Yoon: "If ideology obstructs alignment with government policy, take personnel action"

"Accurately Recognize and Reflect on Past Government Mistakes"
Message to the Public... "Time Needed to Restore the Broken System"
Presidential Office: "Change is Important... We Must Correct What is Wrong"

President Yoon Suk-yeol instructed cabinet members on the 9th, ahead of his first anniversary in office, to "take bold personnel actions if they do not align with the new government policy direction and instead take an ambiguous stance." This can also be interpreted as a prelude to personnel changes based on strengthening public service discipline, urging them to accurately recognize the previous administration's mistakes and lead change.

In his closing remarks at the Cabinet meeting held that morning at the Yongsan Presidential Office, President Yoon said, "While we should not blindly disadvantage the bureaucracy just because the administration has changed, please accurately recognize the mistakes of past governments and consider how to change them." He particularly emphasized, "It is not important to quantitatively show achievements to the public, but rather to clearly demonstrate how the previous government acted and how we have changed things."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

President Yoon's remarks on this day, which served as a de facto message to the public outlining the direction of state administration in the second year of his administration, focused on pointing out the policy failures of the previous government. Highlighting the difficulties the government faced in advancing key national tasks over the past year, he admitted in his opening remarks, "It takes time to restore the broken system and achieve tangible results."

He directly addressed issues such as jeonse fraud, drug crimes, and failures in North Korea policy. Regarding the increasingly controversial jeonse fraud, he said, "The anti-market and abnormal policies of the previous government, which caused rapid housing price increases and market disruption, created the breeding ground for jeonse fraud." He added that this led to various investment scams involving stocks and virtual assets, stating, "Ordinary citizens and the younger generation are suffering irreparable damage and despair."

He also criticized the previous administration's inadequate monitoring system, including the disbandment of the Securities Crime Joint Task Force. President Yoon pointed out, "The weakening of the financial market's monitoring system against unfair practices allowed virtual asset crimes and financial investment frauds to flourish," and added, "Relying on the goodwill of criminals to monitor and detect crimes has pushed countless socially vulnerable people into a pit of despair."

He mentioned the weakening of law enforcement against drug organizations and distribution as a result of the previous government's prosecution reforms. He evaluated, "Since our government took office, we have worked to restore law enforcement against major drug crimes and established a joint investigation headquarters between the police and prosecution to create a drug-free country." He also remarked that "there were difficulties in improving necessary systems due to obstruction by the 'major opposition party,'" implying that the government's reform agenda is being hampered by the opposition. He pointed out that the three major reforms requiring legislation?labor, pensions, and education?have all been slowed by opposition party resistance, and delivered a message to garner public consensus by stating, "It takes tremendous time and effort to rebuild what has been broken."

He did not omit criticism of the previous government's security measures that relied solely on North Korea's goodwill. Mentioning the resumption of the Korea-U.S. joint military exercises that had been suspended for several years, changes to the Korea-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty based on conventional military strength, opposition to military resolution of conflicts and changes by force, he emphasized, "There is no need to say more that these are necessary and beneficial for our security, economy, businesses, and citizens."

A presidential office official explained, "What President Yoon emphasized to his aides and cabinet members was change," adding, "What and how to change starts from a clear recognition of what the previous government did wrong. He asked the cabinet members to inherit what was done well and correct what was wrong."

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