Tak Hyun-min: "Expo Failure Due to Planning Only with Busan and Conservative Figures"

Regarding the confirmed failure to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan, former Blue House Protocol Secretary Tak Hyun-min criticized that "the key personnel for the bid were composed of people from Busan and conservative backgrounds."

On the 30th, Tak, a former secretary, said on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' that "there is definitely a reason why this happened," and pointed out, "In Korean society, the talent pool is not very broad, but looking at the Expo bid process, regionally it was centered on Busan, and politically the overall team was composed of ruling party or conservative-leaning figures."

On the 26th, a rehearsal for the '1st Anniversary Ceremony of the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration' was held at Panmunjom, Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Tak Hyun-min, advisory committee member for event planning at the Blue House, is explaining the event to be held tomorrow in front of the Military Demarcation Line at Panmunjom, where the South and North Korean leaders first met one year ago. Photo by Joint Press Corps

The day before, Saudi Arabia succeeded in hosting the Expo by securing 119 votes out of 165 countries participating in the first round of voting at the 173rd General Assembly of the International Bureau of Expositions (BIE) held at the 'Palais des Congr?s' on the outskirts of Paris, France. South Korea received only 29 votes.

Tak pointed out that the failure was due to a 'personnel' issue. He said, "Not only the staff but also the process of inviting experts was the same. There were already few people and, as commonly said, a lack of talented or capable individuals, but they further divided and used them for such regional and political reasons, which is one of the fundamental causes."

Tak added that although he offered ideas and advice, they were not accepted. He said, "I have given my opinions and various ideas before. Of course, none of them were implemented as is."

He also criticized that Jang Sung-min, a non-expert and the Future Strategy Planning Officer at the Presidential Office, was appointed as the top person in charge. He said, "Even things like PT (presentations) are assigned, but the critical decisions are made by non-experts. Basically, Jang, who can be considered the top person responsible for this project, is a representative case." He added, "They entrust advertising to experts, but non-experts sit and judge the content of that advertising. Ultimately, the expertise disappears, leaving only the tastes of non-experts."

He also pointed out that the overwhelming vote difference of 119 to 29 was the result of political judgment interfering and objective analysis of the situation not being conducted. Tak said, "This achievement should have been regarded as a national achievement that transcends political parties, but there were continuous efforts to make it the president's achievement along the way." He continued, "For example, President Yoon Suk-yeol suddenly visited the fourth PT, which was unnecessary, and packaged his presence as if, as the sitting president, he could persuade many countries."

He added, "Secondly, First Lady Kim Keon-hee allegedly sold 'gwang' (a slang term for promotional items) by claiming she was involved in designing related items like keyrings," and said, "Efforts to claim what should be national or public achievements as their own achievements for political interests have continued, so including the president and Yongsan, they could only have been confident that this would happen."

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