Kim Yong-beom, the Blue House policy Deputy Minister, resigned on the 1st. The Blue House's official explanation is that Deputy Minister Kim offered to step down the day before, and President Lee Jae-myung accepted the resignation that day.
When Deputy Minister Kim resigned that morning, the question arose, "Why step down just two days after the Cabinet reshuffle?" If personnel changes had been made along with the reshuffle, it could have avoided critical public opinion over keeping Deputy Minister Kim on.
That afternoon, the Blue House said the resignation was "to boost smooth momentum for policy execution." It effectively acknowledged that it had become difficult to properly run economic policy with Kim remaining. But questions remain. Does this mean that just two days earlier, at the time of the reshuffle, the Blue House judged there would be no problem in keeping Deputy Minister Kim?
A political source said, "If they replaced not only the deputy prime minister for the economy but also the policy Deputy Minister, it would give the impression of 'full acknowledgment of mistakes' and a 'shift in policy line,' so they tried to avoid that, but as criticism mounted, they changed Deputy Minister Kim as well."
◇ Kim Yong-beom, the top candidate for replacement kept in reshuffle… "Hard to accept"
When the reshuffle list came out on the 30th, people asked, "Why isn't policy Deputy Minister Kim Yong-beom being replaced?" Given that, as the Blue House's economic control tower, Deputy Minister Kim should be held responsible for overall economic missteps including real estate and the stock market, it was hard to accept that he was retained.
In particular, Deputy Minister Kim has faced criticism that he was responsible for the "single-stock leveraged ETF" products that caused severe price surges and plunges. He also drew criticism for trying to evade responsibility by saying, "The significant volatility over the past two to three months was not unique to our market. Single-stock leveraged ETFs are not the only cause."
Right after the reshuffle, in political and government circles, there was a forecast that "within the Blue House economic lineup, Deputy Minister Kim is the No. 1 candidate for replacement, and since he was retained, the critical public opinion will be significant." In fact, calls to replace Deputy Minister Kim came not only from the opposition but also from the ruling camp.
◇ Blue House: "The basic line of real estate policy will not be shaken"
The Blue House held two press briefings that day regarding policy Deputy Minister Kim Yong-beom's resignation. Chief spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said at the morning briefing, "Deputy Minister Kim offered to resign yesterday (on the 31st)," and added, "President Lee accepted the resignation today (the 1st)." There was no further explanation.
At the afternoon briefing, a senior Blue House official, regarding the "background to Deputy Minister Kim's resignation," said, "Blue House aides serve on average 1 year and 2 months to 1 year and 6 months and are replaced to provide smooth momentum for policy execution." The implication was that, since Deputy Minister Kim had served 15 months, it was time for a change.
Reporters then asked, "There was a reshuffle over the weekend, so why was Deputy Minister Kim kept and then offered to resign a day later?" The point was that the earlier Blue House explanation was insufficient. But the official repeated the same explanation.
Reporters asked again whether public opinion calling for Deputy Minister Kim to take responsibility for missteps in real estate and the stock market factored into the acceptance of his resignation. Again, the Blue House official repeated the same points about the "average tenure" and "providing smooth momentum for policy execution."
Reporters then asked, "Having replaced the deputy prime minister for the economy and now the Blue House policy Deputy Minister, can this be understood as a shift in the policy line?" A Blue House official said, "There are many policy tasks, and this is a step to activate them with speed." The meaning was that there is no change in the policy line.
Regarding real estate policy, the official also said, "We will go through the process of gathering the public's opinions, but fundamentally the policy line of normalizing prices will not be shaken."