[Editorial] Lee Administration’s System in Crisis

President Lee Myung-bak held an emergency meeting with his aides on whether to amend his speech for the opening of the 18th National Assembly at 2 p.m. last Friday when the shooting of a South Korean tourist in the Mountain Geumgang resort in North Korea took place. As the address was scheduled to be given at 2:20 p.m., he had only 20 minutes to decide. While some argued that the content that proposed conversation with Pyongyang should be changed or dropped, the majority was in favor of keeping it. Such an important decision was made at an instant meeting. This is a classic example that shows how poor the risk management system of this administration really is.

No one knows when or what kinds of accidents might happen when South Korean people cross the border to the North, our enemy state, even just for sightseeing. It does not make sense that the report made by private companies is the only source for the commander in chief. What are the military, the National Information Agency, and the Unification Ministry doing? It is deplorable that after just listening to what Hyundai Asan said the Joint Chiefs of Staff reported to the presidential office that it was assumed that the victim died of a disease. It is also equally wretched that corrections were not made even after the truth became known.

It should not be overlooked that the presidential office, the control tower for risk management, was not functioning properly. There is a taskforce for risk management but it is temporary and has lower status, poorer function and less expertise than the previous administration. When a contingency happens, it cannot directly report to the president. That explains why it took one hour and 50 minutes for the presidential office to report the incident to the president.

A contingency can happen in any country. The point is whether the country is capable of coping with and managing it. A government’s effectiveness is determined by that ability. In this area, the Lee Myung-bak administration is close to failure. The same thing repeats again even after it suffered the protests against U.S. beef imports over the past two months, which was caused by lack of understanding of the crisis.

Some say that the government’s risk management system is not just out of order, it does not exist. The communication between the presidential office and ministries is poor and organizations and government officials are not in their right positions. Some have even said that this is a “government in an incubator.”

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The government is no exception. If the Lee administration does not find its weakest link, it may face yet another crisis.