hankyoreh

On Jan. 6, President Park Geun-hye held a press conference for domestic and foreign reporters, her first since taking office. At the press conference, she explained her plan for running the country in the second year of her presidency.

Park made her intentions to stimulate the economy clear, as a large part of her comments was dedicated to economic issues. But overall, instead of presenting a new message or plan, Park basically reiterated her standard positions.

The press conference was particularly disappointing in the sense that she ignored public demand to use the conference as a chance to launch a new style of communication.

The press conference was lacking in both form and of content. In the Q&A session with reporters, Park referred to her notes for her responses, as the Blue House acquired all of the questions in advance and prepared the president’s answers.

Not only does following a prepared script not match the format of a conference, but it also disappointed the public expectation that they would hear Park speak for herself. It is not easy to deduce the leadership philosophy or vision of a president who simply reads off answers prepared by her advisors.

It was extremely regrettable that Park reaffirmed her hard-line stance on public demands for communication at the press conference. “As I see it, attending perfunctory meetings and accepting or compromising with positions that go against the public interest is not compromise,” Park said.

As Park would have it, true communication only takes place when Park meets with people that she has on her own decided are not working against the public interest. Park is arbitrarily and arrogantly saying that she will select partners for communication as are convenient for her.

Park also didn’t offer any real solutions for current political issues. She effectively rejected requests for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate state institutions’ interference in the 2012 presidential election, explaining that the cases are still being tried. She also made it clear that discussion about rooting out political involvement by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) ended with the first round of legislation that was passed at the end of 2013. It is precisely this approach that caused the NIS incident to snowball over the past year.

In the area of economics, her proposal to set up a three-year plan for economic innovation is strikingly similar to the five-year economic development plans from the administration of former president Park Chung-hee (the current president’s father). This is meaningful in the sense that it is goal-oriented, but an obsession with achieving certain figures, such as a 4% growth rate, US$40,000 in per capita income or 70% employment, could lead to pursuing impractical policies that don’t reflect reality.

Park’s three major strategies for economic innovation are also too peripheral to capture the main trends in the South Korean economy. Park offered reform of the public sector as a keyword for “normalization of the abnormal”, but this is not closely related to boosting the flagging growth rate or to correcting the distorted distribution of wealth, which are crucial issues facing the South Korean economy. It was regrettable that Park did not make a single comment about economic democratization or other key strategies that could change the basic composure or nature of the economy.

In the area of foreign affairs and national security, Park simply proposed a meeting of divided families around Lunar New Year to North Korea without departing from her standard position. She stayed on message with her emphasis of the necessity of unification - saying “unification is the jackpot” - but she did not offer a plan to achieve this. Given her emphasis on resolving the issue of North Korean nuclear weapons, it is difficult detect any signs that she means to seek a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations.

At least Park proposed meetings between divided families. The government needs to make this happen and use it as a chance to bring North and South back to the table for talks.

Park’s press conference fell far short of the goals of a New Year press conference, which should be a chance to talk and communicate with the public at the beginning of the year. Indeed, it is tempting to think that Park viewed the conference as a chance to peddle her policies and views to the Korean people. She made no attempt to walk a mile in the shoes of her opponents, nor embrace the 48% of Koreans who did not vote for her. In a word, the press conference was disconnected from public concerns, bereft of both feeling and vision.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]