Air crash tests South Korea’s acting president two days into the job By Reuters

By Cynthia Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – When South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok arrived at the site of the country’s worst air disaster on Sunday, he had been on the job less than 48 hours.

The country’s finance minister, Choi, became acting leader on Friday night following the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Dak-soo, who had been acting president since President Yoon Suk-yeol was impeached and ousted on Dec. 14 following his brief attempt. introduce martial law.

A puzzling turnaround atop Asia’s fourth-largest economy and one of its most vibrant democracies sent the government scrambling when Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 crashed into a wall at Muan International Airport on Sunday, killing all 181 people on board.

A few hours after the accident, Choi visited the site and declared it a special disaster zone.

“The government wishes to express its sincere condolences to the families of the victims and will do everything possible to recover from this accident and prevent its recurrence,” he said.

Behind the scenes, government offices were still figuring out the chain of command and how the press releases would be released, a ministry spokesman and four other officials told Reuters, all speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive planning.

“Today, Choi went to Muan with officials from the Ministry of Lands, not the Ministry of Finance,” the spokesman said.

Every foreign policy, administrative or security ministry has teams that report to Choi, but Yun’s presidential staff does not, and Choi operates from a government complex in Seoul rather than any official residence, one official said.

A senior finance ministry official said it had not yet been decided who, if anyone, would report to Choi from Yun’s and Han’s offices. Some of Choi’s responsibilities as finance minister have been delegated to a vice minister, the ministry official added.

“Meetings of the central disaster control team are ministerial-level meetings, so the land minister and security minister report directly to Choi,” this official said.

Choi is leading the centralized disaster control team in place of the prime minister, which is usually in charge based on a manual prepared after the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking that killed 304 people and the Itaewon Halloween mob massacre that killed 159 people in 2022, a fourth official said .

South Korea’s political turmoil erupted when Yun unexpectedly declared martial law on December 3, only to rescind the order within hours after parliament broke military and police blockades to vote against Yun.

The opposition-led parliament accused him of rebellion and abuse of power and impeached him and later Han.

Choi will serve as acting president while the Constitutional Court decides the fate of Yoon and Han.

The uncertainty comes as South Korea tries to manage volatile currency markets and faces the challenge of preparing for the administration of President-elect Donald Trump in the United States, a key ally of Seoul.