Jang Dong-hyeok: 'Is it Cheong Wa Dae's turn to go under?'
Yoon Sang-hyun: 'Shockingly lax management'
The People Power Party on Tuesday strongly criticized Cheong Wa Dae for what it called a "breakdown of discipline" after personal information belonging to President Lee Jae Myung and 168 other passengers aboard Air Force One was leaked.
PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok wrote on Facebook that the Air Force One passenger manifest had been leaked, saying personal information — from the presidential couple to the press corps accompanying the overseas trip — had been fully exposed. Jang added that the data, posted June 2, had reportedly been left unaddressed for more than five months.
Jang also recalled that President Lee had once said of the Coupang Inc. data breach that the company should be made to feel it was going under, and asked, "Is it Cheong Wa Dae's turn to go under?"
PPP lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun also took to Facebook, saying he was "shocked that the personal information and security-related data of the country's top officials could be managed so carelessly."
Yoon said changing passport numbers could not undo the exposure of security personnel's identities, and added, "If even the president's personal information cannot be kept safe, one cannot help but worry whether other critical state information is being properly protected."
Yoon went on to ask how national security could be guaranteed under a system that failed to protect even the personal information of the president and key state figures, and called on the government to thoroughly investigate the cause of the leak, establish accountability and conduct a full review of its security management systems.
PPP spokesperson Jo Yong-sul issued a statement Tuesday, pressing: "Cheong Wa Dae leaked even the president's sensitive information — if you cannot protect your own house, how can you be responsible for national security?"
Jo said that even a neighborhood community outing would rarely result in personal information being exposed so carelessly, and said what made the situation more serious was that the identities of security personnel, medical staff and aides working in close proximity to the president had also been fully compromised.
Jo said that because a president's overseas trip is directly tied to the head of state's safety as well as diplomacy and national security, rigorous protection of accompanying personnel's identities and movements is the most basic of requirements. Jo said the exposure of core information related to President Lee's diplomatic overseas trips to an unspecified number of people was "in effect a security disaster — tantamount to throwing open the front door to hostile states or terrorist organizations."
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