Flaws in teamwork are being exposed at the campaign for Saenuri Party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye, as she butted heads with her chief policymaker while her team members seemingly suffer from miscommunication.

As Park faces a growing threat from her opponents’ budding alliance, the widespread miscommunication among her members is seen as likely to spell more trouble for the marginalized frontrunner.

On Thursday, in her meeting with Korea’s five biggest business organizations, Park indicated her preference for a toned-down version of the economic democratization measures proposed by Kim Chong-in, head of the Committee to Pursue People’s Happiness.

“It is appropriate to leave it up to each company regarding their existing cross-shareholding structures but to stop any new cross-shareholdings,” Park said. She added, “It is inappropriate to spend a large amount to curtail voting rights related to existing shareholdings or sever the circular (investment).”

Her comments were in direct contrast to the original conglomerate reform measures drawn up by Kim, who immediately retorted.

“It seems Park does not fully understand,” Kim was quoted as telling Yonhap News, explaining that curtailing the voting rights did not require expenses.

“Park is responsible for her own election, and it is a matter that she will decide on her own what is advantageous for her and how she will win the race,” Kim added.

As a leading advocate of economic democratization, the economist-turned-politician had often been at odds with conservative party members, such as floor leader Lee Hahn-koo, over conglomerate reform measures. In March, he had also commented, “The (Saenuri) party does not have the determination to implement economic democratization.”

Saenuri Party Supreme Councilor Lee Hye-hoon jumped into the fray Friday by taking Kim’s side saying, “I am briefly aware of what kind of measures Kim is preparing and I do not think that those plans are excessive.”

Park, during her campaign tour to Busan, expressed dissatisfaction.

“There are times when a party’s position is released without me knowing, which confuses the people on which direction the party is heading,” she said, adding her campaign’s pledge committee will be aaddressing such divides. Park heads the committee designed to oversee implementation of pledges herself.

Meanwhile, Park’s mammoth organization is said to be suffering increasing communication problems, with divisions competing to outdo one another.

Last month, the Saenuri Party rented several floors at two different buildings to use for her campaign in addition the party’s official headquarters to accommodate a mushrooming number of officials and volunteers joining the already bulky campaign.

Due to extensive appointment of new positions, an office room is said to be dedicated to printing out the appointment certificates. The official members co-heading the teams and committees have grown from 96 as of Oct. 11 to 122 as of Oct. 28.

Often, especially when pressed for time, the party’s spokesman’s office and Park’s communications team often clash over how to deliver the messages.

For instance, during the announcement of the party’s lineup of campaign last month, Park’s communications team member informally handed out a draft of the organizational chart only to be retrieved and corrected by the spokesman’s office.

Political watchers also point out that teams are operating more as separate entities without a control tower to supervise the collaboration.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)