Park Hong-geun: "'I feel a bit sorry' Kim Jin-tae should resign early instead of returning early"

"President Yoon's Emergency Economic Meeting Criticized as a Bland Session Filled with Jokes and Selfie Play"

Park Hong-geun, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is delivering opening remarks at the 'Supreme Council Meeting People's Podium - Household Debt and High Interest Rates Edition' held at the National Assembly on the 26th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] Park Hong-geun, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, condemned Governor Kim Jin-pyo of Gangwon Province's remark that he felt "a bit sorry," saying, "What needs to be done immediately is not an early return but an 'early resignation.'"

Floor leader Park made this criticism during the 'Emergency Fact-Finding Committee Meeting on the Economic Crisis Triggered by Kim Jin-tae' held at the National Assembly that day.

Governor Kim, upon returning from a business trip to Vietnam the previous day, explained regarding the recent liquidity problems caused by turmoil in the bond market, saying, "I feel a bit sorry," and added, "Anyway, although it was never my intention, since the situation has unfolded like this, I feel sorry."

Floor leader Park pointed out, "After causing an unprecedented event where the financial market and corporate cash flow are being blocked one after another, he just says he is a little sorry," and "He did not forget to shift responsibility for the intentional default crisis elsewhere."

He said, "No one among the public wishes for the return of ‘the prosecutor-turned-politically-illiterate governor’ Kim Jin-tae, who started erasing his predecessor with shallow political calculations."

He also raised issues with the government's response to the economic crisis. Floor leader Park criticized, "Yesterday’s ‘Emergency Economic and Livelihood Meeting’ of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration had neither urgency, alternatives to overcome the economic crisis, nor measures to save people’s livelihoods," calling it "a bland meeting full of jokes and photo ops."

He added, "The spark of the ‘Jin-tae’ double crisis is turning into a massive wildfire, but there were no immediate measures to put out the fire," and "The livelihood economy, real economy, and financial market are all precarious, yet they only laid out plausible mid- to long-term growth strategies such as ‘industrial promotion and export stimulation.’"

Floor leader Park said, "It is truly outrageous that the president, who holds overall responsibility for the national economy, is lecturing the suffocating people to ‘turn crisis into opportunity’," and "At least the Democratic Party will fulfill its responsibility as the largest party in the National Assembly."