EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on Feb. 10)

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Every Inch Unfit
Withdrawal Is Only Thing to Do for Minister Appointee

Watching the National Assembly's hearing on Unification Minister-Designate Hyun
In-taek Monday, viewers might have wondered whether it was really necessary.
In most cases people expect Cabinet ministers to have integrity in money matters,
a scholastic reputation (if they are academics) and sufficient qualification for
the jobs they are supposed to take. Hyun had none even before the confirmation
session.
The Korea University professor is widely suspected of having evaded taxes on
property acquisition, either by underreporting or buying in other peoples' names.
He also allegedly exaggerated his academic achievements through self-plagiarism
and duplicated theses' publication to receive research subsidies amounting to
some $2 million.
Some nominees of U.S. President Barack Obama, who withdrew for failing to pay
taxes and other payments ranging from a thousand to a hundred thousand dollars,
simply pale before Hyun's tax avoidance and unjustifiable income. Only after
there were signs of Hyun's entering into the administration, did his wife, with
sizable rental income of her own, make long overdue pension payments.
That the minister-appointee is a speed buff may not matter, but if he's got nine
tickets for speeding, jumping the lights and even violating the center line in as
many years, he makes a poor candidate for a top public post, which should set an
example of law abidance. Perhaps President Lee Myung-bak thought these were too
trivial to be reckoned with, his foremost emphasis being on keeping ``law and
order.'' Expectedly but still disappointingly, Hyun failed to clearly dissolve
suspicions of any of these matters.
A candidate must be exceptionally capable and suitable for the job to offset
alleged unethical and unprofessional misconduct of this magnitude, but the job
appropriateness is the very part in which Hyun fails most glaringly.
The 55-year-old professor, who designed ??? or co-designed as he claimed ???
President Lee's North Korea policy of ``Vision 3000: Denuclearization and
Openness,'' was attacked by even lawmakers from the governing party. Rep. Hong
Jung-wook of the Grand National Party, for instance, criticized the plan's
impracticality, noting the North's economy should grow 27 percent a year over the
next decade to jack up its per capita income to $3,000 from $250. ``It's no
better than giving an amateur singer the stage at Broadway, where only real pros
can stand,'' the U.S.-educated lawmaker said.
Even more serious than Hyun's amateurism is his expertise and philosophy for the
job, the foremost condition for which is inter-Korean cooperation and
reconciliation. Hyun, not a North Korean expert but a major in international
politics, has often made no secret of his anti-Pyongyang views, saying it
wouldn't matter much whether the Koreas are reunified or not, and even denied the
need for the existence of the ministry he is supposed to take charge of.
Grilled about how he would rebuild estranged inter-Korean ties if approved, Hyun
failed to present any clear plans, bent on hiding behind his temporary status of
appointee.
By all accounts, Hyun should step down from the candidacy. If he refuses to do
so, the Assembly should express a bipartisan ``no'' and President Lee should
accept the non-binding conclusion and withdraw his appointment.
President Obama, who enjoys a 70 percent approval rating, admitted his mistakes
and apologized for three blunders out of more than a dozen appointments. His
Korean counterpart, who recently appointed four officials, three of whom are
involved in one financial scandal or another, never did the same despite his
20-percent approval rating.
Should one regard this as just the gap in democratic maturity between the two
countries?
(END)