President Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday nominated a three-term lawmaker of the ruling party as his minister for special affairs, a position tasked with handling political affairs in a key election year, officials said.
Rep. Ko Heung-kil of the Grand National Party (GNP) was tapped as the minister, which has been vacant since September last year, when Lee Jae-oh, one of the president's closest confidants, stepped down.
Ko, 68, built his career as a journalist before he entered politics in 1997.
"Nominee Ko, a person of wide experience and networking as a journalist and politician, is expected to serve as a communication channel between the National Assembly and the government," presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha told reporters.
Ko will be formally appointed after a parliamentary confirmation hearing, though the National Assembly has no power to veto the nomination.
The GNP has been on an emergency footing after losing the Seoul mayoral race last October. Recent public polls show that the conservative party is rapidly losing public support and may likely come up short in the April parliamentary election and presidential voting scheduled for December.
Rep. Ko is well known for his deep understanding of overall state affairs.
A native of Seoul and graduate of Seoul National University, the 68-year-old Ko had worked for about 30 years as a journalist at the JoongAng Ilbo, an influential local daily, before entering politics in 1997.
In 1997, Ko became a special adviser for Lee Hoi-chang, then chairman of the conservative New Korea Party, the predecessor of the ruling GNP. In 2000, Ko was first elected as a legislator representing Seongnam, just south of Seoul. He has won two consecutive terms since then.
The former journalist has focused on media and culture policies working as a member of the National Assembly's culture and tourism committee, chief of the party's media policy committee and the party's central election committee for the 2007 presidential poll. He served as the chairman of the same legislative committee from 2008 to 2010.
He also became the GNP's chief policymaker in 2010 but resigned the same year to assume responsibility for the party's failure to include some important plans in the budget during the process of pushing the 2011 national budget bill through parliament. (Yonhap)