“There is no blacklist” “I don’t understand the investigation of Wolseong” This is the position of 靑

Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok is giving a briefing on normal Korean-American calls at the Grand Briefing Room at the Spring House Hall of the Blue House on the morning of the 4th. [연합뉴스]

Former Environment Minister Kim Eun-kyung was sentenced to imprisonment for improper intervention in the personnel of a public institution, the Blue House said on the 10th, “This case is not a’Ministry of Environment blacklist case’, and there was no’blacklist’ in the Moon Jae-in administration.” Said.

The day before, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced former Minister Kim to 2 years and 6 months in prison and imprisoned him in court on charges of forcing the heads of affiliated agencies appointed by the Park Geun-hye administration to resign in lump sum (obstruction of the exercise of ex officio abuse rights). The former Minister Kim case was called a’blacklist’ case in that he forced resignation to expel 15 executives from public institutions under the Ministry of Environment.

Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said in a written briefing that day, “It is a pity to define this case as a’blacklist case by the Ministry of Environment.'” “The’blacklist’ is defined as a list of exclusions of support prepared to penalize a specific case,” and argued that “this case does not correspond to this”. In addition, he said, “There was no surveillance or inspection following the’blacklist’.”

Spokesman Kang continued, “The Korean government respected the terms of offices of public institutions appointed by the former government. That was the basis of the government’s personnel policy.” He said, “At the time of the Moon Jae-in administration’s inception, most of the executives of public institutions appointed by the former government ended their term of office or retired for legitimate reasons and procedures,” he said. “There are also 13 executives of public institutions under the Ministry of Environment who submitted their resignations in this case. It was finished” he also claimed.

Former Environment Minister Kim Eun-gyeong, who was handed over to the trial in the case of the’Ministry of Environment blacklist’ case, is heading to the court to attend the first trial on the charges of obstructing the exercise of rights of abuse at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu on the afternoon of the 9th. [연합뉴스]

However, when looking at the explanatory data of the court, the court admitted that the former Minister Kim pressed 15 executives of the affiliated public institutions to submit their resignations. For example, when Mr. Kim, a standing auditor of the Korea Environment Corporation, did not resign, former Minister Kim ordered a targeted audit of Mr. Kim through the Ministry of Environment’s auditor’s office. It was also revealed that they applied pressure as if they would be penalized if they did not resign. Kim eventually resigned. Spokesman Kang said, “There was no activity such as surveillance or inspection,” but the judge admitted that there was a target audit order instead.

The judiciary said, “There is no such practice as in this case, which is a planned and large-scale request for resignation.” The pressure to resign was revealed during the trial process, and the resignation could not be accepted and the term of office was ended.

◇”Wolseong is not subject to judicial judgment” = Spokesman Kang made an additional written briefing regarding the investigation into the early shutdown of the Wolseong nuclear power plant, which the prosecution is underway. Spokesman Kang said, “The closure of the Wolseong nuclear power plant unit 1 is a pledge of the president, and it has been publicly promoted since it was selected as a major policy task by the government. I cannot convince myself that this is the subject of judicial judgment.”

On this day, the Blue House made a series of stances on the investigations related to the’Ministry of Environment blacklist’ and Wolseong Unit 1. On the previous day, the Blue House said, “I will replace the question with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice’s questions and answers to the government’s questions regarding the investigation related to Wolseong Unit 1,” but it turned into a strong policy within a day. This was interpreted by some of the opposition parties as “The Blue House was conscious of the flow of public sentiment during the Lunar New Year holidays.”

Reporter Yoon Seongmin [email protected]