Opposition cries foul on Kim appointment

Political conflicts heightened Tuesday, as President Moon Jae-in pushed ahead with the appointment of Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kim Sang-jo in spite of objection from the largely conservative opposition camp.

The move boosted widespread speculation that the president would also instate Foreign Minister nominee Kang Kyung-wha against opposition backlash, in time for the forthcoming Korea-US summit.

With the tense relationship between the presidential office and the political circle, Moon’s extra budget plan aiming at job creation in the public sector is also likely to remain on halt for a while.

The three major opposition parties on Tuesday afternoon voiced complaints against the state chief’s personnel decisions and communication with them on the matter.

“President Moon so often underlined the importance of cooperative governance yet he turns out to have his own way,” Rep. Choung Tae-ok, floor spokesperson of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, said in a statement.

By going ahead with the disputed appointment, Moon clearly expressed his disregard for the opposition and the legislature, added Choung.

The runner-up People’s Party and Bareun Party also revolted against the president’s personnel announcement.

“It is regretful that the Moon Jae-in government pushed ahead with the appointment (of the FTC chairman) while the parliament has not yet endorsed the hearing report,” Rep. Kim Su-min, floor spokesperson of the People’s Party, said in a statement.

The centrist party had been set to endorse Kim’s report, saying that nominee Kim had some flaws but advocating his appointment for the sake of swiftly forming the Cabinet.

“It is the ruling party’s arrogance and the main opposition party’s obstinacy which led to such a forceful appointment,” Kim said.

The minor conservative Bareun Party, on the other hand, focused on blaming the president.

“(Moon’s appointment of the FTC chief Kim) was effectively an announcement that he would choose monopoly over cooperative governance,” said spokesperson Rep. Oh Shin-hwan.

The situation has dampened the president and ruling party’s earlier attempts to add momentum to the stalled supplementary budget bill.

“President Moon met with the parliamentary budget committee chairman and the chiefs of standing committees in Cheong Wa Dae over a luncheon to hold in-depth discussions over pending issues,” presidential spokesperson Park Soo-hyun said in a briefing.

The meeting, however, was held in the absence of the main opposition party which has been boycotting the president’s budget plan as well as his recent set of personnel appointments.

The state chief’s main message was to request the committees to swiftly review and pass the budget plan so that it may be executed within the year, according to Park.

“Despite dissent on the legal prerequisites, the extra budget plan is a way to revamp the sluggish economy by creating jobs in the domestic sector,” Park quoted the president as saying.

Reflecting the president’s earlier vow to deal with the nation’s employment situation, the government last week submitted a bill to draw up an 11.2 trillion won ($9.93 billion) extra budget for job creation in the public sector.

Rep Baek Jae-hyun, lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and chairman of the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts, shared his thoughts with the president.

“The more time is spent on approving an extra budget, the lesser effect it is to have (on the economy),” said the lawmaker, urging standing committees to cooperate on the passage of the bill.

Rep. Hong Young-pyo, another ruling party member and chief of the Environment and Labor Committee, said that the extra budget is not just about creating new jobs but also improving current labor factors such as minimum wage and working hours.

But such gestures of communication and cooperation were largely limited to the president’s home party. The runner-up opposition People’s Party and Bareun Party on Tuesday morning joined the main opposition in disapproving the extra budget.

“We cannot consent to the extra budget which would impose a permanent burden on the future generations,” the policy chiefs of the three parties said in a joint statement.

Their move came a day after President Moon took the stand at the National Assembly, asking for parties’ support for the budget bill.

“If we leave the current employment problem unattended, a major economic crisis may dawn upon us,” the president said in his address.

The extra budget plan is a crucial factor in the state administration blueprint of the new president who pledged to create 810,000 new jobs in the public sector during his tenure.

For this idea to take shape, opposition votes are indispensable as the ruling party only holds 120 out of 299 parliamentary seats, while the three dissenting opposition parties together account for 167.

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