Uninformed President and Incompetent Aides

As former Chief National Policy Secretary Byeon Yang-gyun turned out to have lied about his romantic tie to Shin Jeong-ah, more and more people are pointing fingers at President Roh and his aides who have been silent about the issue.

In regard to Byeon’s corruption allegations, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs Jeon Hae-cheol made a false report to the president without proper verification, and the presidential press office led by Yoon Seung-yong waged attacks on media outlets when they raised suspicions related to these matters. An ill-advised President Roh also said the Byeon-Shin scandal was, “preposterous” or “seemed right out of a story book.”

Without verifying the truth, Roh and his aides have invited their lame duck phenomenon by trying to refute to claims by the media and make up excuses.

Presidential Office on National Policy in Deep Trouble –

Senior presidential secretary for civil affairs Jeon on September 10 acknowledged that former secretary Byeon gave favors to Shin but continued to make lame excuses including, “Due to personal ties between Buddhist priest Jang Yun and Shin, there was nothing we could do but to hear what Byeon had to say. We were not in a position to know the details of personally arranged meetings.”

The presidential office on national policy is in charge of keeping a close eye on the press, verifying and supervising credentials of high-ranking officials, and managing issues related to relatives and aides of the president. However, it failed to reveal the lies told by Byeon, all because of the blind faith in Byeon - the presidential secretary and heavily trusted right arm of the president.

The presidential office on national policy has a history of being incompetent. It found out the involvement of the president’s former protocol secretary Jeong Yoon-jae in a bribery scandal between a construction company and the director of the Busan Regional National Tax Service, Jeong Sahng-gohn, only after he was arrested on August 9.

The presidential office on national policy asked the prosecution whether it was okay to accept the resignation letter of Jeong, and it did so after prosecutors had said, “Jeong was there when bribes were handed to the director; however, he did not receive any money in the process.”

No internal investigation was launched in order to seek the truth of the case and to write a thorough report. Its only concern was to facilitate the resignation of Jeong as it wanted to mitigate the consequences of the issue.

These facts were hidden from the Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson even after Jeong’s involvement was disclosed, so when Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Cheon Ho-seon was asked in regard to the resignation letter, he said initially, “That’s strange,” before he had to change what he said in a few minutes.

It was not the first time the presidential office on national policy made grave mistakes. When Jeon Hyo-sook failed to become the chief justice of the constitutional court even though she was appointed by the president last September by being ignorant to a clause that says, “The chief justice should be elected among incumbent judges,” the presidential office on national policy was to blame because it turned Jeon into a civilian, effectively making her appointment invalid.

This was disclosed by Jeon during the national assembly audit session when she said, “Presidential secretary Jeon called to inform me of the appointment, but also told me to submit a letter of resignation because of the issues related to the tenure of the chief justice.” UNDP lawmaker Kang Seong-jong criticized secretary Jeon, “If he were to work for a private company, he would have been fired a long time ago.”

Presidential Press Office Is Too Outspoken –

The presidential press office said the above on August 30 in a report titled “No Powers in the Current Administration” in the Cheong Wa Dae Briefing, and strongly criticized the media that was attacking presidential secretaries Byeon and Jeon. To the media outlets that were suspicious of influential powers helping shamed professor Shin Jeong-ah, it said, “Name names, then we will tell you whether they are influential or not,” undermining press coverage of the issue as unfounded. In another article, the press office mocked the media, “The media is brandishing weapons using their power and it is injuring itself to destroy its trust with the public.”

Cheong Wa Dae Briefing is being criticized for “collectively hypnotizing” Roh and his aides as it has been launching counter attacks against the media without first vetting the truth of issues. Presidential spokesperson Cheon Ho-seon cannot escape his action either, because he delivered to the public pure lies he learned from the presidential offices on national policy and press, regardless of whether he followed his own principles or was compelled to do so.

jin0619@donga.com