Pres. Park’s leadership resembles that of her parents

In two months since taking office, President Park Geun-hye is said to have a similar leadership style with that of her parents, which she must have learned in the presidential office as the daughter of a first family.

She is said to have displayed her father’s attitude while being debriefed by the government agencies lasted over a month since March 21, and the trade and investment promotion meeting held on Wednesday. In order to push forward with her ideas, President Park strongly demand that ministers and all presidential office staff ranging from rank-and-file officers to senior secretaries move just like a single body.

A source at the presidential office said Thursday, “President Park focuses on whether ministries accomplish tasks, not on what kind of work ministries take care of. That’s why the president puts emphasis on cooperation among ministries.” At Wednesday’s trade promotion meeting, President Park received a joint report by the ministries, instead of individual one.

The president’s inviting working-level officials to meetings with senior officials is similar to those conducted by her father, former President Park Chung-hee. The former president used to invite business people or citizens to presidential meetings so that they could ask questions directly to government officials and even make policy suggestions.

At meetings, President Park elaborated on her ideas giving various examples to make sure everyone understood her ideas clearly. Over the briefing period, the president gave 79 goals to be achieved. Some people say Park tries hard to communicate well with public officials, while others say she tries to dictate subordinates like a monarch.

Her mother and former First Lady Yuk Young-soo used to spend the night reading and replying to the letters from the people. Like her mother, President Park has tried to respond even to the smallest requests from the people.

President Park is said to have paid special efforts to appoint her secretary of civil service and finally chose Lim Jong-hun, former administrative head of the presidential transition committee, for the post. Lim is nine years older than the average age of other presidential secretaries. The president told the secretary to attend all the meeting she presides. Lim will also accompany the president in her first official visit to the U.S., which is unprecedented.

The civil service secretariat and the second affiliate secretariat take care of complaints to the presidential office, which are officially received via mail and ARS, or lawmakers and the president herself received. For example, a ruling party lawmaker asked the president at a luncheon meeting to help resolve the conflict over an apartment building project near the Joseon Dynasty royal tomb Yoonggeon in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. The president ordered the civil service secretariat to take care of the matter.

The civil service secretariat has developed a civil management system. Information of the person submitted the complaint, the progress in the complaint-solving efforts, the result and follow-up management will be all recorded in a civil complaint card. A source from the presidential office said, “President Park believes that solving complaints from the people one by one will lead to happiness of the people. She might have learned it from her mother who read the letters from the people and tried to help those afflicted.

ditto@donga.com