So, the elected president of Republic of Korea has formed a government, but its confirmation has to go through the parliament, which is controlled by the democrats. And, of course, there were “questions” about the nominees. And while in some cases they were relevant, in others they resemble the Russian proverb that you can get to the bottom of a telegraph pole if you want to.
Let’s start with the general claims that Yoon Suk-yeol chose nominees based on their ability and experience, but “failed to reflect more diversity in the gender, birthplace and age of the nominees”. As a result, the average age of ministerial nominees was around 60.5, there were few women ministers, and in terms of regionalism, there were too many representatives from the Yeongnam region, a traditional conservative stronghold. There are also a significant number of appointees who worked in the administrations of previous conservative presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, as well as graduates of Korea’s elite universities who hail from Seoul.
Another problem is that 6 of the 19 nominees for the Cabinet were outside directors of private enterprises and there are concerns as to whether they will sensibly deal with issues where the interests of their former employers are affected.
Prime Minister nominee Han Duck-soo from December 2017 to 2022 served as an adviser to Kim & Chang, South Korea’s largest law firm, and S Oil. Lee Chang-yang, a nominee for the post of Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, was an outside director of TCK, SK hynix and LG Display from 2009 to 2021. Park Bo-kyung, who was appointed Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, was the external director of Shinsegae International. Lee Sang-min (nominee for Minister of Public Administration and Security), Wha-jin (nominee for Minister of Environment) and Chung Hwang-geun (nominee for Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) once served as outside directors at AK Holdings, Samsung Electronics and NongHyup Holdings respectively.
In a poll conducted by the Korea Society Opinion Institute, 63.2% said it is inappropriate for high-ranking government officials like Han to serve as outside directors or advisers to private companies after their retirement from public service.
Now let’s talk about the claims against specific individuals. Let’s start with Han Duck-soo, who was supposed to be discussed first. His confirmation hearings were to be held on April 25-26. Han was expected to be questioned about an alleged conflict of interest related to the rental of his house in the 1990s, as well as the large salary he received as an adviser to law firm Kim & Chang, about 1.8 billion won ($1.46 million). Han is also accused of increasing his wife’s assets by about 1.2 billion won ($980,000) over the past decade, during which time she was a full-time housewife. According to media reports, one painting she painted was sold for 16 million won, while three others were sold for 23 million won. However, it is unclear how her fortune increased to 1.2 billion won between 2012 and 2022, though she stated her occupation as “housewife.”
Han’s confirmation was initially expected to go smoothly, but democrats said he should clear up the controversy over his past, when he served as an adviser to Kim & Chang, which was the legal representative for Lone Star Funds, whose controversial acquisition of stakes in the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) sparked nationwide turmoil in 2003.
Holding a press conference in the National Assembly, MPs from the ruling Toburo Democratic Party and the opposition Justice Party said that Han’s side refused to provide such material, citing opposition to the release of personal information, fears of breach of confidentiality, expiration of document retention and trade secrets.
The democrats eventually left the room on the morning of April 25 in protest because they felt Han had provided insufficient information about himself, and the hearing adjourned less than an hour after it began. The next day, the boycott continued.
But most questionable is Chung Ho-yeon, a friend of Yoon’s for more than 45 years and a nominee to head the Ministry of Health and Welfare, who is accused of using his influence as the head of the Jeonbuk National University Hospital to help his daughter and son transfer to the said university’s faculty of medicine in 2017 and 2018. Then there is the suspicious medical examination for the army of the future minister’s son, who was allegedly against physical activity because of a spinal disease, which supposedly turned out to be a lie: five years earlier, he had been found fit for active service.
These accusations are causing a stir because they are similar to accusations that the daughter of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk had acted in a similar manner on the basis of falsified documents and her admission was recently annulled after the falsification was proved by a court.
Moreover, in 2012 Chung stated that childbirth is “an act of patriotism,” but today it is seen by his critics as a way to blame social problems related to Korea’s chronically low birth rate on women.
Naturally, for the democrats “a suspicion” quickly turned into “a proven fact,” after which statements that they should sort it out first and remove the nominees only if corruption is proven are hysterical. “That’s the kind of justice in a Yoonian way.”
On April 17, Chung Ho-yeon rejected the accusations related to his children, apologizing for causing public concern: after which he called for an objective investigation into the accusations and made clear that he would not withdraw his nomination for minister and would explain all “bottlenecks” at a public hearing.
The office of the president-elect on the one hand denied media reports that the president-elect and Chung had been friends for about 40 years, but also said that the question of whether Chung was suitable for the post of health minister should be decided after his confirmation hearings. However, in the view of Yoon’s critics, suspicions cannot be lifted by leaving the investigation to government agencies without regard to the influence of the new president. As Ha Tae-keung, the leader of one of the People’s Power factions, said, “it is political judgment, not legal judgment, that matters” and while Chung may feel falsely accused, the right thing for him to do is to resign voluntarily, otherwise it will cause outrage and people will think the matter is unclear.
Kim In-chul, Yoon’s appointee as education minister, also raises questions. Democrats claim that as soon as it became known that Yoon wanted him heading the ministry, university students came out on a picket demanding the immediate withdrawal of his nomination. Allegedly, Kim In-chul is widely known for his view that education should be for the select few, not for all. As such, he lobbied for higher university fees as rector and secretly took an “inventory” of students to see who had what parents, after which children from wealthy families were treated more leniently for “donations to the university.”
More serious charges against Kim relate to the fact that he improperly held the additional position of non-executive director of Lotte Chemical, then Lotte Advanced Materials, and earned more than 100 million won ($81,000) during his term. This includes the story that Kim In-Chul and three other members of his family unreasonably received so-called Fulbright scholarships from a non-profit organization jointly supported by the United States and Korean governments.
Yoon’s nomination of Han Dong-hoon, one of his closest aides, as minister of justice has also stirred controversy. Critics said he lacked management experience and expressed concern that Han’s appointment would damage the separation of powers between the presidential office and the prosecutor’s office.
There are also concerns about some of the other ministerial candidates over their “past inappropriate comments.” For example, Lee Chang-yang, a nominee to head the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, told the media in 2010 that introducing a fine to punish couples who do not have children, despite their financial stability, may be a political measure to counteract Korea’s low birth rate. Whereas critics accused him of viewing people as machines for procreation, Lee argued that he was simply presenting an alternative to politics from an economist’s perspective.
While it is unclear which of these and other accusations could be the cause for a real investigation and which is no more than an excuse to make a fuss, the battle will clearly be heated and getting all his men into key positions may not work out for Yoon.
Konstantin Asmolov, PhD in History, leading research fellow at the Center for Korean Studies of the Institute of the Far East at the Russian Academy of Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.