Minister Hyun under fire for slip of tongue

Consumers angered by remarks over data leak

By Kim Tae-jong

Hyun Oh-seok Finance Minister

Deputy Prime Minister and Strategy and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok is under fire for a slip of the tongue, in which he gave the impression that customers are partially responsible for the worst-ever leak of their data at three credit card firms.

Severe criticism was directed at him after he told reporters Wednesday, “We all agreed to provide our personal information,” when he talked about the massive data theft at KB Kookmin Card, Lotte Card and NH Nonghyp Card. His remark, which puts partial blame for the leak on customers, is widely regarded as irresponsible.

It was provocative enough to further irritate angry customers. About 20 million people are believed to be affected by the leak after an employee of the Korea Credit Bureau (KCB), a Seoul-based private credit-evaluation service provider for financial firms, was found to have stolen and distributed their personal information.

“How could the finance minister say such a careless thing? Without agreeing to provide our personal information, it is impossible to have a credit card issued to us in the first place,” Lee Jun-beom, a 34-year-old office worker, said. “How could such a person be our finance minister?”

But the minister’s “foolish” gaffe did not stop there. He made another provocative remark when responding to criticism of the financial authorities for the leak when he said, “Foolish people blame others when something bad happens. What’s important now is to clean up the mess.”

After the remark was made public through the media, people started to post angry comments on the Internet.

“The finance minister thinks people are all foolish because their information was stolen. It is an unthinkable remark,” an Internet user posted on a portal site.

Lawmakers also weighed in.

Saenuri Party Supreme Council member Lee Hye-hoon said, “It is an arrogant remark that disregards the people. It’s not his job to decide whether the financial authorities are responsible for the leak.”

Jun Byung-hun, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, also said, “He is blaming others, even though he is the one to be blamed. He is trying to dodge responsibility.”

With mounting criticism, Hyun offered an official apology late Thursday, saying that he did not intend to blame consumers for the leak.

“I didn’t have any intention of shifting the responsibility to customers by saying we agreed to provide our information to financial firms,” he said during a meeting at the Seoul Government Complex. “I just wanted to say that customers should be more careful because 96 percent of them tend not to carefully check the terms and conditions when they provide their information.”