By Na Jeong-ju
President Lee Myung-bak is expected to announce his nominees for the prime minister and other Cabinet members as early as next week to move his reform drive forward, his aides said Tuesday.
The Office of the Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs is currently gathering information to check the ethical qualifications of candidates for the prime minister and the ministers of culture, knowledge economy and foreign affairs and trade.
After completing the review, the office will recommend multiple qualified candidates for each post to President Lee, according to sources from Cheong Wa Dae.
“We need to set up a full Cabinet lineup as early as possible to map out a new policy roadmap based on Lee’s pledge to create a fair society,” an aide said.
“The drive aims to ensure fair competition and equal opportunities for all classes of people and to have privileged people assume more responsibilities and social obligations than the less privileged in line with the spirit of noblesse oblige.”
The move reflects concerns that there could be a problem in planning and implementing key policies if key Cabinet posts remain vacant too long.
Ruling Grand National Party Chairman Rep. Ahn Sang-soo, during a breakfast meeting with Lee at Cheong Wa Dae Tuesday, advised him to choose his new nominee for the prime minister before the Chuseok holiday, which falls on Sept. 22.
“The prime minister should be picked early, if possible, to avoid inefficiency,” Ahn said. “What’s also urgent is to toughen the screening of the nominees for top government posts to ease public distrust about the system.”
In the Aug. 8 reshuffle, the conservative leader chose nominees for the prime minister and seven ministers.
However, Premier-nominee Kim Tae-ho, Culture Minister-nominee Shin Jae-min and Knowledge Economy Minister-designate Lee Jae-hoon each withdrew late last month after their ethical qualifications were questioned at the National Assembly confirmation hearings.
Kim lied during the hearing about his personal relationship with Park Yeon-cha, a convicted businessman who also had close ties to many liberal politicians, including the late former President Roh Moo-hyun.
Shin was found to have violated the Resident Registration Act four times by registering false addresses in order to send his three daughters to better schools. He was also suspected of having engaged in speculative property investment using his wife’s name.
The nominee Lee was also criticized over his wife’s dubious real estate purchase.
Adding to the controversy, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan resigned Saturday amid mounting public criticism over the ministry’s recent hiring of his daughter as a trade expert.
Some presidential aides said integrity will be the top priority for Lee in picking the new prime minister. Other key criteria will include the ability to promote the President’s vision of social justice and his economic reform, they said.
Strategy and Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, 64, is said to be among the top candidates for the post. Lee may choose a politician from the Jeolla provinces to address regional divide and seek national unity, reports say.
The possible candidates include Board of Audit and Inspection Chairman Kim Hwang-sik; Kim Deog-ryong, a former ruling Grand National Party lawmaker and now special advisor to President Lee for national unity; Rep. Sim Dae-pyung, chairman of the minor opposition People First Party; and Kim Jin-sun, a former Gangwon Province governor.