hankyoreh

June 24. (by Shin So-young

By Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent

Facing fierce public opposition because of his reactionary views on history and his extreme conservatism, Moon Chang-geuk voluntarily withdrew his nomination for prime minister on June 24. This is the second time a prime minister is being chosen only one year and four months into the presidency of Park Geun-hye, and Moon is the third nominee, following Kim Yong-joon and Ahn Dae-hee, to be forced to step aside. All three of the nominees stepped aside during the informal evaluation period, none of them making it to the parliamentary hearing, setting a disgraceful record.

On Tuesday morning, Moon held a press conference at the Central Government Complex in Seoul. “Since I was nominated for prime minister, the country has fallen into even greater conflict and division. I am concerned that this situation will become an obstacle for the President as she tries to run the country,” Moon told reporters. “I decided that stepping aside at this point would be helpful to Park.”

Without saying a single word about her own responsibility for the failed appointment, Park took aim at the media and politicians who had held Moon up to scrutiny.

“The whole point of having confirmation hearings in the National Assembly is so that we can assess nominees and hear the people’s evaluation, and it’s really too bad that Moon didn’t make it to the hearing. I really hope that in the future nominees will be given a chance to clear up misunderstandings during the hearing and that they and their families will not be forced to endure pain and disgrace for the rest of their lives,” Blue House spokesperson Min Kyung-wook reported Park as saying immediately after Moon withdrew his nomination.

Public opinion had soured because of Park’s botched appointments, which prompted her to put off asking the National Assembly to hold a hearing for Moon. As a result, Moon voluntarily withdrew his bid before the hearing could take place.

Despite this, Park said it was “too bad” that Moon was not given a chance to clarify his position during the hearing. Park’s comments also indicate that she holds the irresponsible position that the media‘s vetting of Moon was flawed, that the ruling party’s calls for Moon to voluntarily withdraw was based on this flawed assessment, and that ultimately there was nothing wrong with her appointment of Moon.

The Moon affair revealed not only President Park and the Blue House’s irresponsibility but also their helplessness and incompetence in running the country. It has already been two months since Prime Minister Chung Hong-won express his intention to resign, taking the blame for the government’s inept response to the Sewol tragedy. Considering that it will take some time before a confirmation hearing is held for the next nominee for prime minister, South Korea will be stuck with a lame duck prime minister for at least a third month.

The directorship of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) has been vacant for 35 days, and the Ministry of National Defense has been without a head for 24 days, because of the confusing fact that current Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin has been appointed to be the next National Security Director.

The vow that Park made after the Sewol tragedy to fix the problems with the civil service and the slogan of “national restoration” are already losing steam after a series of botched appointments.

It is still uncertain whether Park will replace the broken appointment system. One positive sign would be the replacement of Park’s Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon, who is the chair of the Blue House appointment committee, but even inside the Blue House, there is little confidence about the extent to which Park will heed public opinion.

On Tuesday, Kim Moo-sung, a lawmaker with the Saenuri Party who has a good shot of becoming the party’s next leader, took aim at Kim Ki-choon, saying that, as the person in charge of appointments, he deserves some of the blame for two nominees for prime minister being shot down. But Suh Chung-won, another Saenuri Party lawmaker and a frontrunner in the race for party leader, pointed out that the chief of staff is not the person who vets nominees, moving to squelch calls for Kim‘s dismissal.

“The will of the public is to take swift and appropriate measures against Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon, the person responsible for recommending and vetting nominations. President Park ought to ask the forgiveness of the public as well,” said Park Gwang-on, spokesperson for the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), in a statement issued after Moon withdrew his nomination for prime minister.

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