When South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, arrived at the site of the , he had been in office for less than 48 hours.
Choi, the country’s finance minister, became interim leader on Friday night following the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who had been acting president since President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and suspended. from power on December 14 after his brief attempt to impose martial law.
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Baffling turnover at the top of Asia’s fourth-largest economy and one of its most vibrant democracies left the government in trouble when Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 crashed into a wall at Muan International Airport on Sunday, killing most of the 181 people on board. .
Choi visited the site a few hours after the accident and declared it a special disaster zone.
“The government would like to offer its sincere condolences to the bereaved families and will do everything possible to recover from this accident and prevent it from happening again,” he said.
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Behind the scenes, members of government offices were still trying to understand the chain of command and how press statements would be released, a ministry spokesman and four other officials told Reuters. All spoke on condition of anonymity.
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“A team of officials from the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Security will report directly to Choi on the Muan plane crash in the coming weeks,” a spokesperson said. “As for how we will distribute press releases on all of your agendas, we have not yet decided.”
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Choi is leading the centralized disaster control team instead of the prime minister, who would normally be in charge based on a manual prepared after the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking, which killed 304 people, and the Halloween crowd crush of Itaewon, which killed 159 people in 2022, a fourth official said.
Political unrest in South Korea was triggered when Yoon unexpectedly declared martial law on December 3, only to rescind the order just hours after parliament defied military and police cordons to vote against him.
The opposition-led parliament accused him of insurrection and abuse of power and removed him and later Han.
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Choi will serve as acting president while the Constitutional Court determines Yoon and Han’s fate.
The uncertainty comes as South Korea tries to manage volatile currency markets and faces the task of preparing for the administration of President-elect Donald Trump in the United States, which is Seoul’s main ally.
