It reads like a sordid medieval court intrigue. Yet it allegedly took place this year at the Blue House.
On Nov. 28, the local daily the Segye Ilbo ran a story on an internal Blue House report it had obtained. The document, dated Jan. 6, describes how President Park Geun-hye’s former aide, Chung Yoon-hoi, regularly met in secret with a group of Blue House officials, including three of Park’s closest secretaries. Chung instructed the group to circulate stories about plans to replace Blue House Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon to create a mood for his replacement, the newspaper article said, citing the Blue House report.
The newspaper alleged that the document it obtained confirms that Chung, in a private capacity, discussed state affairs and the goings-on in the Blue House with Blue House officials. The newspaper said that the Blue House report was drawn up on the instructions of a presidential secretary. That secretary is regarded as an acquaintance of Park Ji-man, the president’s younger brother. Earlier this year, Chung sued a local weekly over an article claiming that a man associated with him trailed Ji-man. The Blue House official who authored the internal report was transferred out of the presidential office soon after the report was presented and the secretary who authorized the report resigned about a month later.
While the Blue House acknowledged the existence of the internal report, it dismissed its significance, claiming that Kim was verbally briefed on the report but it was regarded as a mere collection of rumors circulating in the financial community. Three Blue House officials said to have met with Chung filed a libel suit against the Segye Ilbo and the Blue House has asked the prosecution to investigate whether the author of the internal report violated the law on the management of public records. The libel suit will serve to contain further fallout from the story as media outlets are likely to engage in self-censorship.
If the newspaper’s report proves true, the intrigue within the Blue House is out of hand. More importantly, it points to a serious problem in the handling of state affairs ― a close associate of the president, without any position in the administration, regularly meeting with Blue House officials to discuss state and Blue House affairs.
Even if the Blue House assertion that the internal report was merely a collection of rumors proves true, it does not exonerate the Blue House from charges of mismanagement. Indeed, this is not the first time that Chung’s name has been mentioned in connection with the presidential office. Speculations concerning Chung and other close associates exercising influence are distractions that could potentially cripple the Park administration, which has three more years to go.
Is the Blue House staff in the habit of writing up reports of rumors circulating in the financial community to be presented to the chief of staff? Did the chief of staff not take any action against the Blue House officials named in the report because it was a collection of groundless rumors? Finally, how does an internal report get taken out of the Blue House? Are security measures properly functioning at the presidential office? These are just some of the commonsense questions that have been raised by the public and ought to be clearly explained by the Blue House.
