Ruling party leader apologizes for inappropriate remarks about hired officer

Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the floor leader and acting chairman of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), speaks during a meeting with PPP lawmakers at the National Assembly, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

By Lee Yeon-woo

Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the floor leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), who is concurrently serving as acting leader of the party after Chairman Lee Jun-seok was suspended for six months for allegedly receiving sexual services as bribery for political favors, offered an apology for his inappropriate remarks about an administrative officer hired at the presidential office.

“I offer my apologies for my previous remarks about the hiring practices of the presidential office. I'm sorry if my words hurt any young job seekers,” Kweon said in his social media post uploaded on Wednesday. “It's entirely my fault that my words created a controversy. I should have explained properly what I meant by my words first.”

His apology came days after his remarks about the hiring of an administrative officer by the office of the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs caused a stir. Regarding the employment of the officer, surnamed Woo, Kweon admitted that he had recommended the person to the presidential office and that he had “exerted influence” on President Yoon Suk-yeol's confidant, Rep. Chang Je-won, to hire him.

This account drew criticism for the way he described the employment process. Kweon said that he had thought they would have given Woo a higher level of seniority, such as level 7, but he was given the rank of a grade 9 administrative officer, while his payroll is slightly higher than the minimum wage.

Woo is reported to have donated 10 million won to Yoon's campaign during the presidential election period and is also the son of a businessman based in Gangwon, who is close to the president.

Kweon's remarks infuriated young job-seekers who are preparing for the civil service exams. Some denounced the acting PPP leader for belittling civil servants with his remarks, while some claimed that they work hard day and night to pass the civil service exam, but officer Woo was able to get a plum job easily because of his ties with the PPP lawmaker.

Fellow lawmakers were critical of his remarks, too. Rep. Chang openly criticized Kweon for their inappropriateness.

Rep. Kweon's words were likewise a source of criticism from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). DPK lawmakers criticized the president for cronyism in the hiring of the presidential office staff member, calling it a “private hiring” as opposed to the selection of government officials via public competition.

Rep. Ko Min-jung of the DPK, who served as a presidential spokesperson during the previous Moon Jae-in government, staged a one-person protest in front of the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul. She claimed that the presidential office's questionable private hiring practices have lowered the public's trust in the government and that no one has so far taken responsibility for it.

Kweon disputed the DPK lawmakers' criticism of the presidential office's hiring practices. In his original Facebook post, he had justified its hiring practices by writing that the recruitment process of civil servants working for elected officials differs from that of government employees working in ministries.

“Unlike people who became government employees through public exams, those who are working for elected officials share the same fate as the officials because their tenures are not guaranteed,” he had written in his social media post.

As Kweon explained, there are two different kinds of government employees in the presidential office: career officials and political appointees. There have been political appointees in the presidential office for a long time. Rep. Ko Min-jung herself was also a political appointee when she worked for the Moon government as a presidential spokesperson.