By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye’s leadership crisis amid the Choi Soon-sil scandal is undermining the country’s capability to respond to possible emergencies, analysts said Tuesday.
The influence-peddling scandal involving Park’s longtime confidant is now causing an administrative vacuum, making it difficult to handle a contingency in a timely manner.
The President’s hastily arranged reshuffle of key senior aides Friday — a stopgap measure to ease public anger over the scandal — has left some posts, supposed to handle emergencies, vacant.
In addition, the political turmoil has sent Park’s approval rating to an all-time low on a weekly basis, with it nearing a single-digit number that may derail her ability to deal with state affairs in the remainder of her term. Park’s presidency ends in February 2018.
Choi, a private citizen who holds no official title in the Park administration, is involved in allegations that she has had great influence on Park throughout her presidency as well as prior access to presidential speeches. The 60-year-old is now being questioned by the prosecution.
“President Park’s governing style is running the country with the help of a few of senior aides rather than allowing each office to work voluntarily. In this respect, some vacancies at the presidential secretariat are inevitably bringing about an administrative vacuum,” said Yoon Hee-woong, a senior researcher at Opinion Live.
President Park ordered her 10 senior secretaries to tender their resignations, Friday, and immediately fired four of them — Woo Byung-woo for civil affairs, An Chong-bum for policy coordination, Kim Jae-won for political affairs and Kim Sung-woo for public affairs. However, she only appointed new senior secretaries for civil and public affairs.
Senior presidential secretaries coordinate policies between the presidential office and government ministries.
In addition, presidential chief of staff Lee Won-jong also stepped down, taking responsibility for the political turmoil.
“With key posts crucial for state affairs unoccupied, the scandal is paralyzing her administration,” said Yoon Tae-gon, a senior political analyst at Moa Agenda Strategy.
Since Park last held a meeting with her senior secretaries, Oct. 20, she has not presided over any further meetings with senior aides or Cabinet members. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn presided over a Cabinet meeting, Tuesday, and a regular presidential meeting with chief secretaries Monday was also cancelled following the partial reshuffle.
In addition, weekly meetings, respectively presided over by the presidential chief of staff and the senior secretary for policy coordination, have been put on hold since Sunday.
Yoon Tae-gon also said President Park herself is causing a leadership vacuum given that she prioritized the appointment of the civil and public affairs secretaries over that of the political and policy coordination aides.
“The former chief secretary for civil affairs Woo had served as a de facto in-house lawyer for President Park. The Sunday reshuffle means Park does not grasp the gravity of the current situation and is more focused on defending herself against criticism,” he said.
Cheong Wa Dae is scheduled to submit its budget for next year to the National Assembly House Steering Committee today. Usually, the presidential chief of staff reports the budget to the parliament, accompanied by the senior secretaries for political affairs and policy coordination, but Kim Kyou-hyun, the chief foreign policy secretary, plans to report due to their absence.
For Park, her declining approval is another bitter pill to swallow amid the mounting controversy.
According to the latest poll released by Research View, Tuesday, only one in 10 Koreans approved of her job performance as President.
The local pollster announced Park’s approval rating was at 10.4 percent, compared with 81.2 percent who disapproved. Approval in Seoul and its surrounding areas was lower at 9.1 percent
Last week, her approval rating was 17 percent according to Gallup Korea.