Cheong Wa Dae apologizes for prime minister nominee's flaws

Cheong Wa Dae on Friday apologized for the ongoing dispute over flaws found in some of the Cabinet nominees tapped by President Moon Jae-in, seeking to ease the partisan conflict over the qualifications of Prime Minister nominee Lee Nak-yon.

The presidential office, however, maintained its former stance that such flaws were not serious enough to disqualify the nominees and called for the parliamentary confirmation hearing committee to be flexible. 

“Election campaign pledges and actual state affairs cannot be the same and for this I ask for your understanding,” Im Jong-seok, presidential chief of staff, said in a briefing.

President Moon will push ahead with his personnel decisions, as long as the capacities of a nominee outweigh his or her flaws, he explained.

During the election campaign season, Moon had pledged to exclude those involved in irregularities -- such as the evasion of military duty, tax evasion and false residence registration -- from ranking government posts.

To minimize controversies, Cheong Wa Dae, upon tapping former UN official Kang Kyung-wha as foreign minister, had pre-emptively revealed Kang’s past experience of registering a false residence.

But as two more officials turned out to have similar flaws -- Lee and Fair Trade Commission Chairman nominee Kim Sang-jo -- calls escalated that the president should speak out on the issue.

“(Moon’s pledge) was a vow to create a fair society without privilege, and we have therefore been applying a strict moral standard (in personnel appointments) so as not to ruin such values,” Im said.

“We are trying to keep things within the range of common sense, but are sorry for failing to meet the public’s expectations sometimes. We also ask the (parliamentary) confirmation hearing committee for greater understanding on the issue.”

The presidential chief of staff’s message came amid deadlock among rival parties over the confirmation of Prime Minister nominee Lee Nak-yon.

While the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea called for a swift confirmation of the nominee, the Liberty Korea Party, People’s Party and Bareun Party demanded that the president clarifies his stance over what they saw as dubious nominations.

The Blue House’s answer, however, failed to settle the disputes.

“It is unbecoming for the chief of staff to speak on the matter of the prime minister nominee’s hearing,” said Rep. Kyeong Dae-soo of the Liberty Korea Party.

“The president has been winning credit for reaching out to the people in an honest, humble manner. He should not only set out for applause but take actions on challenging issues as well.”

The confirmation committee failed to adopt a report on Lee on Friday. The report should be laid to the parliamentary general meeting for a full floor vote to take place.

Meanwhile, Lee was reserved on his personnel qualifications.

“I am currently not in a position to comment on the issue,” Lee told reporters Friday morning while entering the Korea Banking Institute, where a temporary office has been set up until the final confirmation.

By Bae Hyun-jung
(tellme@heraldcorp.com)