Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
President-elect unveils policy advisers
From left are Kang Seog-hoon, Kim Hyun-sook and Jang Sung-min. Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
By Kang Seung-woo
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol made an appointments of his policy advisers, Wednesday.
According to his spokesperson Kim Eun-hye, Yoon has named Kang Seog-hoon, a professor of economics at Sungshin Women's University, and Kim Hyun-sook, an economics professor at Soongsil University, as special advisers for policy.
In addition, Jang Sung-min, the president of the World and Northeast Asia Peace Forum who competed with Yoon in the conservative People Power Party (PPP) primary, has been tapped to serve as the special assistant for political affairs. Jang was a vocal critic of Yoon.
“Kang and Kim are perfect fits to the positions given that they served as senior presidential secretaries for economic affairs and employment and welfare, respectively, under the Park Geun-hye administration,” the spokesperson said.
“Since the party primary, they have provided pieces of advice in the areas of economy, society and welfare to the president-elect. Yoon has comfortably exchanged opinions with them during the election period,” Kim added.
Jang was critical of Yoon during the primary. But since Yoon became the flag-bearer for the PPP, Jang, a former lawmaker who served as political affairs secretary for former President Kim Dae-jung, has given advice to him, according to the spokesperson.
“Following Jang's elimination from the primaries, the president-elect asked Jang Sung-min to tell him the hard truths and is said to have heard unfiltered advice from him and communicated during the presidential campaign,” Kim said.
Under the Presidential Transition Act, the presidential transition committee consists of a chairperson, a vice chairperson and up to 24 committee members. The committee is in charge of forming a blueprint for the new administration and is permitted to run for a period of 30 days after the new president is inaugurated.
Yoon has also appointed seven special advisers, including former Industry Minister Yoon Jin-shik and Yim Tae-hee, a former chief of staff to President Lee Myung-bak. All seven helped Yoon during the campaign and will be asked to advise him on the running of state affairs after he takes office on May 10, the spokesperson said.
Lee, whose term was from 2008 to 2013, has been serving a 17-year prison sentence since October 2020 on charges of embezzlement and bribery. Along with his successor, Park Geun-hye, who was released from a 22-year prison term on a Dec. 24 presidential pardon, Lee is one of two former presidents who served prison terms during the liberal Moon administration.
Yoon has filled half of the committee's positions so far, with the appointments grabbing headlines of the “return of the Lee administration's officials.”
The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) criticized it as a repeat of the failed previous administration.
“Kim Tae-hyo is an icon of the Lee administration's failed inter-Korean relations. I am wondering if the Yoon administration wants to repeat the failure,” Rep. Youn Kun-young, who served as director of the situation room at Cheong Wa Dae, wrote on Facebook.
Kim Tae-hyo, a Sungkyunkwan University professor who served as presidential secretary for national security strategy under the Lee administration, has been selected to the foreign policy subcommittee of the transition team, headed by Kim Sung-han, a former Vice Foreign Minister for former President Lee. Kim Tae-hyo is expected to draw up North Korea policy based on reciprocity.
Rep. Shin Dong-kun, another DPK lawmaker, denounced the appointments of Yoon's transition committee as the possibility of another Lee administration.
“The appointment of the transition committee can stand comparison with the Lee administration 2.0,” he wrote on Facebook.
Shin added considering the personnel selection, Yoon's call for pardoning Lee seemed reasonable.