Presidential chief of staff apologizes over nomination fiasco

Presidential chief of staff Noh Young-min, right, shakes hands with the country's main opposition Liberty Korea Party chief Na Kyung-won at the start of the National Assembly's session to inspect Cheong Wa Dae operations, Thursday afternoon. Yonhap

By Kim Yoo-chul

Presidential chief of staff Noh Young-min apologized over the ongoing controversy surrounding President Moon Jae-in's recent nominations for new Cabinet members.

“I came here to offer a sincere apology about issues relating to the President's recent nominations for new Cabinet members,” Noh said at the start of the National Assembly's session to audit the presidential office, Thursday.

“Cheong Wa Dae will apply stricter personal verification processes in the very early stages of searching for new Cabinet members and other top-level government officials,” Noh told reporters.

The apology came a few days after President Moon withdrew his earlier choices of two Cabinet nominees out of seven over alleged ethical lapses. The main opposition party also called for the President to withdraw the nominations of Kim Yeon-chul as unification minister and Park Young-sun as SMEs and startups minister citing their ideological biases and lack of qualifications.

But the presidential chief of staff didn't answer repeated requests from the opposition for the dismissal of Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs Cho Kuk and Senior Presidential Secretary for Personnel Affairs Cho Hyun-ok.

The opposition parties also asked senior presidential secretary Cho Kuk to step down from his position criticizing his lax personal verification for new Cabinet members and failure to establish discipline within the presidential office.

“Recent opinion polls showed about 60 percent supported sacking Cho Kuk and the senior presidential secretary for personnel affairs, Cho Hyun-ok, as the President's nominations for new ministers were found to have breached moral principles among others,” the country's minor opposition Bareunmirae Party chief Kim Kwan-young said.

The opposition parties refused to accept confirmation hearing reports for three Cabinet minister nominees. Chief presidential press secretary Yoon Do-han said President Moon asked the Assembly, again, to adopt confirmation reports of the SMEs minister nominee Park and unification minister nominee Kim.

Regardless of the Assembly's adoption of hearing reports, Moon is widely expected to appoint Kim as the unification minister and Park as the SMEs and startups minister as confirmation reports have no legal binding. President Moon has replaced eight ministerial-level posts without the Assembly's reports in the past.

The presidential chief of staff Noh called for bipartisan cooperation for a “successful outcome” of next week's planned summit between the leaders of the United States and South Korea.

“Cheong Wa Dae wants all parties to stand together to bring great results from the planned U.S.-South Korea summit in Washington D.C., next week,” Noh said.