Court orders culture ministry to reinstate dismissed official

Han Min-ho, a former culture ministry official who was dismissed in October 2019 after openly criticizing President Moon Jae-in on his social media, recently won the legal battle against the government. On Aug. 11, the Seoul Administrative Court ordered the ministry to reinstate him. Courtesy of Han Min-ho

After suspension, Han Min-ho, a high-ranking official who was openly critical of president's policies, gets the green light to return to work

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Former culture ministry official Han Min-ho, 59, has endured "self-chosen" tribulations for nearly two years, since he was dismissed in October 2019 after openly criticizing President Moon Jae-in for flaws in the administration's policies.

As a father of two sons, losing his job was painful enough. But, he said, the hardest part was watching his mother, who was shocked by the news that her son had been publicly dismissed. Her health also worsened and she was eventually hospitalized.

"I was so angry," he told The Korea Times over the phone Monday.

Han said that there were many times when he regretted his social media posts, but he nonetheless found himself coming to the same answer regarding the question, if he were in the same situation again, would he do the same thing?

"My answer to that hypothetical question has always been the same: I would do it again, because I still believe that what I did was the right thing," he said.

On Aug. 11, Han won his legal battle against the government, regarding the Ministry of Personnel Management's decision to dismiss him, on the grounds that he had violated the code of conduct for government officials, which prohibited him from getting involved in any actions that could disgrace the government or public affairs. The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in his favor, giving him the green light to go back to work at the culture ministry.

"I was relieved," he said, when asked how he felt when he heard that he had won the decision.

"A more accurate expression of my feeling would be cautious relief. I mean, the court ruling may not be the end of my legal battle, depending on how the government reacts to it. The government might appeal to a higher court, and if that happens, the case could drag on for six more months."

Even though he got the green light to go back to work at the culture ministry as the court ordered, Han said the ministry may want to hold a disciplinary committee meeting to discuss ways to sanction him again, this time with a lighter punishment, such as demotion. "Anything is possible, so that makes me not overly excited about the court's decision," he said.

In retrospect, Han said, he took an unprecedented path that no other government official of his time has ever done, being that he was a culture ministry official confronting the person holding the government's top job.

"If a civil servant were ever to attempt to challenge a sitting president, that individual would be considered insane, because the risks are so high. But I had to do it because I felt the urgency to do so," he said.

"I was very worried before I uploaded a series of social media posts critical of the Moon government. But I could not hold myself back, because I was really concerned about the direction this country was heading in."

His dismissal made news, partly because he was (and still is) a rare high-ranking government official who was vocal in pointing out shortcomings in the policies of the Moon administration.

In his social media posts, he assailed the Moon administration for its "flawed" foreign policies, which he claimed prioritized South Korea's diplomatic ties with China and engagement with North Korea over that of the United States, while alienating Japan by fanning anti-Japan sentiment.

"The national interest and the (Korea-U.S.) alliance are not a zero-sum game. They can go together. A country that neglects paying due attention to its alliances is doomed to fail," he wrote.

He was also critical of the Moon administration for its heavy emphasis on Japan's wartime crimes, such as the Korean victims of forced labor and sexual slavery, while turning a blind eye to North Korea's human rights violations.

His critical social media posts made him a target of the culture ministry. The ministry held a disciplinary committee meeting concerning Han's alleged violations of the code of conduct for government officials and proposed that the Ministry of Personnel Management dismiss him on those grounds.

When asked if there were any areas of policy he'd like to focus on during the rest of his career in government, when he returns to it, he said that he would like to complete his anti-illegal gambling initiative.

"I worked on the draft of a government bill to ban illegal gambling, which was submitted to the National Assembly before I was dismissed. There has been no progress made on the bill since then. Illegal gambling poses a grave threat to the nation, as money earned from it has been used to lobby politicians, prosecutors and the police, but few know much about it," he said.

"I don't have much time though. Even though I am now back at work, I only have 10 months left in public service. So I am not quite sure if I can finish the job."