[Economic Insight] Policy Challenges Finding Solutions Under the Acting Presidency

As the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol led to a leadership vacuum in the country, many negative aspects such as diplomatic issues with the second Trump administration in the United States were highlighted. However, recently, the positive aspects of the acting presidency under Choi Sang-mok have been mentioned.

This is because policy challenges that would never have been resolved if President Yoon had remained in office before the martial law situation are now being addressed. This is possible because the 'mangi-chinram' style of governance, where the president and the presidential office exercise absolute authority, has disappeared. Government ministries are performing their respective roles, and Acting President Choi Sang-mok, who is also Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance, is only overseeing coordination and making decisions on the broader framework.

First, university tuition fees have increased for the first time in 17 years. The government's tuition freeze policy, which had been maintained due to inflation and the burden on university student households, has been broken. The damage caused by the tuition freeze was significant. University professors' salaries barely increased, so professors tried to secure external contracts and projects. It also became difficult to attract professors from overseas universities. In engineering colleges and others, essential research equipment could not be purchased, forcing the use of outdated items. Some schools reportedly did not properly maintain their aging facilities. Previous administrations that thought tuition hikes would negatively affect public opinion were the problem.

The government has allowed medical school enrollment quotas to be decided autonomously by university administrations starting next year. The medical school enrollment for next year could remain at the pre-increase level of 3,058 students (zero increase), but it is expected to rise by several hundred. Some criticize this as causing conflicts between university administrations wanting to expand their influence through increased quotas and medical schools opposing any increase. However, from the perspective of quickly resolving a situation that has dragged on for over a year, this is a truly innovative solution, regardless of whose idea it was. It seems a breakthrough has been made from the deadlock caused by President Yoon's stubborn insistence on maintaining an increase of 2,000 students.

Discussions on reforming the National Pension Service are reaching their final stages. It is uncertain whether a bipartisan agreement will be reached, but the possibility of implementing pension reform, an issue since the Park Geun-hye administration, is higher than ever. The pension reform carried out under the acting presidency is not the responsibility of any single administration. If achieved through bipartisan agreement, it will be a shared responsibility. Pension reform must be completed before the new administration takes office.

The handling of the Muan Airport Jeju Air accident was conducted more exemplary than ever. Although there was some initial confusion, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Park Sang-woo stayed in Muan to identify issues that needed to be resolved on-site, and meetings chaired by Acting President Choi immediately devised implementation measures. Just two days after becoming acting president, on December 29, upon receiving the accident report, Choi chaired a countermeasure meeting in Seoul, arrived at Muan Airport at 12:55 p.m., only four hours after the accident occurred (around 9 a.m.), and met with the bereaved families at 1:35 p.m. Unlike the Sewol ferry disaster, there was no controversy about where the president was for hours.

The Choi acting presidency ironically demonstrates how flawed the president-centered 'mangi-chinram' style of governance has been. Both conservative and progressive administrations experienced cases where policies were distorted or unreasonable demands emerged due to political interference. Examples include the unreasonable, rapid minimum wage increases and the nuclear phase-out policy.

Until the Roh Moo-hyun administration, the Blue House handled major issues but did not interfere in detail with government ministries. In front of President Roh, political Blue House officials ('eogong') and career bureaucrats ('neulgong') engaged in rational discussions and decision-making. Regardless of which administration comes next, the president and presidential office should no longer practice 'mangi-chinram.' Authority should be delegated to government officials, and only accountability should be demanded.

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