Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
Senior advisor troubles Rep. Ahn
Yoon Yeo-joon, co-chairman of a preparatory committee for Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo’s New Political Vision Party, enters with a smile into the committee’s office in Yeouido, Seoul, Monday, to attend a meeting. He has been embroiled in controversy over remarks seen as attacking Ahn. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
By Jun Ji-hye
Yoon Yeo-joon, a senior advisor to Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, is in the hot seat and has placed the first-term lawmaker in an awkward position after making a number of controversial remarks.
Yoon, a co-chairman of a preparatory committee for Ahn’s budding New Political Vision Party, has not hidden his displeasure over Ahn’s failure to inform him of the surprise agreement to form a new coalition party with the main opposition Democratic Party (DP).
Following Ahn and the DP’s announcement about the coalition, the former’s plan to establish own party is all but abandoned.
Yoon, a former environment minister and seasoned political strategist, initially expressed displeasure when he first learned about the decision taken by Ahn and DP Chairman Kim Han-gil. But the next day, he changed his stance, commenting “I agree with Ahn.”
But On Thursday, Yoon, who previously worked for Rep. Moon Jae-in, the DP’s presidential candidate, during the 2012 presidential election, suddenly attacked Ahn, saying, “I want to know how many lies Ahn has told me.”
He then went on to make sarcastic comments about him during a media interview.
“Ahn deserves to receive an Academy Award because his acting skills are superb,” he said.
The remarks were construed as evidence of siding with some aides who said Ahn pretended to promote new politics, but showed this to be a lie when the merger plan was announced.
On Saturday, however, Yoon retracted his comments again, saying, “I was just joking.”
The remarks added fuel to mounting speculation that Ahn is in an ongoing conflict with senior advisors.
There is also speculation that he is working only with his closest aides, excluding others in the decision-making process.
The former doctor and software mogul has been trying to downplay the controversy caused by Yoon’s comments.
Rep. Song Ho-chang, his long time confidant, attempted to end the speculation, Monday.
He said that Yoon has been attending key policy-setting meetings with Ahn.
“It is true that some people expressed their regret because Ahn did not have enough time to have prior consultations with them before making the decision to form the coalition with the DP Chairman Kim,” said Song. “But Ahn explained sufficiently how he reached the agreement with the chairman, and everyone understood it.”
He said all of Ahn’s people are now actively participating in the process to set up the coalition.
Song also tried to finish rumors that Ahn makes decisions after consulting only a small number of people.
“The Ahn camp is not a narrow-minded organization. He is carefully listening to as many people as possible.”
For his part, Ahn asked for the opinions of every single advisor before he finally agreed with the DP on how to merge the two opposition forces, Friday, in an apparent attempt to minimize disagreements among his team.