Reporter's Notebook Ministries frustrated as Yoon repeatedly delays policy briefings

President Yoon Suk Yeol's seat is empty as he decided to skip a government-public debate session on people's livelihood issues at the Korea Creative Content Agency's Content Human Resource Campus in Seoul in this Jan. 22 file photo. Yonhap

The sudden delay of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to Germany and Denmark from Feb. 18 to 24 was not a surprise — at least not for the government officials and reporters, who have become used to the presidential office repeatedly putting off annual policy briefings given by each minister at the beginning of the year.

A couple of days before the announcement on Wednesday regarding the postponement of Yoon’s trips to the two European countries, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs delayed its plan to give its 2024 policy briefings on Wednesday, citing the presidential office’s request.

The unexpected change perplexed the ministry’s officials, who had worked overtime to prepare for the briefing. Some of them complained that the presidential office should have given them a specific reason, although added that abrupt changes in the president’s schedule are understandable.

As the ministry had not asked for a news embargo for its briefing plan, farmers and food industry officials were also forced to wait longer for the announcement of the government’s annual policies.

Annual briefings on maritime and foreign policies, which had been scheduled on Feb. 2, were even delayed indefinitely in the afternoon that day, due to another request from the presidential office.

In particular, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries informed reporters of the delay after the vice minister finished an informal briefing in the morning that day for the press to publish articles as soon as the minister finished giving a policy briefing to the president. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a press release on its policy briefing, before it notified reporters of the postponement.

It is unusual for a government ministry to postpone its annual policy briefing after an informal briefing for the press. Consequently, reporters covering maritime and foreign policies wasted their time writing unpublishable articles.

As neither ministry elaborated on the reasons for the delay, rumors spread among reporters that Yoon had ordered the ministries to postpone their briefings so that he could prepare for a prerecorded interview with state broadcaster KBS, which was held on Feb. 4 and broadcast on Feb. 7.

On Jan. 22, the presidential office released a notification of Yoon’s absence from a government-public debate half an hour before its start and canceled the livestreaming of the event. The office cited his symptoms of a cold as the reason, but its explanation failed to convince the public. His abrupt absence triggered speculation at that time as to whether the decision was related to a clash between the presidential office and Han Dong-hoon, interim leader of the ruling People Power Party.

The repeated breaches of Yoon’s promises with the Korean public eventually led to a failure to keep his appointments with foreign governments.

Although the presidential office explained that the German and the Danish governments accepted the delay, companies in the three countries expressed frustration, complaining that they wasted their time and money to prepare for business meetings and activities. In addition, the opposition bloc attributed the decision to negative public sentiment linked to controversies over the first lady.

For no more public servants to feel discouraged and for Korea to continue gaining international trust, Yoon and the presidential office should keep in mind that their sudden delays and cancellations can have significant ripple effects.