Han Seung-soo to Be Named Prime Minister
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Incoming President Lee Myung-bak will nominate Han Seung-soo as the incoming government's first prime minister today, sources said Sunday. Han, 72, has been serving as a special envoy on climate change for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon since last May.
A close aide to Lee said the selection process was very thorough as the new President used zero-tolerance in the selection to have the right person.
President-elect spokesman Joo Ho-young said Lee himself will nominate and announce prime minister nominee at 10.30 a.m. Monday.
Han has been among the strongest candidates for the post thanks to his extensive experiences in the political arena and government affairs. He had careers as a diplomat and former commerce and finance minister for three governments. Han was a third-term lawmaker and was called upon by the U.N. Secretary-General last year.
President-elect Lee has said he would pick a person who can play a critical role in energy diplomacy for the No. 2 position.
``The prime minister in the new government should play a pivotal role in energy diplomacy,'' said Lee at a press conference earlier this month.
Lee said the premier will have an independent role in government affairs, rather than working as an assistant to the president as in the past.
Han needs to go though a parliamentary hearing that an ad hoc parliamentary committee composed of 13 lawmakers of the pro-government and opposition parties will hold to review his qualifications.
Joo said Han will have no major difficulty passing the hearing as Han was cleared on his property, military service and tax payment records.
Before joining the political and governmental arenas, Han taught economics to college students at Seoul National University and Cambridge University, England after he earned his Ph.D. from the University of York in 1968.
He served as a Korea Times columnist and contributed his columns to the Times in the 1980s while he was serving as a faculty member in the Department of Economics at Seoul National University (SNU).