Geum Tae-seop "Deputy Minister-Level Personnel Failure Is Obvious"... Three Reasons for Criticizing Yoon

Risk Avoidance, Deputy Minister Replacement, Far-Right YouTuber Appointment
"Hard to Praise If One Is Sane"

Former lawmaker Geum Tae-seop, who is preparing to establish the Shindang party, criticized the first cabinet reshuffle of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, saying, "Even politicians belonging to the People Power Party would find it hard to say this personnel appointment was well done if they have any sense."

He cited three reasons, stating, "It seems they are trying to push a drive through vice minister-level appointments, but failure is obvious."

Geum evaluated the first point by saying this reshuffle "implies holding frontline bureaucrats primarily responsible." He mentioned, "Among those who caused problems and eroded approval ratings since the launch of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, the president and the presidential office cannot be excluded."

However, he added, "The messages coming from the ruling power are like 'the president gave good instructions, but the subordinates did not follow them.' Setting aside internal dissatisfaction, attempts to reverse the situation by evading responsibility cannot succeed."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Geum also criticized the fact that many vice ministers, rather than ministers, were replaced. He said, "One reason for avoiding a cabinet reshuffle that changes ministers is to evade personnel hearings led by the opposition in the National Assembly." Geum stated, "If you dismiss the clearly existing critical forces as if they do not exist and try to push reforms(?) in a one-way manner, you cannot avoid resistance."

Lastly, he criticized the appointment of Kim Chae-hwan, who has been embroiled in far-right controversies, as the head of the National Human Resources Development Institute for Public Officials. Geum lamented, "Is there really no one else in the Republic of Korea?" and said, "Watching a YouTuber who made absurd claims being appointed as the head of the Human Resources Development Institute responsible for training high-ranking public officials at grade 5 and above is truly disheartening and humiliating."

Kim, the appointee, previously sparked controversy by making claims on his YouTube channel, such as "The Chinese Communist Party influenced the protests calling for former President Park Geun-hye's resignation," and "The military commander-in-chief (former President Moon Jae-in) ordered soldiers to be used as subjects for biological experiments."

Regarding this, Geum sharply criticized, "He has absolutely no expertise related to public official education and his understanding of our society as a whole is utterly shallow."

He added, "The personnel appointments, including the head of the Human Resources Development Institute, are utterly poor, and I do not know what to say. Although regime changes continue, the new government is not any better than the previous one."

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