“Minjung again?” The Moon Jae-in government’s ankle is held by the’Civil Jeongseon’

The Blue House is again in’tense mode’ as Shin Hyun-soo, the Blue House Chief Min Jeong, expresses his appreciation. An incident reminiscent of’Legal Sword Conflict Season 2’broke out while trying to boost the power of state administration, which was hurt by the conflict between former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae and Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol. In the passport, a reaction came out, “Are you Minjung again?” In retrospect, a major incident that caught the Blue House after President Moon Jae-in took office took place in the Chief Civil Service Office. This is unexpected considering that President Moon served as chief civil servant in the Roh Moo-hyun administration and was a former president who was a lawyer who knew the law well. Min Jung-bal (發) looked back on the bad news.

◇ Suspicion of intervention in the Ulsan mayor’s election

The Blue House is suspected of intervening in the Ulsan mayoral election during the June 2018 local election. The prosecution believes that the Civil Affairs Office has been systematically moved by ordering the police to investigate the abuses around the former Ulsan Mayor Kim Ki-hyun in order to elect the current Ulsan Mayor Song Chul-ho, President Moon’s 30-year keeper.

In this case, 13 people were prosecuted in January last year, including former civil affairs secretary Baek Won-woo, former anti-corruption secretary Park Hyung-cheol, and Lee Gwang-cheol, then senior administrative officer, who is currently civil administration secretary. Prosecutor Investigator Paik Jae-young, who was an administrator of the Civil Administration Office, made an extreme choice, leaving a will in December 2019 during the prosecution’s investigation.

The investigation is in a standstill. There are even suspicions that the reason for secretary Lee Gwang-cheol’s stay is delayed in the investigation. “The biggest risk in the second half of the Moon Jae-in administration is suspicion of involvement in the Ulsan mayoral election,” the political circles see.

◇Yoo Jae-soo’s inspection Muma and civilian inspections

It was also the Civil Jeongseon’s Office that received intensive suspicion that Yoo Jae-soo had neglected the supervision of the former Vice Mayor of Busan City. Former Prosecutor Investigator Kim Tae-woo, who first raised the suspicion in December 2018, pointed out Chief Min Jung as the key person at the time of his country. In July of last year, he testified in a court of law, “In order to show well to those who can control the success of the person (my country), I accepted the request of (inspection muma).” Mayor Yoo was sentenced last year to three years probation and a fine of 90 million won in prison for one year and six months in prison on charges of accepting bribes from representatives of financial companies before and after the tenure of the Financial Services Commission.

Former investigator Kim also exposed the suspicion of inspecting civilians in the Civil Affairs Office. As it was a large-scale incident, public opinion raged. At the time, in the Gallup Korea survey (Week 3 of December 2018), the negative evaluation of President Moon’s performance of state administration recorded 46%. It was the first time after taking office that the positive evaluation (45%) was reversed.

◇ Conflict between Mi-ae Chu and Seok-yeol Yoon

The fact that the discipline of President Yoon Seok-yeol pushed by former Minister Choo Mi-ae to a failure in December last year drove President Moon into a serious crisis. In the real-meter survey in the first week of December, when the Ministry of Justice’s supervisory committee suspended the effect of the suspension of the job execution of President Yoon, the affirmative evaluation of President Moon’s performance of state administration recorded 37%, a decline of more than 6 percentage points from the previous week. The stagnation of approval ratings continued until the end of the year.

Even though the former secretary was resentful, the criticism that’the civil administration’s chief office didn’t play its role’ also boiled in the passport. In fact, it is said that the production report of the civil administration chief’s office that’the punishment of President Yoon will be possible’ has been uploaded to President Moon several times. It was virtually stiff that former Chief Min Jeong-ho Kim Jong-ho withdrew after four months of inauguration immediately after Yoon’s disciplinary failure. There were many sayings that “the Civil Affairs Office doesn’t know the prosecution, but it doesn’t know too much,” and the interpretation that Moon’s appointment as chief Shin Hyun-soo, former prosecutor, is because he needs a prosecution hotline.

◇’SNS politics’,’a job instead of a house’… a lot of personal problems

Former Justice Minister Cho Kook, who was the first chief civil servant of the current government, became controversial immediately after taking office as it became known that the school corporation managed by his mother was on the list of high-payers. As a public official and the president’s secretary, excessively active social network service (SNS) activities have come to the fore.

The civil jeong chief’s office, led by former Minister Cho, wasn’t very smooth. In June 2017, a candidate for the former Justice Minister Ahn Kyung-Hwan was caught in a lawsuit over a false marriage report. At that time, in the 3rd week of June’s Real Meter survey, President Moon’s approval rating was 75.6%, down 3.3 percentage points from the previous week.

Former Chief Min Jeong-won Kim Jo-won also received a lot of criticism when he moved from President of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to Chief Min Jeong. The bereaved family raised the question that he was responsible for the crash of the Marine Corps Marine On helicopter. The peak was at the time of controversy over multi-homed people. He had two houses in Seoul, but he left the Blue House without complying with the internal instructions to’sell’ and used the stigma as’a house instead of a job’. In a survey by Gallup Korea in August 2020, when former chief Kim’s house came to the fore, President Moon’s approval rating fell to 39%.

Continued bad news… Because the first task of 文 is the reform of the prosecution?

President Moon Moo-Hyun Roh served as the Blue House Chief Min Jeong. It is a paradox that bad news constantly erupts in the civil senior room even though you know the role and operating principle of the civil senior office better than anyone else. The fact that the Blue House regards the reform of the prosecution as the number one task in state affairs has also driven the civil administration chief’s office into a corner.

On the 18th, Park Seong-min, CEO of Min Consulting, said, “In the current government, which takes the settlement of redemption and reform of the prosecution as the main identities, the presence of the Chief Civil Service Office was great, and the first Minister of Civil Affairs, former Minister Cho Kook, was positioned as a symbol of the regime.” As a result, the risk of civil affairs continued to burst, and it became more prominent than it actually was,” he said.

Shin Eun-byul reporter [email protected]

Danbi Kim Intern reporter

Chaewon Jang Intern reporter

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