Three Times in Five Months Since Inauguration... Why Did the President Mention Company Names?

Yoon Mentions SPC Following Daewoo Shipbuilding... Unusual for President to Refer to Specific Companies
Once Each During Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in Administrations
"Requesting Companies to Raise Awareness of Social Responsibilities"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] President Yoon Suk-yeol attracted attention by directly mentioning the names of companies twice in less than a week. It is unusual for a president to specifically name private companies, and the interval between President Yoon's mentions of company names was extremely short.

The companies President Yoon mentioned were Kakao and SPC. He specifically pointed out the Kakao outage incident and the SPC worker death accident. Right after the Kakao incident broke out on the 17th, President Yoon said, "I believe that most of the people who use Kakao must have had a hard time due to the Kakao network outage and service interruption," adding, "(Although Kakao operates the network as a private company,) from the perspective of the people, it is no different from a national backbone communication network." Three days later, on the 20th, he said, "The industrial accident at the SPC factory in Pyeongtaek is very unfortunate," and mentioned, "I have instructed the Ministry of Employment and Labor to conduct an on-site investigation."

It is reported that President Yoon came up with the idea of a doorstepping (on-the-spot press briefing) directly after hearing the news that the factory continued operations with a shield installed on the machine where the accident occurred. He felt that this situation contradicted his usual belief that human rights and freedom start with life and safety, which is why he mentioned it during the doorstepping.

The Blue House evaluated President Yoon's unusual mention of company names as a warning. They said that not only laws and systems but also profits exist for people, and that this was to make companies realize their social responsibility for fundamental rights such as human life.

A Blue House official explained, "It was not only to emphasize the corporate social responsibility that safety and life are more important than profit but also to request companies to raise awareness of their social responsibilities, including humane consideration."

Other senior ruling party officials also said, "President Yoon considers the act of companies neglecting social responsibility as another problem, especially when it disregards the grief of bereaved families, the wounds and shocks of internal employees, and the frustration felt by vulnerable groups inside and outside the company, including franchise owners, caused by unfair decisions made by high-level decision-makers."

President Yoon also mentioned specific companies last summer. When the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering subcontractor union strike occurred in July, President Yoon warned during a doorstepping (brief Q&A on the way to work), "Illegal acts should not be tolerated or condoned in industrial sites or labor-management relations." After the strike ended, on August 1, he ordered his aides to prepare measures addressing the dual structure of the labor market, which is the fundamental reason why workers took collective action, saying, "This is a problem our society must solve."

The Blue House stated that the core message behind the three instances of mentioning company names is that the president can speak out on any issue related to the safety and rights of the people, regardless of the subject.

However, President Yoon's mentions of specific companies are considered more frequent compared to past presidents. Former President Moon Jae-in mentioned Hyundai Heavy Industries during a Cabinet meeting in March 2019, when Hyundai Heavy Industries began acquiring Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. At that time, he said, "We must prepare solid measures to prevent 'employment insecurity' caused by Hyundai Heavy Industries' acquisition of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering."

Former President Park Geun-hye also rarely named companies directly. The almost only case was during a Cabinet meeting in September 2016 amid the logistics crisis caused by Hanjin Shipping, when she said, "In the case of Hanjin Shipping, efforts for business normalization were very insufficient, so financial support from creditor financial institutions was suspended according to restructuring principles, and the court's corporate rehabilitation procedure began earlier this month," directly mentioning Hanjin Shipping. After the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014, when the prosecution and police failed to arrest Yoo Byung-eun, former chairman of the Semo Group who went into hiding, she criticized them by saying, "The Yoo Byung-eun family must be swiftly arrested," without naming the company.

A senior Blue House official said, "Everything starts with human life and safety. Laws and systems exist for human freedom and constitutional rights, which is the president's usual belief," and stated that the president can mention specific companies when necessary. Another official reiterated, "In protecting the liberal democratic system, the president firmly believes in the system and naturally confronts those who try to shake it, but what is important in protecting the system is respect and consideration for people."

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