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Finance Minister Choi named acting president on Friday

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Choi took office after president, prime minister impeached

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Leadership crisis sparked by Dec. 3 martial law attempt

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Airline crash is deadliest in South Korea's history

By Cynthia Kim

SEOUL, Dec 29 (Reuters) - When South Korea's acting

President Choi Sang-mok arrived at the scene of the deadliest

air disaster on the country's soil on Sunday, he had been on the

job for less than 48 hours.

Choi, the country's finance minister, became acting leader

on Friday night after the impeachment of Prime Minister Han

Duck-soo, who had been acting president since President Yoon Suk

Yeol was impeached and suspended from power on Dec. 14 following

his short-lived attempt to impose martial law.

The bewildering turnover at the top of Asia's fourth-largest

economy and one of its most vibrant democracies left the

government scrambling when Jeju Air flight 7C2216 slammed into a

wall at Muan International Airport on Sunday, killing most of

the 181 people on board.

Choi visited the site a few hours after the crash and

declared it a special disaster zone.

"The government would like to offer its sincere condolences

to the bereaved families and will do its best to recover from

this accident and prevent a recurrence," he said.

Behind the scenes, government offices were still figuring

out the chain of command and how press statements would be

released, a ministry spokesperson and four other officials told

Reuters. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss

sensitive planning.

"Today Choi went to Muan with land ministry officials, not

finance ministry officials," a spokesperson said. "A team of

transportation ministry officials and safety ministry officials

will report directly to Choi regarding the Muan plane crash for

next few weeks. As for how we will distribute press releases on

all his schedules - still undecided."

Each ministry involved in foreign policy, administrative

issues or safety has teams reporting to Choi, but Yoon's

presidential staff does not, and Choi is operating from a

government complex in Seoul rather than any official residence,

one official said.

A senior finance ministry official said it is still

undecided who, if anyone, from Yoon's and Han's offices would

report to Choi. Some of Choi's duties as finance minister have

been delegated to the vice minister, the ministry official

added.

"The central disaster control team meetings are

minister-level meetings, so the land minister and safety

minister report directly to Choi," this official said.

Choi is leading that centralised disaster control team

instead of the prime minister, who would typically be in charge

based on a manual prepared after the 2014 sinking of the ferry

Sewol, which killed 304 people, and the Itaewon Halloween crowd

crush that killed 159 people in 2022, a fourth official said.

The political upheaval in South Korea was sparked when Yoon

unexpectedly declared martial law on Dec. 3, only to rescind the

order within hours after parliament defied military and police

cordons to vote against Yoon.

The opposition-led parliament accused him of insurrection

and abuse of power and impeached him, and later Han.

Choi will serve as acting president while the Constitutional

Court determines the fates of Yoon and Han.

The uncertainty comes as South Korea tries to manage

volatile foreign exchange markets and faces the task of

preparing for the administration of President-elect Donald Trump

in the United States, which is Seoul's main ally.