Home > Opinion > Columns

Yoon's Cabinet: A story of sycophants

Published: 19 Dec. 2024, 20:46

Ahn Hye-ri
The author is an editorial writer for the JoongAng Ilbo.

During a livestreamed conversation with Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and author of "Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life," Elon Musk shared his perspective on discerning people’s true character. “Anyone can wear masks, but friends don’t,” the billionaire CEO remarked, advising people to observe the friends or associates someone surrounds themselves with to truly understand their nature.

From Musk’s logic, it’s hardly surprising that the Cabinet members displayed a lack of competence and integrity, as evidenced by their weak and cowardly excuses during legislative hearings after the president’s declaration of martial law.

President Yoon Suk Yeol has never hidden his arrogance or obstinacy. The pitiful sight of the senior officials he carefully assembled for his Cabinet reveals much about his leadership style. His willingness to evoke the monstrous legacy of the military regime and attempt to enforce martial law offers insight into the kind of leader he is.

The 11 ministers hastily summoned for the sudden Cabinet meeting on that dreadful night were gathered merely to meet the legal requirement for a quorum to pass the martial law decree. Even those fortunate enough to avoid attendance share a common trait: unwavering loyalty to their boss. Many owed their positions to the president and felt indebted to him, but the sycophancy within Yoon’s Cabinet has been particularly blatant. They openly displayed their allegiance to the president in government-party meetings, legislative hearings and media interviews.

The president’s actions over the two months leading up to the martial law declaration, including prioritizing his wife’s interests over national stability, alarmed the public. Yet Han, his deputy, claimed complete ignorance of Yoon’s dangerous deviation. In an interview about two months ago, Han praised Yoon as a broad-minded and reform-oriented president while lamenting the supposed lack of “intelligence” in society, subtly accusing the public of being “anti-intellectual.”

Kim Yong-hyun, the former defense minister and a key figure in the martial law order, exemplifies such blind loyalty. The president, his junior in high school, shielded him from legislative censure by swiftly accepting his resignation following the short-lived martial law attempt. Instead of apologizing to the public and military personnel after that night, Kim expressed sympathy for the president, claiming Yoon was “a leader who thinks only of the country and its people all day long.” Kim’s steadfast loyalty likely earned him the promotion to defense minister, despite criticism of his overly protective stance toward the president during his tenure as head of the Presidential Security Service.

Then there is Oh Young-joo, the minister of SMEs and startups, who avoided Cabinet meetings for days after the botched martial law attempt. Oh, previously responsible for hosting the 2030 World Expo as vice foreign minister, credited Korea’s global support for Busan’s bid to Yoon’s overseas tours. This narrative likely contributed to her promotion to minister, despite Korea’s crushing defeat to Saudi Arabia in the competition.

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho, a deputy prime ministerial-level official, also warrants mention. When the president caused panic in the education community by ordering the removal of complex questions from the college entrance exams and mock tests just before the annual state exam, Lee defended Yoon. He claimed Yoon was an expert in the field due to his past investigations into exam-related scams during his prosecutorial career. Similarly, Yoo Sang-im, the minister of science and ICT, praised the president’s intelligence, stating in a radio interview a month before the declaration of martial law that Yoon was the only Cabinet member with a comprehensive understanding of AI and its potential.

Sycophants inevitably gravitate toward power. This pattern was evident during the Moon Jae-in administration and within Lee Jae-myung’s Democratic Party. However, Yoon’s true criteria for selecting Cabinet members seem all too clear, despite his famous assertion as prosecutor general that his loyalty was to the country, not to any individual leader. Given the poor composition of this Cabinet, it was unrealistic to expect them to check on the president’s power.