Yoon Hee-sook to Lee Jae-myung on "Hwang Gyo-ik President Nomination": "Is the Gyeonggi Governor a King?... Bleak"

Yoon Hee-sook calls Hwang Kyo-ik a "'Taste Gapjilnist' not a 'Taste Columnist'"
Hwang Kyo-ik responds to favoritism controversy, "I am a Moon supporter, not a Lee Jae-myung supporter"

Yoon Hee-sook, a preliminary candidate for the People Power Party presidential primary.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Yoon Heesook, a presidential candidate from the People Power Party, directly criticized Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung on the 17th for nominating taste columnist Hwang Kyo-ik (59) as president of the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization, asking, "Is the governor of Gyeonggi a king?"

On the same day, Yoon posted on her Facebook a post titled "Governor Lee Jae-myung, do you appoint the head of the Tourism Organization just for backing you? Is the governor of Gyeonggi a king?"

She said, "Governor Lee has made some correct statements before. For example, 'If the president gives a position to each of his close associates, it becomes like Choi Soon-sil,'" adding, "There are tens of thousands of positions that the president can appoint at will in our country. Although there are specified procedures, they are meaningless if the president decides otherwise."

She continued, "The Moon Jae-in administration even distributed university president positions run by the state to the heads of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions," criticizing, "This is an excessive abuse of personnel authority."

She added, "This is why the Blue House inevitably shakes the country. It is a shameful sight that in a country with the world's 10th largest economy, economic evaluations are manipulated at the president's word, nuclear power plants are shut down, and public officials end up in prison," explaining, "This is why several presidential candidates, including myself, have proposed system reforms to check the president's absolute power."

Yoon also mentioned Hwang, who was nominated as president of the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization under Gyeonggi Province, pointing out that he is "a figure who has been controversial several times for his arbitrary remarks and behavior." She sarcastically added, "When he said 'Tteokbokki is just a food socially brainwashed to be delicious' or criticized Baek Jong-won's cooking by mentioning his physique, I felt he was not a 'taste columnist' but a 'taste power abuser'."

She continued, "Since all food is socially influenced anyway, his arbitrary and showy attitude that turns tteokbokki lovers into 'ignorant beings easily brainwashed without knowing taste' actually reveals why he is close to Governor Lee," sharply criticizing.

Furthermore, she said, "The work of the Tourism Organization should capture the market logic and humanistic soil behind people's movements as they are," adding, "Yet, nominating him as head of the institution just because he publicly defended the governor's shortcomings clearly shows how much Governor Lee has privatized his power and how much more he will abuse it in the future."

Finally, she concluded, "Our country urgently needs someone to take on the historic task of curing the 'Blue House syndrome,' where the president and his close aides run their own government and shake the country," adding, "Although it seems no ruling party candidate can handle this task, it is truly bleak that someone who has so openly privatized power is a presidential candidate."

Taste columnist Hwang Kyo-ik has been nominated as the president of Gyeonggi Tourism Organization, an institution under Gyeonggi Province, sparking controversy.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, Gyeonggi Province recently nominated Hwang as the new president candidate of the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization. The province explained the nomination background as "a judgment based on expertise and other factors."

However, suspicions of a 'favor appointment' arose based on Hwang's defense of Governor Lee's past 'insulting his sister-in-law' controversy on a radio show and the fact that both are alumni of Chung-Ang University.

As the controversy grew, Hwang refuted on his Facebook, saying, "There are many talks about this being a favor appointment, but as a supporter of President Moon Jae-in, if I were to receive favors, it would be from the Moon Jae-in administration, not from the Lee Jae-myung Gyeonggi government. I am not a supporter of Governor Lee Jae-myung."

Meanwhile, Hwang's appointment will be finally decided through a personnel hearing scheduled at the provincial council on the 30th.

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