality head position, and they usually win because their experience of working at the presidential office is an advantage when the administration is still gaining large public support.
However, critics say the number of such officials is rather high, compared to those during previous administrations: It is estimated that there are about 60 former Cheong Wa Dae officials who have thrown their hats into the ring for the general election since the beginning of the Moon government.
"There are many who want to run in the election rather than keep their posts at Cheong Wa Dae, or are planning to take posts at other public organizations after Moon's term. This indicates that many think it is better to leave the presidential office at an early stage," said Lee Jun-seok, a member of the minor opposition New Conservative Party.
It is also a concern that a vacuum in the management of state affairs will be created after the officials leave and before their successors gain momentum in their positions. With the large number of departures, it will also take more time to find and appoint successors.
The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) criticized the situation, calling Cheong Wa Dae an "election camp."
"There will be neither new faces, nor pledges; only the catchphrase of ‘experience at Cheong Wa Dae' or ‘Moon Jae-in's aide' will be rampant during electioneering," LKP spokeswoman Rep. Jun Hee-kyung said in a statement. "Cheong Wa Dae officials have had something else in mind (than state affairs), and this has resulted in failed policies and frequent personnel changes, which only damaged people."
Critics also said that while it is the former public officials' free choice whether to run in the election, some have crossed the line by using their power to prepare for the election when they were still holding public posts by attending local events or recruiting party members, for example. They also are taking advantage of the high name recognition that is part and parcel of holding public posts.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) officials have made assurances that when nominating election candidates there would be no special treatment given to those who held positions at the presidential office.
"Among the candidate hopefuls who held posts at Cheong Wa Dae, there are people who have a high chance of winning and who the party needs. But there are also others who only show off their career at Cheong Wa Dae while they did not make substantial contributions to the party," said Yang Jeong-cheol, director of the Institute for Democracy, the think tank of the DPK. "There will never be special treatment for them."
But criticism from the opposition parties are likely to continue. The LKP filed a complaint with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, Wednesday, against Ko, Youn and SMEs and Startups Minister Park Young-sun for violating the Public Official Election Act.
According to the party, Ko made remarks against the opposition party during a KBS radio program, Jan. 8 when she was holding the public post, which is against the regulation that public servants need to be politically neutral.
It also said Park and Youn visited residents and regional DPK office members in Guro, western Seoul, which is now Park's constituency and is expected to be the region where Youn will run. The LKP said their visit was a de facto election campaign, so Park did not keep political neutrality and Youn conducted electioneering before the official campaign period.
