The transition committee’s tight-lipped schedule and unilateral press briefings are some of the characteristics for which President-elect Park Geun-hye’s communications method is facing criticism.

Park’s prioritization of the transition team’s information security is drawing backlash that it leads to the uncommunicative delivery of their messages.

Sparking such criticism was Park’s first announcement of her transition committee members, including chairman Kim Yong-joon and two special committees on Dec. 27. The announcement by spokesman Yoon Chang-jung was followed with little background explanation by her spokespeople, who apparently were hearing the news for the first time themselves.

The lack of background briefing on the president-elect’s personnel choices continued until the final unveiling of the members last Friday, prompting the DUP to accuse Park’s government of being reclusive and imperialistic.

Park has long faced attacks from her opponents for being closed-off and taciturn in her decisions.

“Arguing the right and wrong (of an issue) is just how democracy should be,” said Democratic United Party Rep. Park Beom-kye in a radio interview Monday, in response to a suggestion that the tight security of information may be for the sake fending off hearsay.

“In what world does a spokesperson just read off from a sealed statement … shouldn’t the spokesman deliver what the president-elect could not fully convey for such (messages) to be verified by the people,” he said.

Unshaken by the vilification, Park’s team on Sunday said they have decided to unify their media communication channels to spokesman Yoon Chang-jung with regard to all transition team activities for the transparent and fair disclosure of information.

Yoon said all members have been alerted on the need to keep confidentiality for sake of preventing confusion with premature leaks of state policy plans, and said Park’s team would be without an external advisory team, which tends to bring such side effects.

Yoon also told reporters “it is not newsworthy” to a question about the discussion made about the two-hour workshop that was held among the transition team members on Sunday, withholding more details.

As criticism escalated, Yoon held a lengthier briefing the next day, reading out Park’s keynote speech made at the plenary session word by word.

Observers pointed out that while being cautious on reckless information leaks was necessary, maintaining rapport with the people was also important.

“Being too secretive about something that the public is most keenly interested in at the moment, which is the direction of the transition team, is not (appropriate),” said professor Rhee June-woong of the Department of Communication, Seoul National University, adding that the media resorting to speculative reports was also a problem.

“At least publicly discussing through public briefings about the direction of the team such as in its personnel discussion may be necessary, if only to prevent the media from heading in the wrong direction.”

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)