President Park reprimands officials for making inappropriate remarks

President Park Geun-hye said on Tuesday, “It is regrettable that some official’s recent inappropriate remarks hurt the people’s minds and increased distrust. If it repeats, I will hold those invovled responsible.” The president’s comments seem to target Deputy Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok who caused a stir after he said, “foolish people blame others and only worry when something happens.”

President Park chaired a meeting of senior presidential secretaries on Monday and said, “I stress again that in case damages are done to the people due to the leakage of information, credit card companies are compensating them 100 percent and I will hold those involved responsible.” The president implied that she would discipline the officialdom in the wake of the controversy over Finance Minister Hyun and could overhaul the cabinet. In addition, President Park ordered to investigate all financial institutions for any leakage of information aside from the three credit card companies – KB Kookmin Card, Lotte Card, and NH NongHyup Card – which leaked 140 million cases of personal information. She also urged financial companies to take actions so that clients cannot be disadvantaged in terms of the collection, retention, and management of personal information, and asked them to review other options that can discern individuals apart from residential registration numbers. She also added, “Please review the current status of personal information protection in the public sector and do your best to pass the financial client protection bill to pass the February extraordinary session of the National Assembly in February.”

President Park also made it clear that the administration would strongly push for remote medical services which the Korean Medical Association opposes. “The CEOs of global companies who I met in Davos stressed the strong potential of remote health care services in unison,” the president said, adding, “It is contradiction to create decent jobs while blocking the areas that could generate them in the service sector with ideology, misunderstanding and prejudice.”