Acting President Choi takes on 4 roles, including accident recovery

[Anchor]

Acting President Choi Sang-mok has now taken on four roles, including the overall command of the accident response.

Amid concerns that this may lead to a policy vacuum, he is in a situation where he must make immediate political decisions, such as the promulgation or veto of the special prosecutor law.

Reporter Shin Ji-hye reports.

[Report]

Choi Sang-mok is now the head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.

[Choi Sang-mok/Acting President: "Through cooperation with related agencies such as the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Jeollanam-do, we will ensure that there is no negligence in supporting the victims' families and treating the injured."]

From serving as the Acting President, Acting Prime Minister, and Minister of Economy and Finance, he is now also in charge of the Central Disaster Response Headquarters, making it a total of four roles.

Acting President Choi stated that the priority is to manage the accident response and has postponed other schedules.

He has delayed the announcement of next year's economic outlook and measures, which was scheduled for this week, and sent a deputy minister to the so-called 'F4 meeting' that he has chaired every morning to stabilize the market since the martial law situation.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance, which has no experience in disaster response, has also been deployed to the accident response task force to assist Acting President Choi.

The longer the acting system lasts, the more significant the 'policy vacuum' is likely to become.

Acting President Choi must also decide within two days whether to promulgate the two special prosecutor laws or to veto them.

While both ruling and opposition parties have lowered the intensity of their attacks, they are pressuring Acting President Choi from opposing positions.

[Park Sung-jun/Democratic Party Deputy Floor Leader/KBS 1 Radio 'Intensive Current Affairs': "The impeachment trial and the special prosecutor for insurrection are absolutely necessary for the recovery of state affairs, and Acting President Choi Sang-mok must implement this...."]

[Park Hyung-soo/People Power Party Deputy Floor Leader/MBC Radio 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus': "If the veto is exercised and it returns to the National Assembly, we are willing to negotiate with the opposition to delete the unconstitutional provisions."]

Acting President Choi, suggesting a 'more limited role' as he acts on behalf of the Acting President, has not mentioned any political issues.

Today (12.30), he is reported to have received a report from the Office for Government Policy Coordination regarding the right to request reconsideration and is continuing to deliberate.

KBS News Shin Ji-hye.