Rep. Park in hot seat for gaffes

By Jun Ji-hye

Park Geun-hye, the ruling Saenuri Party presidential candidate, shot herself in the foot by making a gaffe in the second televised debate with other candidates Monday.

It was the latest in a number of gaffes she has recently made, which have given the opposition camp and some Internet users the opportunity to call her capability as a leader into question.

During her appearance in the second TV debate, the 60-year-old conservative said, while explaining her plan to raise funds for her welfare programs, "I will prepare 135 trillion won ($125 billion) for five years by invigorating the underground economy."

The underground economy refers to unlawful economic activities such as gambling, unregistered lending business and other commercial activities unreported to the authorities.

Park chose the wrong word using "invigorating" instead of "incorporating" the underground economy; a move raise more taxes.

Kim Chong-in, who chairs the committee to pursue people's happiness for the ruling party, admitted Park's mistake in a radio appearance Tuesday, saying, "Park chose the wrong word, so her remarks may be misleading."

In August, the daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee, made the same error when answering a question about a way of securing funds for welfare projects during a meeting with a group of reporters.

Her political foes and some netizens pointed out that her repeated gaffes should not be played down as just minor mistakes, raising questions about her qualifications as a presidential candidate.

Well-known political critic Jin Joong-kwon, a professor at Dong-A University, posted on his Twitter account, "Of course, I don't think she actually wanted to invigorate the underground economy. The mistake came from her lack of knowledge in economics and linguistics."

Rep. Chung Sye-kyun of the main opposition Democratic United Party said, "The president is in a position that never allows any mistakes."

Netizens are sharing a video clip showing a collection of Park's previous tongue slips, including the scene where she mistakenly said, "I will resign from the President post," instead of saying, "I will resign from the National Assembly," last month.

Regarding criticisms, the ruling party tried to emphasize that it was just a "mistake" that anyone can make. Park Seon-kyu, a spokesman for Park's election camp, said "You need to take a look of the whole context of Park's remarks."

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