Choo Mi-ae apologizes at last: “I had absolutely no intention of disparaging firefighters”

[Financial News] Choo Mi-ae, governor of Gyeonggi Province, faced fierce backlash for likening the firefighting budget to a “fiscal straw” at a National Assembly audit. Four days later, she bowed her head at the funeral of a firefighter who died in the line of duty.
Political circles said on the 18th that Governor Choo visited the funeral home at Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, the previous day and paid her respects to the late Fire Lieutenant Kim Jin-seok. As she left the funeral home, reporters asked about the controversy over her remarks. “If they were conveyed differently from my intentions, I would like to express my deep regret,” she said. “I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
However, Governor Choo also gave an extensive explanation of the background to her remarks as she apologized. “To make it easier to improve [firefighters’] working conditions, funding commensurate with that must also be transferred. Since that hasn’t happened, those words came from an earnest desire to do more for them. I had absolutely no intention of disparaging them,” she stressed.
Asked why she had kept silent about the controversy despite visiting the fire scene the previous day, she said, “I judged it inappropriate because the atmosphere there wasn’t right for me to say anything,” adding, “It wasn’t that I intended not to apologize.” Of the deceased, she said, “I offer my condolences to the firefighter who went to the fire scene to save lives until the very end.” She added, “Rather than demanding only unconditional dedication to fire safety, I think we need to invest heavily in safety as a matter of routine and devote administrative attention to it.”
Fire Lieutenant Kim was taken to the hospital in cardiac arrest while fighting a fire at a factory in Bucheon on the 16th. He received treatment but died in the early hours of the 17th. A total of eight people, including Kim, were killed or injured in the fire. Gyeonggi Province will hold the funeral as a provincial government funeral starting on the 18th, with Governor Choo personally serving as chair of the funeral committee.
The controversial remarks were made on the 13th at the National Assembly Security and Public Administration Committee’s audit of Gyeonggi Province, held at the provincial government offices in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. People Power Party lawmaker Kwon Young-jin questioned the validity of the “Gyeonggi Province Fiscal Emergency” that Governor Choo declared in August and argued that the share of central government funding for firefighting should be increased. Choo agreed, replying, “The fire service seems like the biggest headache—a straw draining the budget.” She then cited figures to illustrate the province’s burden, saying that firefighters’ personnel costs alone would reach 1.1 trillion won in 2027, with project costs at around 500 billion won.
Backlash erupted immediately. On the 14th, the Firefighters Division of the Korean Government Employees’ Union issued a statement calling the remarks an affront to the dignity of the nation’s 70,000 firefighters and demanding an apology. The Korean Firefighters’ Union also joined in the criticism. Gyeonggi Province explained that the remarks were intended to highlight the reality that local governments shoulder most of the related costs even though firefighters had become national government employees. The controversy, however, did not subside.

[email protected] Jeong Gyeong-su Reporter