2024-04-15 12:31:20
In the aftermath of the crushing defeat in the 22nd National Assembly election, the President’s Office faced its greatest crisis since the inauguration of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration as key staff members in Yongsan expressed their resignation all at once on the 11th.
A high-ranking official from the Presidential Office met with reporters at the Presidential Office in Yongsan this morning and said, “The Chief of Staff, Director of Policy, and Senior Secretaries have expressed their gratitude to the President.”
With the exception of the National Security Office, which is the diplomatic and defense line, all staff at the Presidential Secretariat level, including the Chief of Staff and Vice Minister, have expressed their intention to resign from their positions to take responsibility for the crushing defeat in the general election. This official reported that Prime Minister Han Deok-soo also verbally expressed his gratitude to the President.
As the ruling party won only 108 seats in this general election, which was largely a mid-term evaluation of the Yoon Seok-yeol government, the atmosphere inside the President’s Office quickly froze. As news spread that most of the key staff members had expressed their resignation, the atmosphere seemed to have calmed down even further.
Most of the staff stayed up all night the day before to watch the vote counting, but as the election results became clearer, voices expressing regret continued. One official said, “I went to work immediately after watching the vote counting broadcast,” and added, “Could the situation be worse than this?”
Some in Yongsan have raised the observation that there will be a positive impact on the general election as President Yoon proactively left open the possibility of discussing increasing the number of medical school students by 2,000 in relation to the recent collective action in the medical field.
In addition to the controversies surrounding former Australian Ambassador Lee Jong-seop and former civil society senior secretary Hwang Sang-moo, there was also the issue of a ‘big hit’, but as President Yoon made a decision and settled most of the controversies, many people were looking at 120 to 130 seats.
However, as the performance fell far short of expectations, there was gloom in the President’s office. Another official expressed disappointment with the general election results, saying, “When the exit poll came out, I couldn’t believe it.”
When a broadcaster’s exit poll showed that the ruling party would not be able to fill even 100 seats, there was a sense of crisis in the ruling party that even the constitutional amendment line could be breached.
This is the first time since the new administration took office that high-ranking presidential staff have expressed their gratitude as a group. There is an interpretation that this clearly reflects the sense of crisis that is even being discussed as an ‘early lame duck’ with less than half of President Yoon’s term in office having passed.
In the ruling party, there is a prevailing prediction that even President Yoon, who has maintained the policy of “no personnel to change the situation,” will have no choice but to initiate reform through personnel changes this time. A high-ranking official in the Presidential Office said, “It is natural to reform the state administration in order to uphold the will of the people, and reforming the state administration must be preceded by personnel reform.”
An official from the ruling party also said, “Even as president, he said he would reform his staff, so he couldn’t possibly not receive his resignation.”
Reporter Kim Jeong-hyeon Photo News 1
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2024-04-15 12:31:20