President Moon replaces top aides amid surveillance controversy

From the left in the front are new chief of staff Noh Young-min and senior secretaries Gang Gi-jung and Yoon Do-han in the Cheong Wa Dae briefing room, Tuesday. Yonhap

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday replaced his chief of staff and two senior secretaries in what was widely seen as a move to put behind a scandal that is apparently hurting his approval rating.

The president named Noh Young-min, now the ambassador to China, as his new chief of staff.

Noh is a three-term lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party who was also co-chair of Moon's election camp in the 2017 presidential race.

He will replace Im Jong-seok, also a former lawmaker of the ruling party.

The minor, yet high-profile reshuffle comes with the President soon begin the third year of his single five-year term. Moon took office in May 2017.

However, it also follows a claimed confession from a former inspector that the presidential office had illegally spied on civilians, politicians and former government officials.

The former inspector, Kim Tae-woo, has also claimed that the illegal information obtained at the order of his former superiors may have reached as high as Im.

Cheong Wa Dae denies the accusation, saying Kim had rather been warned against spying on civilians and that any such information he obtained had been discarded right away.

However, Moon's approval rating began to plummet almost instantly, falling for four consecutive weeks to a record low of 45.9 percent in a Realmeter weekly survey. His rating rebounded slightly to 46.4 percent last week.

The President also replaced his top secretaries for political affairs and public relations.

Kang Gi-jung, a three-term lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party, will replace Han Byung-do as top presidential secretary for political affairs, while Yoon Do-han, a journalist from local broadcaster MBC, was named new senior secretary for public relations.

Yoon will replace Yoon Young-chan. (Yonhap)