Park Gwancheon "If You Fail the Personnel Screening, Thumbs Up or Down"

MBC Radio Kim Jong-bae's Focused Interview
"Excluding Jeong Soon-shin's Child Issue from Verification? A Weak Excuse"
"Personnel Verification Should Not Be Tailored to Please the Authority"

"It is good to consider the personnel authority's intention regarding personnel matters, but the public officials in charge of personnel verification should not conduct customized personnel verification to cater to the personnel authority's mood."

On the 27th, Park Gwan-cheon, former administrative officer of the Blue House Office of Public Service Discipline, explained the case of lawyer Jeong Soon-shin, who was dismissed just one day after being appointed as the head of the National Investigation Headquarters, during an interview with MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focused View.' Park is a figure who has experience handling personnel verification in the presidential office's civil affairs department.

Park said that when personnel verification requests containing the president's (personnel authority's) intentions come in, the burden felt is considerable. He explained that in such cases, they assess the situation by observing whether the thumbs are raised or lowered.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Park explained, "Suddenly, personnel verification is assigned for a certain person. Then, you ask the secretary or senior official in the presidential office. You inquire about the personnel authority's intention, and sometimes the thumb is raised, and sometimes it is lowered."

He said that when the thumb is raised, the burden is quite significant. Park explained, "This means, unconditionally, that since the personnel authority likes this person to some extent, you should approve them." He added that if the thumb is lowered, it means to conduct a normal verification.

An interesting point is that internet information is also checked during the high-level personnel verification process.

Park said, "Whether there are issues on the internet is always verified. The reason for this is that stories already circulating on the internet may come up later. It's not just news; blogs are also searched. If such content appears, for public officials subject to hearings, the National Assembly actively uses this information."

Park diagnosed the claim that the personnel information verification team did not know about lawyer Jeong Soon-shin's son's issue as an excuse. He pointed out, "It even went to the Supreme Court in a final lawsuit. Saying that the personnel information verification team did not know because it was not under a real name or because it was a family issue and thus excluded from verification is an outdated excuse."

Park said, "The reports came out. Nevertheless, if someone at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office or Ministry of Justice did not check this, then there would be no reason for the Ministry of Justice's Inspector General's Office or the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Inspection Division 1 or 2 to exist." He explained that it is common sense that the prosecution was aware of the lawsuit related to the school violence issue involving Jeong Soon-shin's son when Jeong was at the prosecution.

Park said, "In question number 10 of the personnel verification, it states: 'Has the person, spouse, or direct descendants been involved in lawsuits related to multi-level marketing, gambling, prostitution, or other socially controversial issues?' with yes or no and additional verification required." He added, "If someone tries to evade such faults with wordplay, this will not improve."

Regarding the issue of inadequate personnel verification, Park said that if President Yoon Seok-yeol has the will, improvement is possible, and he said the following.

"There has been a problem with personnel verification. When such problems arise, the simplest improvement is for the president to show a clear will. If you try to find a way to pass over this lightly, the entire national discipline will collapse. If President Yoon reflects once again on why Zhuge Liang executed his favorite general Ma Su and acts accordingly, and if the mistakes made in this personnel verification are clearly punished regardless of whether it was done for your sake, then next time, even if personnel verification is done hastily, the responsible public officials will try to conduct it based on fairness and principles."

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