Criticism of the National Power Party for “turning the Blue House into an election camp”
Ruling Party “Policy Experience We Want to Implement in Local Government”
At the press conference held on the 100th day of President Lee Jae-myung’s inauguration held at the Blue House guesthouse on the 11th, Director of Policy Kim Yong-beom (from left), Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Woo Sang-ho, and Senior Secretary to the President for Public Relations and Communication Lee Gyu-yeon are listening to President Lee’s remarks. Yonhap News.
On the 17th, the ruling and opposition parties engaged in a war of words over the reported resignation of some Blue House staff members, including Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Woo Sang-ho, ahead of the upcoming June 3 local elections.
When the People Power Party pointed out that this was “a behavior that shows irresponsible state administration,” the Democratic Party of Korea countered, saying, “It is a virtuous cycle of expertise that transplants experience in state administration to local areas.”
Park Seong-hoon, senior spokesperson for the People Power Party, said in a commentary on the day, “It is said that Blue House officials Lee Jae-myeong are shaking their butts trying to decide when to resign to run in the June 3 local elections,” and criticized, “There is no way the government can run properly because the Blue House staff who are in charge of state affairs are putting work behind them and their minds are in the soybean fields.”
He continued, “It is shocking that the people’s livelihood is collapsing and economic alarms are sounding, but instead of thinking about countermeasures, the Blue House staff are contemplating to get out of the Blue House by preparing to run for office.”
In response, Park Kyung-mi, spokesperson for the Democratic Party, refuted the rumor of running for office in the Blue House in a written briefing, saying, “It is a natural and desirable flow of transplanting the expertise and insight accumulated at the center to local administrative sites.”
Spokesperson Park said, “When the macro perspective of national administration and the micro sense of local administration are aligned, policies are completed through practice that changes the lives of the people,” and argued, “The spread of national administration experience to local areas is not a revolving door, but a virtuous cycle of expertise that expands national management capabilities.”
He continued, “Efforts to implement the policy experience accumulated at the Blue House in local governments are not an object of suspicion or criticism, but an object of encouragement,” and urged, “The People Power Party should confidently compete with policy alternatives that can substantially improve the lives of citizens rather than groundless slander.”
