Here we go with yet another whistleblower, this time in the Finance Ministry, who is claiming that the Blue House pressured the ministry to raise the national debt. This happened back in 2017 after the Moon administration took power. The supposed goal was to immediately inflate the national debt and blame it on the prior Park administration and then create the appearance of decreasing it over time to make the Moon administration look good even though they were the ones that jacked up the national debt in the first place:
The controversy between an ex-bureaucrat whistle-blower and the government is entering a new phase.
Joong Ang Ilbo
The 32-year-old former employee of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Shin Jae-min, held a press conference Wednesday in which he disclosed the name of the former Blue House secretary who pressured the Finance Ministry to keep the national debt-to-GDP ratio high to make the previous Park Geun-hye administration look bad.
“It’s Blue House secretary [for economic policy] Cha Young-hwan,” Shin said.
Cha was appointed second vice minister in the Office for Government Policy Coordination last month.
Shin said he has heard it directly not only from then-Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy Kim Dong-yeon but also from lower-level employees at the Finance Ministry as they talked on the phone with the Blue House.
“I heard the calls from the Blue House and the unreasonable orders,” Shin said. “I’ve experienced it all.”
He said it infuriated him that even when the finance minister decided not to issue deficit-financing bonds, the Blue House forced the ministry to.
Deficit-covering bonds are normally issued when the state’s spending exceeds tax revenues.
He said Finance Minister Kim gave the goal of raising the national debt-to-GDP ratio up to 39.4 percent.
According to Shin, the Finance Ministry was looking for ways of reducing an issuing of 8.7 trillion won ($7.8 billion) worth of deficit-financing bonds since tax collections had exceeded the government’s initial goal.
Printing the bonds would only raise the nation’s debt.
You can read much more at the link, but the Blue House’s response as usual when it comes to whistleblowers has said these are all lies and has threatened Shin with legal action for releasing state secrets.
Another big thing no one has talked about yet in regards to this issue is, what is the Moon administration planning to do with all the extra money they needlessly raised the national debt to obtain? Is this the money they plan to give to Kim Jong-un?
