Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
4 ministers replaced
President Park Geun-hye and new Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo talk while walking to attend a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. / Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
Hong Yong-pyo Unification minister
President finally accepts chief of staff's resignation
By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye replaced three ministers and one ministerial-level official in a reshuffle, Tuesday, following the endorsement of Lee Wan-koo as her new prime minister.
Park also accepted the resignation of Kim Ki-choon, her chief of staff who has been under heavy pressure to step down due to Cheong Wa Dae’s series of botched government appointments.
Senior Presidential Press Secretary Yoon Doo-hyun announced that Hong Yong-pyo, presidential secretary for unification, was appointed to head the Ministry of Unification, in charge of North Korea affairs.
Hong, 51, who worked at the Korea Institute for National Unification and the transition team for President Park, is regarded as an experienced expert on unification policy.
“Hong is the right person to resolve troubled inter-Korean relations due to his wealth of knowledge of the government’s policy and philosophy,” said Yoon.
Currently, South and North Korea has been in a row over activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border in balloons, and joint South-U.S. military exercises.
Rep. Yoo Ki-june of the ruling Saenuri Party will head the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, a post left vacant since December, while Yoo Il-ho, another ruling party lawmaker, has been tapped to lead the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Park tapped NH Financial Chairman Yim Jong-yong to head the Financial Services Commission.
Her new chief of staff will likely be named sometime next week after the Seollal holiday.
Kim was cited as the main person blocking Park from listening to various opinions, one of criticisms that have haunted her since taking office in February 2013.
Given that her “ambitious” nomination of Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo to turn things around has turned out to be a half success, Kim had been the most sought-after figure to be replaced.
“The chief of staff expressed his intention to step down on several occasions and President Park has accepted it as far as I know,” Yoon told reporters. “Kim has been committed to the nation and the President, laboring through a lot of difficulties as you may know.”
According to a survey of 300 professors and researchers of economics and social affairs by the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, Tuesday, 264 respondents chose Kim as the person who should be dismissed among her aides.
It remains to be seen whether Kim’s departure will change Park’s style of governance that is often criticized for being isolationist at a time when the nation is facing a mountain of tasks requiring national unity.