South Korea's presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, announced organizational changes Wednesday highlighted by the creation of the post of senior secretary for social integration and removal of that for state affairs planning.
The changes represent President Lee Myung-bak's efforts to recast his presidency following his Grand National Party (GNP)'s shocking defeat in the June 2 local elections. Lee also begins the second half of his single five-year tenure next month.
"The focus of this reorganization is to improve communication with the people, prepare for the future (of South Korea), and develop policy for low- and middle-income households and carry out it," Lee Dong-kwan, senior secretary for public affairs, told reporters. "It was concentrated on how efficiently (the Lee administration) will be able to manage state affairs in the latter half of the tenure."
With regard to the decision to appoint the senior secretary for social integration, he said, it is aimed to "listen to the voices of various sectors in society with open minds and reflect them in government policy."
The Lee administration faced fierce backlash from opposition parties, civic groups and religious circles on its key projects.
Critics say the GNP's election defeat was a public verdict against the construction of a business hub in the central province of Chungcheong instead of an originally planned administrative town, and another controversial project to refurbish the country's four major rivers.
Cheong Wa Dae appears to have considered such sentiment in deciding to ditch the post of the senior secretary for state affairs planning, who has handled those projects.
Cheong Wa Dae also said it would create an office for overseas public relations and reduce the number of its spokespersons to one. So far, one of the two spokespersons has dealt with foreign media.
The Lee administration has staged a "Global Korea" campaign for Seoul's bigger role in the international community. The country's overseas public relations activity has become more important since South Korea was chosen to host a G-20 summit in November of this year and a nuclear security summit in 2012.