Yoon Administration Abolishes Public Petitions... Establishes 100% Real-Name 'Gukmin Je-an' System

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Presidential Office has decided to abolish the Blue House's 'National Petition,' an online communication channel with the public established during the Moon Jae-in administration. This decision comes from the judgment that fully disclosing petition contents, which are supposed to be confidential under the Petition Act, has been inciting public conflict. Instead, the administration plans to communicate with the public through the 'National Proposal' section, which operates on a 100% real-name basis.

Kang Seung-gyu, Senior Secretary for Civil Society, held a briefing on the afternoon of the 23rd at the Yongsan Presidential Office building and announced, "A new public communication channel called the National Proposal section has been opened on the Presidential Office website."

Senior Secretary Kang pointed out, "The Blue House National Petition under the previous administration was not based on the Civil Petition Act or the Petition Act, so there was no legal basis for processing deadlines." He added, "Only petitions with more than 200,000 endorsements were selectively answered, and the majority of petitions were left unanswered and neglected." Accordingly, he explained that the old Blue House National Petition system will no longer be maintained and will be abolished.

The newly unveiled public communication section by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration can be accessed through the Presidential Office website. It includes a Civil Petition and Proposal section for filing complaints about administrative actions, a Petition section for requesting corrections to public officials' duties or submitting opinions on laws, ordinances, orders, and regulations, a Video Proposal section for the digitally marginalized, and a 102 telephone inquiry service. The number 102 is derived by combining '10' from the 'yeol' (열) in 'Yoon Suk-yeol' and '2' from the Chinese character '귀 이' (耳).

Senior Secretary Kang stated, "We plan to form a joint public-private review committee of about 10 members to operate a National Excellent Proposal council." He explained, "Among the various National Proposals received, the committee will select outstanding proposals focusing on policy suggestions, and then conduct an online public vote to gather public opinion. Proposals that receive majority public agreement will be actively reflected in national policy." He added, "We are also preparing a customized civil petition proposal section for overseas Koreans, which is scheduled to open in July. We encourage overseas Koreans to send many good ideas, which we will listen to carefully and incorporate into national governance." However, comments representing the interests of specific organizations or groups will be restricted, and a 'Civil Petition Responsibility Processing System' will guarantee responses within the legally mandated processing period. This is because the previous administration's National Petition required over 200,000 endorsements for an official response, resulting in a response rate of only 0.026%.

Meanwhile, the National Proposal section will also hold monthly public communication events. The purpose is to focus on gathering public opinions and vivid voices from the field on specific topics. This month, the target groups for proposals are small business owners, startups, small and medium enterprises, and large corporations.