Seol Hoon: "Inkukgong Incident... Not Fake News but Has Amplified Aspects"

Cheong Wa Dae Official: "Some Media's Fake News on Incheon International Airport Corporation 'Lotto Employment'"
Seol Hoon: "Not Speculation or Fake News, but There Is an Amplified Aspect"

Seol Hoon, Supreme Council Member of the Democratic Party of Korea./Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy reporters Seunggon Han and intern Seulgi Kim] As the controversy over Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) converting non-regular security screening personnel to regular employees intensifies day by day, a Blue House official pointed out that "the IIAC lottery hiring reports are fake news," followed by Seol Hoon, a Supreme Council member of the Democratic Party of Korea, stating on the 29th, "(The IIAC incident) is not entirely baseless speculation or fake news, but there is an aspect of amplification."

In an interview with CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' on the morning of the same day, Supreme Council member Seol said, "I think it's a similar situation to the conflict between self-employed business owners and part-time workers due to the minimum wage."

Seol explained, "At the root of this controversy is the fundamental problem that young people find it difficult to get jobs. Therefore, the government, the political sphere, and especially economic actors must take responsibility and work to resolve the youth employment issue."

He added, "The claim that job seekers' hiring opportunities have decreased is somewhat different from the truth. For example, the issue is mixed between the regular employees' union and the non-regular workers who were moved to subsidiaries instead of direct employment by the corporation. In particular, there is a perspective that this is a kind of 'war of the underdogs' regarding the conversion of non-regular workers to regular employees."

Members of the Incheon International Airport Corporation Labor Union held placards as they announced their stance on the regularization of non-regular security screening personnel during a press conference near the Blue House in Seoul on the afternoon of the 25th. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Supreme Council member Seol continued, "Airport security screening personnel should be properly qualified no matter where in the world you go. Therefore, I believe it is wrong that security screening personnel are non-regular workers. They should be converted to regular employees to maintain proper security and ensure safety."

He added, "If non-regular workers are converted to regular employees, the entire economic circulation system of our society will change, and since the public sector is making this change, similar movements to convert to regular employment will arise in private companies as well," emphasizing the government's policy of 'converting non-regular workers to regular employees.'

He expressed dissatisfaction with media coverage, saying, "The problem lies in the structure where small issues are repeatedly blown out of proportion in reports, and even fake news is used to inflate conflicts."

Seol criticized the media's expanded coverage, stating, "We need to solve the fundamental employment problem, but continuously creating problems out of trivial issues benefits no one."

Earlier, a Blue House official stated on the 28th regarding the 'IIAC incident,' "Initially, on social networking services (SNS), a person who claimed to be a security screening personnel posted as if they were converted to a regular employee without any public recruitment process and were receiving an annual salary of around 50 million won. Some media outlets reported this without verification as 'lottery hiring.'"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.