The People Power Party launched a fierce attack on President Lee Jae Myung after he attributed the push for a comprehensive farmland survey to a suggestion from Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryeong, calling his remarks "cowardly and irresponsible."
PPP floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik posted a message on his Facebook page Tuesday under the headline "The president blaming his minister — it's an ugly sight," saying he was left speechless by what he described as Lee's "contemptible" move to shift blame onto a subordinate once the situation turned against him.
"This is the first president I've ever seen who is so genuinely committed to blaming others," Jeong said. "He has consistently blamed real estate problems on the previous administration and the Seoul mayor, said 'someone must have decided' when it came to single-stock leveraged ETFs, and now, of all things, he's blaming his minister."
Jeong also pointed to Lee's own past statements at Cabinet meetings, where the president had spoken of the need for a comprehensive farmland survey and divestiture orders. "Wasn't it the president himself who said at a Cabinet meeting that 'if necessary, a full survey and divestiture orders should be carried out with a large workforce' and that 'people who don't farm should not be allowed to hold farmland'?" he said.
PPP Secretary-General Jeong Hee-yong also weighed in at a national audit strategy meeting at the National Assembly on Tuesday. "We cannot help but ask whether he is now hiding behind his minister to escape responsibility after causing all this unintended harm," he said, adding that the president's sharp words had unfairly branded elderly farmers and those who inherited farmland as potential speculators.
Lawmaker Yun Sang-hyeon joined the criticism on Facebook. "Is it the posture of a responsible president to respond to growing controversy over a government policy by immediately saying it was the minister's idea?" he wrote. "If the pattern is to say something is necessary, then delay it, push it forward, and then claim it was the minister's suggestion when controversy grows, which of the president's words are the people supposed to believe?"
PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok also took to Facebook on Monday, saying, "Now that things have gone wrong, he is blaming the minister," and calling it a case of "selective amnesia that flares up whenever things get inconvenient."
Regarding Lee's explanation that he had no intention of "seizing farmland or imposing punitive measures," Jang said farmland transactions had already dried up and prices had collapsed. "Shouldn't he first apologize for this botched comprehensive farmland survey?" he said.
Earlier, at a "Dialogue with Farmers and Fishers" event held at Cheong Wa Dae on Monday, Lee explained the background of the farmland survey, saying that a legally mandated inspection had gone unperformed for 70 years and that it was necessary to understand the state of farmland before implementing any policy.
He added that Agriculture Minister Song had approached him with the suggestion: "Our minister told me, 'There's a survey that's legally required but hasn't been done for decades — let's go ahead and do a full one while we're at it,' and that's why we did it." He also stressed that the survey was not intended to seize farmland or impose any punitive measures.
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