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.
Moon strives to recover approval rating hit by real estate scandal
Kim Sang-jo, presidential chief of staff for policy, leaves a briefing room at Cheong Wa Dae after announcing his resignation, Monday. Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
Chief of staff for policy replaced over rent hike controversy
By Nam Hyun-woo
New presidential chief of staff for policy Lee Ho-seung / Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae
In a desperate effort to turn around his faltering approval rating, President Moon Jae-in accepted the resignation of his chief of staff for policy, Kim Sang-jo, on Monday for hiking the rent on his Gangnam apartment.
The dismissal came amid aggravating public sentiment over allegations of real estate speculation by some employees at the state-run housing developer Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH).
The President also held a meeting with ministers and heads of other economy-related government bodies and announced a set of measures to eradicate real estate speculation by public servants, saying “rooting out corruption regarding real estate is the top priority of anti-corruption policies.”
Pundits said Moon's dismissal of his top economic policy aide and drastic anti-speculation measures are interpreted as a desperate effort to prevent his administration from losing further momentum in managing state affairs during his remaining term of slightly over one year.
Presidential chief of staff Yoo Young-min said Monday that Moon named Lee Ho-seung, senior secretary for economic affairs, as his new chief of staff for policy.
The announcement came just a day after media reports indicated that Kim raised rent by 14.12 percent for a Seoul-based apartment he is leasing to a tenant when the contract was renewed last year. The hike came just two days before a new law took effect placing a 5 percent cap on rent hikes in renewed leasing contracts.
It wasn't illegal for Kim to hike the rent. But the move drew immediate backlash and criticism for applying a “double standard,” because Kim was in charge of the administration's overall economic policy and designing a series of measures to stabilize the real estate market. Kim had served as chief of staff for policy since June 2019 after serving as chairman of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) from 2017.
“The decision (for replacement) was made in consideration of the seriousness of the real estate situation,” a Cheong Wa Dae official said, referring to the LH scandal. “Kim expressed his strong intention to resign last night saying the controversy may trigger a public distrust of the government's policies.”
Kim apologized for disappointing the public at a time when the government is making its full efforts to eradicate real estate speculation. “It is my last duty to quit the job and help the government carry out ongoing real estate policies without setbacks,” he told reporters at Cheong Wa Dae.
President Moon Jae-in speaks during an anti-corruption policy meeting on real estate speculation at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Yonhap
The replacement took effect immediately, with Lee attending the meeting for eradicating real estate speculation, which was held hours after Kim's resignation.
During the meeting, Moon said all government officials should “sternly embrace the public's anger” on the speculation allegations of public servants and state-run company officials, and such practices have “dashed the public's expectation that society is becoming fairer.”
“The first step is the crystal-clear disclosure of speculative practices by civil servants through thorough investigations, and I ask all participants to do this using all administrative and investigative authority available,” Moon said. “When illegalities are found, strong punishment will be imposed and unfair profits will be retrieved thoroughly.”
Moon also said all public servants will be subject to a mandatory disclosure of their properties and urged lawmakers to pass legislation preventing public servants from seeking to profit through illicit means.
Moon has been struggling to soothe public anger over allegations that dozens of LH workers bought land in Gyeonggi Province using confidential information on development plans there. His approval rating has been dropping to new lows as the scandal triggered public disappointment over the government's real estate policies, which have been one of the most sensitive issues here.
According to polls conducted last week, Moon's approval rating dropped below 35 percent and the disapproval rate over his policies soared to over 60 percent. More than a third of respondents cited Moon's failed real estate policy as the main reason for their disapproval.
The low support for the President and the ruling bloc is likely to have a direct effect on mayoral by-elections in Seoul and Busan slated for April. 7.
According to a poll by Ipsos, Monday, Oh Se-hoon, the Seoul mayoral candidate of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), is expected to win with a 50.5 percent approval rate, more than 15 percentage points ahead of Park Young-sun of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). A separate poll conducted by Kantar Korea showed that Busan mayoral candidate Park Heong-joon of the PPP gained 48.2 percent of support, ahead of DPK's Kim Young-choon at 26 percent.