President appoints six woman secretaries

By Kim Tae-gyu

President Park Geun-hye named 37 secretaries out of a total 40 posts Tuesday, 15 days after her inauguration. The remaining three will be announced after the National Assembly passes the government restructuring bill.

Among the 37 appointed, six were women including legal secretary Lee Hye-jin and spokeswoman Kim Haing.

Park’s spokesman Yoon Chang-jung said expertise was the most important criteria in choosing the secretaries but he also admitted that gender was also factored in.

Asked why Lee Hye-jin was picked to be legal secretary to replace a male law professor who declined the job, Yoon said that Lee’s gender was one of the factors.

Lee worked as a lawyer and professor at Dong-A University in Busan before joining the presidential transition committee this year.

Also of note is that only Park Dong-hoon, secretary for home affairs, graduated from Sungkyunkwan University, probably due to the criticism that too many from the Seoul-based ivory tower were appointed to high positions including Prime Minister Chung Hong-won.

Yoon said that the secretary’s list will be completed when the government retooling bill gets the parliamentary go-ahead.

President Park plans to create a National Security Office and make ex-Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo, who will be of equal rank to a minister, head of that outfit with the help of three secretaries.

But the new organization can only be set up after the bill passes the Assembly and the three secretaries can be officially appointed thereafter although the list of candidates is already fixed.