PPP floor leader calls Lee government appointments 'desperate,' blames shadow network

People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik said Sunday that personnel decisions under the Lee Jae Myung government appear to be driven by an informal network centered on Kim Hyun-ji, chief of the presidential attaché office, rooted in the Seongnam-Gyeonggi Province line.

Writing on Facebook, Jeong said the latest cabinet reshuffle — which he described as baffling to the public — was "desperate" if it was indeed the work of what he called the "all-roads-lead-through-Hyun-ji underground network."

"Is there even a personnel line at Cheong Wa Dae?" Jeong wrote. "Kim Hyun-ji, chief of the attaché office — a name that keeps resurfacing whenever you think she's been forgotten."

He said the first sign of something unusual came during last year's national audit, when Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers fiercely opposed the appearance of the presidential general affairs secretary before the National Assembly — something he said had no precedent in the history of the audit. Cheong Wa Dae then abruptly reassigned Kim from general affairs secretary to chief of the attaché office. "Anyone could see it was an unnatural personnel move — clearly a transfer designed to avoid appearing at the national audit," he said. "I grew increasingly curious about who Kim Hyun-ji really is, that they would go to such lengths to keep her hidden," he added.

Jeong then described what he called a second suspicious episode: text messages exchanged among figures known as members of President Lee's inner "Group of Seven," in which one Democratic Party lawmaker asked another to recommend a candidate for an association chairmanship, saying Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik would oppose the recommendation if it came from him directly. The presidential secretary who received the message replied that he would "recommend it to Hyun-ji."

"It was a clear sign that Kim Hyun-ji was not only pulling strings on private association appointments but also served as a back channel capable of overriding Chief of Staff Kang's objections," Jeong said.

He described a third episode as the most explicit: a pro-Lee figure within the Democratic Party openly declared, "Is there even a personnel line at Cheong Wa Dae? The personnel line is Kim Hyun-ji." Jeong said the party had been quick to dismiss the remark as a "light joke," but insisted it was "a pointed disclosure, not a light joke."

"Every unusual sign over the past year points to a single truth: the real power behind the Lee government's appointments is Kim Hyun-ji," Jeong said. He added that the more pressing question was not the claim that Kim controls the personnel line, but whether a proper personnel line exists at Cheong Wa Dae at all.

Jeong said the string of appointment failures over the past year stemmed from a broken vetting system — one so dysfunctional that insiders themselves questioned whether any personnel process existed. "The system of drawing from a broad talent pool, receiving diverse recommendations, and thoroughly vetting candidates for competence and integrity in advance has collapsed," he said. "It appears the government is now relying on the political judgment of a tiny circle of insiders — President Lee and Kim Hyun-ji among them."