Park Soon-ae, deputy prime minister of society and nominee for education minister. Reporter Park Jong-min
Testimony came out that Park Soon-ae, a candidate for deputy prime minister and education minister, exercised so-called ‘gap-jil’ while serving as a professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Administration, by ordering assistants and staff to run errands unrelated to their work or to delete records of messages they shared with them.
Recently, candidate Park is known to have contacted those who worked as teaching assistants one by one, raising questions about the background.
According to CBS Nocut News coverage on the 30th, officials, including graduates of the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University, argued that Park continued to give unfair work orders while serving as a professor. Candidate Park has been a professor at the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University since 2004, and is currently the head of the Center for Public Performance Management Research Center in the university.
A graduate from Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Administration said in an interview with CBS Nocut News, “When I was attending school, my teaching assistant asked me to fill out the interview questions to hire a housekeeper. There were instructions that had nothing to do with work,” he said.
There were also claims that the assistants were in charge of Candidate Park’s coffee errands and cleaning the lab. Another official, Mr. B, said, “There were manuals such as coffee errands and cleaning, and until recently, the assistant had to clean the lab every morning. I got angry if I didn’t put it in the empty space of my suitcase.”
Person A said, “I don’t know if even having to drink coffee or to clean the lab every day can be considered ‘gap-jil’, but added, “It is a publicly known fact that he has been continuously instructing these tasks.”
There was also a testimonial that he had called his personal assistant to a private space and told him to delete the record of messages he had shared with him. Person A said, “When one of Park’s personal assistants said he was quitting, he called him to his personal space and ordered him to erase the conversation he had with him,” said Mr.
Provided by Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Administration
In the midst of this, it is known that Candidate Park recently collected a list of teaching assistants and called them, raising questions about the background.
Person A said, “Professor Park recently ordered to select a list of teaching assistants who worked at the Public Performance Management Center, and I know that he has called the teaching assistants after that.” .
He added, “I don’t usually contact him personally, but seeing that contact was made during this time, most of the graduates, including teaching assistants, must be feeling a lot of pressure.”
Mr. B also said, “I know that they are calling the teaching assistants who were there before.”
Regarding the allegations of ‘gapjil’, Park’s representative replied, “All of the information is not true.”
Meanwhile, the deadline for re-sending the personnel hearing progress report on candidate Park was until the previous day. From now on, according to the law, President Yoon can be appointed without a personnel hearing at the National Assembly. However, it is still unclear whether the appointment will be enforced in the absence of a member of the National Assembly. In addition, as President Yoon visited Madrid, Spain to attend the NATO summit, it is predicted that the possibility of carrying out the appointment before returning to Korea on the 1st of next month is low.
