By Chung Min-uck
President-elect Park Geun-hye said Wednesday she is planning to announce a list of transition team members on Thursday who will lay the groundwork for her new government.
Park is set to take office on Feb. 25, 2013, and the power transfer team is in charge of appointing key Cabinet members of her administration before the official inauguration.
“The transition team members will be announced as early as Thursday,” said Park after meeting with executives of the Korea Federation of Retail Organizations (KFRO), Wednesday. “I will announce not all but at least some on the list.”
Observers say the President-elect will likely announce positions of her transition team such as the chairman and vice chairman.
Names currently mentioned for chairman are Kim Jong-in, a reformist economist who headed the special committee on people's happiness during Park’s presidential campaign, and Kim Kwang-doo, the director of the National Future Research Center, Park’s think-tank.
Park said Tuesday she will place the greatest importance on professionalism when appointing personnel while criticizing the current administration’s appointment of unqualified people to key posts in state-funded companies and public institutions. Park, after being elected, said reviving the economy and improving the livelihoods of the people is a central part of her upcoming presidential term.
However, some say Park may name outside figures such as Park Sang-jeung, former chief of the non-governmental organization People’s Solidarity for Participation Democracy or Seoul National University professor Song Ho-geun.
This is in line with Park’s emphasis on national unity. She earlier hired figures like Han Kwang-ok, a close aide of late liberal president Kim Dae-jung, to take a major role in her election camp.
But following the latest “unexpected” appointment of the team’s chief of staff and three spokesmen and spokeswomen on Monday, observers say it is hard to predict who will take the key positions in Park’s transition team.
Newly appointed chief of staff Rep. Yoo Il-ho, chief spokesman Yoon Chang-jung, spokeswoman Cho Yoon-sun and spokesman Park Sun-kyoo are considered to have relatively weak political connections with Park.
Regarding the vice chairman post, names like Jin Young, former vice-head of Park’s people’s happiness committee, and Rep. Choi Kyung-hwan, a close aide of the President-elect, are being talked about.
“Even the appointees would not know about it until the last minute,” said Park Sun-kyu, Wednesday. “National unity and professionalism are the two key standards for nomination.”
Park’s transfer team is expected to be scaled down to around 150 people.
Transition committees under previous administrations had around 200 to 250 people.