President in charge - 대통령의 책임

  President GH Park postponed her U.S. visit originally scheduled for June 14-18 as controlling the further spread of the MERS outbreak became the top national issue.

  The decision to postpone the visit was made because the president needs to take care of people's safety amid the continued anxiety about MERS, according to the BH. Indeed, public opinion is against Park embarking on an overseas trip in middle of a crisis, and the majority opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy(NPAD) as well as some of members of the ruling Saenuri party have calling for Park to put off the Washington trip. 

  In making the unpresedented decision to cancel a presidental trip last minute, the Blue House must have been aware of the public backlash it suffered when Park made a brief visit to the UAE a month after the Sewol ferry disaster. Park's departure for a tour of Central and South America on the first anniversary of Sewol ferry disaster was heavily criticized, too.

  Park is under fire for having allowed the MERS to spread out of control. It is not only a serious health security issue, it threatens to cripple the economy as well. In typical Park fashion, the president allowed the situation to deteriorate before belatedly addressing the issue. The first MERS case was confirmed on May 20 but Park mentioned the issue for the first time during a regular meeting withchief secretaries on June 1. She did not have the correct figure on hand - mentioning that there were 15 confirmed cases when the Health Ministry had updated the figure to 18 three hours earlier, a telling sign of how unimportant MERS was considered during the meeting. In fact Park devoted much of her time to stating her opposition to the National Assembly Law revision bill.   

 

1) be against : ~에 반대하다.  ~에 어긋나다.   cf. The people seemed to be against the war.

2) embark : (배에) 승선하다.  * embark on/upon : ~에 착수하다.      

3) backlash : 반발 

4) be under fire : 맹비난을 받다. 포격을 당하다.   cf. The Arsenal boss is under fire for picking too many foreigners. 

5) cripple : 불구로 만들다. 심각한 손상을 주다.

6) deteriorate[dɪ^|tɪriəreɪt]:악화되다. 더 나빠지다.cf. Her health deteriorated rapidly, and she died shortly afterwards.

7) belatedly : 뒤늦게   cf. I would like to offer you my belated thanks. 뒤늦게나마 감사의 인사를 드립니다.