Exclusive (Breaking) Suwon City Council Members Head to Jeju Island Training Amid 'Wuhan Pneumonia' Emergency; Vice Mayors See Them Off

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hoon·Seo Dong-young] As Suwon City Council members are departing en masse for Jeju Island training amid a national emergency situation at the "alert" level due to the spread of novel coronavirus (Wuhan pneumonia)—drawing criticism (as reported by this outlet on January 29)—it has been revealed that Suwon City's Vice Mayors saw them off before departure, raising further criticism that this represents disregard for the severity of the current situation.

In particular, this Jeju Island training involved not only Suwon City Council members but nearly half of the city council's civil servants accompanying them, leading to criticism that both council members and civil servants alike have been negligent of the severity of the current situation.

According to Suwon City and the city council on the 30th, the Jeju Island training planned for January 28 with a two-night, three-day itinerary involved 36 out of 37 total Suwon City Council members (all but one), 21 civil servants from the city council, and 4 civil servants from the city. In the case of city council civil servants, this represents nearly half of the total personnel (50 people, according to the Suwon City Council website). Both Suwon City Council members and civil servants carried out the training in 'massive' numbers.

Moreover, on the day of their departure, it was found that 2 Vice Mayors of Suwon City and others saw them off. Amid a national emergency situation, high-ranking civil servants sent them off with 'joyful hearts' (the dictionary definition of 'seeing off'), which is how it is being interpreted.

A Suwon City Council official said, "When we left, the Vice Mayor came out to see us off, wishing us a good trip." Suwon City has two Vice Mayors, First and Second.

Upon learning this news, a citizen named Roh said, "It's frustrating enough that (city council members and civil servants) departed en masse for training when planned events were being canceled one after another, but what is it about Vice Mayors, these high-ranking officials, seeing them off? Shouldn't they (high-ranking officials) rather be informing about the severity of the crisis and discouraging the training instead? I don't understand how they are running the administration at all," he said.

In response, a Suwon City official said, "In the case of civil servants, except for 4 legal affairs staff related to the (city) council, they belong to the council," and "It is true that Vice Mayors and others saw them off. Typically, Grade 4 and above do (the seeing off). However, this is a customary practice," the official explained.