Jeong Jeom-sik: resignation 'amounts to admitting cabinet reshuffle failure'
Seo Il-jun: party will 'actively pursue parliamentary investigation'
The People Power Party on Tuesday sharply criticized the resignation of presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom, calling it a "scapegoating-style exit."
PPP Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik, speaking to reporters after a floor leadership meeting, said the replacement of economic chiefs at Cheong Wa Dae and in the cabinet must not stop at a cosmetic personnel shuffle. "It must lead to a genuine shift in policy direction," he said.
Jeong said Kim's resignation "amounts to admitting the cabinet reshuffle was a failure," adding that the move was a hasty attempt to throw up another smokescreen as the backlash over the nomination of Justice Minister candidate Kim Seung-won intensified.
Criticism continued inside the floor leadership meeting as well. PPP lawmaker Seo Il-jun, the party's floor whip on the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, said ordinary citizens had been left anxious in the face of tightened lending conditions, while those who invested in high-risk financial products were forced to absorb sharp volatility and the threat of losses. "Kim Yong-beom, the presidential policy chief who oversaw these policies, has only just now resigned," Seo said. "Our committee will thoroughly investigate the problems in the process of introducing single-stock leveraged ETFs and will actively push for a parliamentary investigation."
Bae Jun-young, the PPP's floor whip on the National Assembly's Finance and Economic Planning Committee, said Kim's resignation was inevitable but long overdue. "For 15 months, the people have suffered greatly," Bae said. "A successor will need to be chosen, but none of it will matter if the president himself does not change."
Calls also emerged for the resignation of FSC Chairman Lee Eok-won and FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin, who drove the introduction of leveraged ETFs. PPP lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo wrote on his Facebook page that only one of what he called the "three no-answer brothers of leveraged ETFs" had stepped down.
Ahn said FSC Chairman Lee Eok-won and FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin remain in their posts. He described the single-stock leveraged ETFs tied to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as "a failed experiment rushed through without adequate safeguards, turning South Korea's stock market into a 'roller-Kospi.'" He called on President Lee Jae Myung to hold the remaining two officials accountable, saying Kim's resignation must not be allowed to bury responsibility for the failure.
Fellow PPP lawmaker Na Kyung-won also posted on Facebook, saying the resignation went beyond being merely belated — it was "a cowardly escape" and "nothing more than blatant scapegoating." "This is not a light offense that can be buried under a single letter of resignation," she said.
Na called for a full investigation and criminal probe, saying resignation alone was not enough. She also demanded a National Assembly parliamentary investigation into public losses from the ETF affair, saying scrutiny must extend to who ordered the hasty listing of leveraged ETFs and what financial gains the children of Kim and FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin may have made from the situation.
PPP lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun wrote on his Facebook page that the move appeared to be a rushed attempt to pin the blame for policy failures on one person as public discontent grew louder.
He urged President Lee Jae Myung to go beyond personnel changes and conduct a ground-up review of policies spanning judicial reform, real estate, finance, taxation, youth affairs and employment. "Only a fundamental policy shift can hold back the collapse in public sentiment and defend the administration's approval rating," he said.
raining@heraldcorp.com
