By Kim Rahn
Opposition parties have intensified their criticism toward the Moon Jae-in government’s personnel screening system following the resignation of Park Ky-young, who was appointed to lead an office within the science ministry.
They said the administration had again failed to meet public criteria for ranking government officials, because Park was fourth among officials or official-designates who stepped down amid alleged past wrongdoings.
Park, who was picked to lead the Science, Technology and Innovation Office in the Ministry of Science and ICT on Aug. 7, resigned on Friday. The biology professor, who was a senior adviser to former President Roh Moo-hyun, played a key role in supporting Hwang Woo-suk’s stem cell research with huge government subsidies and was one of 15 co-authors of one of Hwang’s papers.
Park stepped down in 2006 when the research fraud scandal broke out.
The appointment drew a backlash from hundreds of scientists, which eventually led to her resignation.
The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) said Park’s resignation again showed Cheong Wa Dae’s self-righteousness and a lack of communication.
“Park resigned reluctantly because scientists’ and civic groups protested, although she earlier said at a press briefing she would not resign,” said LKP spokeswoman Rep. Jun Hee-kyung.
“This is a comedy resulting from the poor personnel system of Cheong Wa Dae, which has pushed ahead with appointing unqualified people.”
The minor opposition Bareun Party claimed the Moon administration was filled with people connected to the President rather than experts in related fields.
“Among 56 senior officials and secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, 82.1 percent are former or incumbent lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), former officials under the Roh administration, those who worked at Moon’s election camp, or former student activists,” said party spokesman Lee Jong-cheol.
“There could be a second, third Park incident, and the Park case may be the beginning of the personnel disaster.”
People’s Party vice spokesman Yang Sun-pil said, “The Moon government should stop unconditionally appointing people from the election camp or the Roh administration. It should reform the personnel screening system, recruit capable experts and appoint them in the right places, before it is too late.”
But the DPK rejected the opposition bloc’s criticism, saying Park’s resignation was a decision that reflected public sentiment.
“It was a decision reflecting public opinion, while the former conservative Park Geun-hye administration used to pick Park’s close aides by ignoring public opinion,” said a party spokesman Rep. Kang Hoon-sik.
Before Park Ky-young, Justice Minister nominee Ahn Kyong-whan, Labor Minister nominee Cho Dae-yop and National Security Office vice chief Kim Ki-jung resigned over alleged past misdeeds.