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South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks on vaccine development at SK Bioscience in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on Oct. 15. (provided by the Blue House)

On Dec. 22, the Blue House published comments made in internal meetings to underline that President Moon Jae-in had ordered officials to secure a supply of COVID-19 vaccines. The Blue House was apparently responding to criticism by the opposition party and the conservative press, including the Chosun Ilbo, that the South Korean government was slow to take action on vaccines. Critics of the Moon administration have emphasized that vaccination is already underway in countries such as the US and the UK.

“We earnestly appeal for a stop to the ‘politicization of vaccines,’” said Blue House Spokesperson Kang Min-seok in a statement issued to the press on the evening of Dec. 21. The statement was accompanied by a roundup of comments that Moon has made about COVID-19 vaccines, both on and off the record.

According to the document, Moon told Blue House secretaries in a meeting on Nov. 24 that “we must base our questions about the safety of vaccines on science and medicine, provided that they are shipped and handled with care.” Moon also instructed his secretaries to “do their best to secure” the vaccines. Then in a subsequent meeting on Nov. 30, Moon told his secretaries to “secure a supply of vaccines that goes beyond what we need” and to take their task seriously.

During a visit to the Institut Pasteur Korea in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on Apr. 9, Moon said, “We need to store up the vaccines and medications that are developed even after the pandemic is over. Let’s see this through to the end.” After learning in a closed-door meeting with his secretaries on July 21 that SK Bioscience had been commissioned to manufacture a vaccine by AstraZeneca, Moon instructed staff to set aside “an adequate supply.” Moon gave similar instructions more than 10 times over the past year, the Blue House said.

The Blue House’s publication of the president’s off-the-record remarks and its emphasis on correcting the record appear to be closely linked to the conservative press’s repeated attempts to blame the Blue House for Korea’s delayed acquisition of the vaccine. The Chosun Ilbo ran a headline on the morning of Dec. 22 claiming that Moon had “belatedly rebuked his aides,” while a Joongang Ilbo headline on the same day said, “Moon was personally told about vaccines twice, with no effect.”

Opposition parties including the People Power Party have used those reports as ammunition in a barrage of attacks on Moon and the Blue House.

People Power Party Joo Ho-young had sharp words for Moon on Dec. 22. “What the Korean people are most interested in right now is when the vaccine will be supplied. Around the world, acquiring the vaccine is the responsibility of the president, and the president can’t just shirk that responsibility by blaming his underlings for failing to carry out his orders to acquire the vaccine.”

“We winnowed down the president’s actions on the vaccine to the necessary minimum. Our goal was to correct the record about what the president has said and done, including messages that were previously off the record, because public distrust is being provoked by exaggerated and misleading claims that the president didn’t do anything to acquire the vaccine,” Kang Min-seok explained in a statement released on Dec. 22.

The Blue House’s vigorous response to criticism from the opposition party and the press about vaccine acquisition seems to reflect concerns that a botched vaccination campaign could undermine the success of Moon’s much-vaunted “K-quarantine” method of battling infectious diseases.

In a poll released by Gallup Korea on Dec. 18, the top reason for saying that Moon is doing a good job as president, chosen by 29% of those respondents, was his handling of COVID-19. With negative views of Moon’s real estate policy and the conflict between the Justice Ministry and the prosecution service dragging down Moon’s approval rating, his handling of COVID-19 is effectively the one thing propping up his ratings.

Even granting the validity of the Blue House’s rebuttal and explanations, the Blue House will likely have to bear some of the blame for mounting distrust about the government’s efforts to acquire vaccines. It’s also undeniable that officials have focused exclusively on promoting the success of K-quarantine while making little effort to boost communication between the president and the public.

That’s why pundits observe that, if Moon was aware of the difficulties of concluding vaccine contracts with foreign pharmaceutical firms as his published comments suggest and if he’d candidly shared that information with Koreans and asked for their understanding, he could have avoided giving the impression that he was castigating his staff for his own lack of action.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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