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President Park Geun-hye addresses an event to celebrate the 71st Liberation Day

During her Liberation Day address on Aug. 15, President Park Geun-hye confidently insisted that critics should not “disparage” South Korea, saying, “There is no such thing as ‘Hell Joseon.’ There is only a Republic of Korea that is the envy of the world.”

But all the symbolic terms associated with “Hell Joseon” - corruption, special treatment, rich people behaving badly, “silver spoons,” and so-called “parachute appointments” of unqualified people to top jobs - have been directed at her very own associates and the Cabinet candidates she has selected. Critics blasted Park’s address for devolving into an amalgam of her ‘out-of-body-experience’ speaking style.

In the same address, Park talked about the “growing societal costs of a widespread culture of ignorance and contempt for the law.” She also accused everyone of “trying to hold on to their own vested interests while assigning blame to others.” Yet it’s the behavior of Park and her Blue House - which have gone all in on shielding Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs Woo Byung-woo after various allegations of improprieties and illegalities - that politicians have accused of representing the height of contempt for the law, blaming others, and protecting vested interests.

Even after a special inspector’s investigation was commissioned and prosecutors conducted a search and seizure on Woo, the Blue House has held out, insisting that “corrupt vested interests” at the Chosun Ilbo newspaper are trying to “undermine the administration.” Even after allegations that Woo used a borrowed name to acquire land in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, raising strong suspicions of a false property registration, the Blue House has consistently played dumb.

“They’re not meeting the public at its level in any way. I couldn’t tell you why the Blue House keeps making Woo’s issues their own,” lamented one second-term lawmaker with the ruling Saenuri Party. It’s a situation where Woo’s situation has become a governance black hole sucking up vast political and societal resources.

Meanwhile, accusations of a presidential associate being “parachuted” into a leadership position at a public enterprise have been rife after former Blue House speech and archive secretary Cho In-geun - the one responsible for Park’s “rhetoric” over the past 12 years - was appointed auditor for the Korea Securities Finance Corporation. In her address, Park voiced a strong commitment to four areas of reform in the public and financial sectors. “We have improved the constitution of our economy by pursuing structural reforms in four areas based on a three-year plan for economic reform,” she declared.

Yet just two weeks later on Aug. 29, Cho was appointed auditor for South Korea’s only specialized institution for stock-secured loans, despite having no expertise in the area. A graduate in Korean literature with zero career experience in finance, his only job since 2004 has been to craft messages for Park. Just two months after leaving the Blue House for “health reasons,” Cho was granted a cushy two-year position with yearly earnings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Park also stressed the importance of a “healthy community culture,” where “everyone gives up a little of what they have, sharing the smallest things to help each other through the difficult times.” Critics accused her of ignoring a reality of serious youth unemployment and social polarization, a situation epitomized by the recent coinages “dirt spoon” and “silver spoon.” Her Cabinet reshuffle on Aug. 16, two days after Liberation Day, also flew in the face of her own statements.

The nominee for Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Kim Jae-soo, has been accused of speculation with a large corporation bearing close operational ties to Nonghyup, a financial institution under the ministry’s authority. The claim is that Kim treated Nonghyup like his own personal coffer, buying a 460 million-won (US$411,800) house with almost no money of his own and earning a market profit of 347 million won (US$310,700) on it five years later. The nominee for Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism is Cho Yoon-sun, one of Park’s closest associates and a figure who has been called the “queen of revolving-door appointments” for the different posts she has cycled through under the Park administration. She has also come under fire for spending in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, including 500 million won (US$447,600) in yearly “living costs.” The opposition has also raised allegations that her daughter was granted preferential treatment through hiring as an intern at two finance- and entertainment-related businesses despite not meeting the criteria.

“How many people are going to agree with President Park asking them not to have a ‘historical perception of repudiation and disparagement’ when they look at the scandal surrounding Woo Byung-woo?” asked Myongji University professor Kim Hyung-joon on Aug. 31.

“Trust in the administration is going to fall when it’s working for its own associates instead of the people,” Kim added. “President Park is going to lose any momentum for carrying forward her four major reforms.”

Political critic Yu Chang-seon said Park “seems to think nothing of the kind of behavior that creates a sense of dissonance and frustration with the public.”

“Before telling people not to be self-disparaging with their ‘Hell Joseon’ comments, she needs to seriously reflect on herself.”

By Kim Nam-il, staff reporter

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