Crash test in the plane of the acting president of South Korea two days after he took office By Reuters
Author: Cynthia Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) – When South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok arrived at the scene of the country’s deadliest plane crash on Sunday, he had been on the job less than 48 hours.
Choi, the country’s finance minister, became acting leader on Friday night following the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who had been acting president since President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and suspended from power on Dec. 14 following his short-lived attempt to impose martial law.
Confused traffic at the top of Asia’s fourth-largest economy and one of its most vibrant democracies left the government reeling when Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 hit a wall at Muan International Airport on Sunday, killing most of the 181 people on board.
Choi visited the site hours after the accident and declared it a special disaster zone.
“The government wishes to express its sincere condolences to the bereaved families and will do its best to recover from this accident and prevent a recurrence,” he said.
Behind the scenes, government offices are still figuring out the chain of command and how press statements will be issued, a ministry spokesman and four other officials told Reuters. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive planning.
“Today, Choi went to Muan with land ministry officials, not finance ministry officials,” the spokesman said. “A team of transport ministry officials and security ministry officials will be reporting directly to Choi on the Muan plane crash for the next few weeks. As for how we will distribute press releases to all of his schedules – it has not yet been decided.”
Every ministry involved in foreign policy, administrative affairs or security has teams that report to Choi, but Yoon’s presidential staff does not, and Choi works from a government complex in Seoul rather than any official residence, one official said.
A senior finance ministry official said it has not yet been decided who, if anyone, from Yoon’s and Han’s offices will report to Choi. Some of Choi’s duties as finance minister have been delegated to a deputy minister, the ministry official added.
“Meetings of the central disaster control team are ministerial-level meetings, so the land minister and the security minister report directly to Choi,” this official said.
Choi leads that centralized disaster control team in place of the prime minister, who would normally be in charge based on a manual prepared after the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking, which killed 304 people, and the Itaewon Halloween stampede that killed 159. 2022, a fourth official said.
South Korea’s political upheaval was triggered when Yoon unexpectedly declared martial law on Dec. 3, only to reverse the order within hours after parliament defied military and police cordons to vote against Yoon.
The opposition-led parliament accused him of rebellion and abuse of power and impeached him, and later Han.
Choi will serve as acting president while the Constitutional Court decides the fate of Yoon and Han.
The uncertainty comes as South Korea tries to navigate volatile foreign exchange markets and faces the task of preparing for the administration of President-elect Donald Trump in the United States, who is a key ally of Seoul.
