Health and Welfare Minister Moon Hyung-pyo is on the hot seat after Middle East respiratory syndrome hit the country late last month, leaving two dead and hundreds under quarantine as of Tuesday.
The disease’s steady spread sparked criticism that health officials were ill-prepared. The government’s decision to keep secret the list of hospitals holding MERS patients worsened public anger. The confirmation of two tertiary infections early Tuesday exacerbated the public’s fear.
The ministry’s failure to contain MERS will add to pressure on Moon to resign, local analysts said.
“This is a full-fledged political crisis, not to mention the obvious health concerns,” said Lee Jun-han, a professor of politics at Incheon National University.
“If someone in Hong Kong or China falls victim to MERS, this could escalate into an international incident that invites negative attention on Korea. Moon will likely be compelled to resign after the crisis,” Lee added.
Health and Welfare Minister Moon Hyung-pyo. (Yonhap)
A Korean man suspected of having MERS traveled to Hong Kong late last month. Officials there confirmed the man of having MERS, and have quarantined over 80 people who may have caught the virus from him.
President Park Geun-hye named Moon, then a senior economist at the Korea Development Institute, a public think tank, as her welfare minister in December 2013, primarily to drive through Park’s civil service pension reforms, which aimed to reduce the pension system’s reliance on public funds.
Moon finished that task last month, when the parliament approved reductions in annuities to former civil servants.
The reform came after weeks of controversy centered on Moon, as he had likened opposition demands that social security be widened without tax increases, to “piracy from future taxpayers.”
Moon’s critics, including hard-liners in the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, had demanded the minister’s resignation, calling Moon’s comments “provocative” and “undermining of parliamentary debate.”
“Moon was viewed as a Park loyalist by defending the president’s reforms against the opposition,” Lee said. “But he is viewed as a policy failure right now due to MERS,” he added.
Professor Kim Men-geon at Kyung Hee University said despite mounting pressure, Moon may continue to keep his job.
“There was pressure on Moon to resign then ... but I think that there is the chance that the president will keep Moon as her minister (after the MERS crisis ends),” Kim said.
Considering the president’s multiple failures to draw public support for nominees to senior Cabinet posts, she will likely oppose holding “yet another” confirmation hearing, Kim added.
Park’s Cabinet nominees have attracted negative political opinion during their parliamentary confirmation hearings.
“Remember that President Park kept her chief of staff, Kim Ki-choon, in his post for months, despite continued public calls for him to resign,” Kim said.
By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)
