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The front of the Blue House on Oct. 26. The previous day President Park Geun-hye had made an apology for the Choi Sun-sil scandal

The South Korean public sector has been rocked by the news that Choi Sun-sil - a confidante of President Park Geun-hye thought to have exerted an inappropriate influence on political decisions - had her fingers in all aspects of government, from personnel decisions in major government departments to Park’s speeches and government policy. Government officials are unable to hold back their dismay. “I’m confused about who the president is. This is the most shocking incident I’ve ever seen,” one said.

“The president was making her apology to the public, but the main thing I was wondering about was not what she was saying but rather whether she had run all this by Choi Sun-sil,” said a senior official in a ministry related to the economy. “The public sector is a place that orbits around the president, and now we can’t trust her anymore. This is the first time I’ve experienced something like this, and I feel confused and terrible.”

“For public servants, the word of the president is gospel. The instructions of the president are so influential that we keep a separate record of them. Seeing on the news that Choi had picked Park’s outfits, meddled in appointments of public officials and even determined what Park was going to say made me feel like Park is a puppet. It’s so discouraging,” said a senior official at a ministry that deals with social issues.

Government officials are also voicing concerns about the breakdown of the system of administration. “Public administration involves systems and protocol, but they didn’t work at all at the top. It makes you wonder why we need aides or a public sector,” said a high-ranking official in a ministry dealing with social affairs.

“This is on a completely different level from lame duck periods in past administrations. Public servants have moved beyond disbelief into anger,” the official said.

“I thought that the public sector was a system in which a president who is elected to hold power and senior administrators appointed by that president are responsible for running the government, but that wasn’t the case. President Park didn’t trust public servants,” said a senior official in a ministry responsible for the economy.

“It came as quite a shock that Park‘s chief of staff said that this couldn’t have even happened in the feudal period. That means that he didn’t know anything about this,” the same official said.

Some reactions were more extreme. “Simply put, this is a fiasco. It makes me wonder if this is even a government. No matter how logically and objectively you try to look at it, this crossed the line,” said a high-ranking official in a ministry related to the economy.

“The current situation is kind of like Shin Don and King Gongmin during the Goryeo Dynasty. It’s just ridiculous,” said an official in a ministry dealing with social issues, referring to an episode from Korean history. “There‘s just no way that this makes sense. In the end, Koreans elected Choi Sun-sil to be their president.”

Government agencies are also having trouble carrying out their responsibilities. Key government programs must eventually be cleared by the Blue House, and the situation is getting out of hand. There is a heap of urgent matters that the government needs to address immediately, including economic growth, industrial restructuring, real estate programs, household debt and the budget.

“Even if we make up our mind to do our work and not get distracted, work just doesn’t go very well when there‘s no one in charge,” admitted a high-ranking official in a ministry dealing with the economy.

“No matter how good the programs that we announce, they won’t work when the public has lost its trust in the president. Programs aren’t always effective even when the leadership is backing them, and it’s even harder under the current circumstances,” said another senior official in a ministry responsible for the economy.

Public servants have also expressed their frustration with how Park has been responding to the crisis. “Every day, they peel back another layer of the Choi Sun-sil scandal. President Park’s apology to the public is not enough. What we need now is a complete overhaul of the Blue House staff,” said one senior official in a ministry dealing with social matters.

“President Park has placed the greatest emphasis thus far on reinforcing discipline in the public sector, but now it is Park who has ruined public discipline. The first thing she needs to do is to come clean about the allegations related to Choi,” said a senior official in a ministry responsible for the economy.

By Kim So-youn, staff reporter

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