Choo Mi-ae: “The fire service is a troublesome drain on public finances”; firefighters’ union: “This is an insult—apologize”

[Financial News] The Fire Service Headquarters of the Korean Government Employees’ Union called for an official apology, denouncing remarks by Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae at a parliamentary audit in which she likened the fire service to “a troublesome drain on public finances.”
According to News1 and other outlets on the 14th, the union’s Fire Service Headquarters issued a statement that day, saying, “Governor Choo said during the parliamentary audit, in reference to the fire service budget, that ‘the fire service seems like the biggest, most troublesome drain on public finances.’” It criticized the remark as “an insulting act that seriously damaged the honor of 70,000 fire service personnel nationwide.”
The previous day (the 13th), Governor Choo made remarks about the fire service budget during the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee’s audit of Gyeonggi Province, including, “The fire service seems like the biggest, most troublesome drain on public finances,” “It eats up 1.1 trillion won,” and “1.7 trillion won will have to be spent.”
The union’s Fire Service Headquarters said Choo had “dismissed firefighters who work day and night to protect the lives and property of the public as nothing more than a source of budget waste and a fiscal burden,” stressing that “firefighters’ personnel and project costs are essential expenditures directly tied to public safety.” It also called on her to “offer an immediate and sincere apology to the 70,000 firefighters for damaging their honor with remarks such as ‘a drain on public finances’ and ‘eats up [money].’”
Along with an apology, the union called on Gyeonggi Province to stop putting fiscal pressure on the fire service and to take active steps to secure its budget.
As the controversy continued, Gyeonggi Province explained that the remarks were intended to emphasize the reality that local governments bear most of the related costs even after fire service personnel become national civil servants, while the proportion of funding provided by the central government is actually declining.
The province added, “Firefighting is an extremely important and essential service that protects the lives, safety, and property of the public,” and said, “We are deeply grateful for the hard work of Gyeonggi Province’s fire service personnel and will work to ensure stable funding for the fire service.”
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