Minister Kim Young-hoon of the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said on the 28th that "there is speculation in some quarters that the government is trying to take the profits of large corporations and redistribute them," calling it "a mistranslation of the essence."
The Minister said on his Facebook page the same day, "The government neither has the authority to forcibly interfere with the legitimate profits of corporations nor intends to do so," and stated accordingly.
The Minister said at a tea meeting with the press corps the previous day, "The only solution to how to distribute large corporations' excess profits socially is social dialogue." In response, the People Power Party issued a commentary calling it "a dangerous notion of state intervention that shakes the foundations of the free market economy," and this was a rebuttal.
The Minister said, "I believe it is the will of the people, the sovereigns, that we must not just stand by and watch the widening gap among workers." He continued, "It is time for labor, management, and the government to pool their wisdom to create a society where we can grow together through win-win cooperation between principal contractors and subcontractors," adding, "I will listen and engage in dialogue with tireless passion."
The Minister added, "There are no corporations without workers, and there is no union created to make a company go bankrupt," saying, "In the end, we must live together."