Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Reporter's notebook Presidential secretary in hot seat for posting gov't documents on Facebook
By Nam Hyun-woo
Cho Kuk, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, fiddles his smartphone during a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on Jan. 22. Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
Cho Kuk, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, has come under criticism for his frequent activities on SNS, which ended up with him leaking an official document on Facebook before the government released it.
Though politicians commonly use SNS as a tool for communication, criticism has been raised on the controversial SNS activities of Cho, whose duty is maintaining government discipline.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy issued a press release stating the WTO would discuss Japan's restrictions on exports to Korea to reporters covering the ministry at 5:27 p.m., Sunday. The document was for immediate release.
However, the news became public before the ministry officially released the document, because Cho posted it on Facebook at 5:13 p.m., the same day.
This means the government's stance that Japan's export curbs were unfair and contained problems in their grounding was disseminated through Cho's personal SNS, before the official announcement.
Cho apparently admitted his mistake, saying he thought the document had already been released to the press, but did not remove the posting from Facebook, which had dozens of replies supporting him and nearly 500 likes.
A day before disclosing the document, Cho stirred another controversy on Facebook, by posting a folk song commemorating the 1894 Donghak Peasant Revolution, which was an armed rebellion against the systemic corruption of the government and Japan's increasing influence on Korea.
On July 12, he also cited a column saying, “The public needs to rage against the Shinzo Abe administration's shameful moves, but the anger and energy should be focused on building the country's own capacity.”
These drew criticisms from politicians. The Bareunmirae Party said in a statement that the posting was targeting Japan, which is in a trade conflict with Korea, and urging “the public to become a spear against Japan.”
The minor opposition party continued, “Failures in politics and diplomacy are driving the country's economy and businesses into a dead-end, but politics and diplomacy are shifting the responsibility to the public and businesses, urging them to do something.”
Cho has been using Facebook as a tool to promote the government's policies and criticize the opposition parties by sharing news articles.
Many will understand and agree that SNS has become the one of the handiest tools in propagating ideas and it is Cho's choice on how to use the tool.
However, his frequent expressions of personal ideas and even the leaking of the government document seem to be the move of a politicians looking for a seat in the National Assembly, rather than a civil servant or a top aide to President Moon ― let alone the question of how he could manage his time to post five to six times a day, while handling one of the most important jobs in the country.
“We all sing a song and do Facebook,” Rep. Kim Jong-dae of the Justice Party said during an interview with a radio program. “However, it doesn't seem to be a job for a strategist, which is what the country needs right now.”