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| Park Soon-ae, left, nominee for deputy prime minister and minister of education, and Kim Seung-kyum, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman nominee, each answer questions in Yeouido and in Yongsan District, Seoul, respectively, in this combined May 27 photo. Newsis |
Health minister nominee resigns amid allegations of exploiting political fund
By Nam Hyun-woo
President Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday appointed Park Soon-ae as deputy prime minister and minister of education and Army General Kim Seung-kyum as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), without National Assembly confirmation hearings.
Meanwhile, the embattled health and welfare minister nominee, Kim Seung-hee, dropped her candidacy.
The presidential office said in a statement that Yoon approved the appointments of Park and JCS Chairman Kim, less than an hour after the former health minister nominee announced her withdrawal.
Before leaving last week to attend the 2022 NATO Summit in Spain, Yoon requested the National Assembly hold confirmation hearings on the three nominees and send their reports to him. However, the Assembly did not hold the hearings as the rival parties locked horns over naming speakers and heads of standing committees, thereby allowing Yoon to go ahead with their appointment without undergoing any confirmation hearings.
JCS Chairman Kim's appointment was widely expected to be announced on Monday, as the Army general was not strongly opposed by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), and officials at the presidential office have been reiterating the importance of the JCS chief appointment given North Korea's escalating missile and nuclear threats.
However, the appointments of the education and health minister nominees were uncertain, because the DPK opposed the candidates citing controversies over their pasts.
Park has been grilled over her qualifications for the education minister post due to her record of being convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) in 2002. Not only the DPK but also teachers' groups claimed Park was an inappropriate candidate due to this issue.
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| Former Health Minister nominee Kim Seung-hee watches reporters as she enters her office in Seodaemun District, Seoul, May 30. Yonhap |
"I have been reiterating that the allegations are not based on facts," the former lawmaker said in a statement. "I have never exploited political funds and there have been accounting errors. However, I decided to step down as I accepted criticisms that I should be responsible for failing in my management."
Regarding the new appointments and Kim's withdrawal, PPP floor leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong said "the public will understand" because "not naming an education minister even after two months of the presidency is a national loss."
"The DUI is a wrongdoing and deserves criticism, but it happened 20 years ago, and other than that there are no shortcomings for Park to be the education minister," Kweon said, adding he thinks the health minister nominee made a good decision.
As Park becomes the education minister 40 days after her nomination, she is the second education minister to be appointed without undergoing a confirmation hearing. Park earned her doctoral degree in public administration at the University of Michigan and is now a professor at Seoul National University. She was a member of Yoon's presidential transition committee, where she played a role in setting administrative initiatives.
Regarding JCS Chairman Kim, he most recently served as the deputy commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command. He is the first JCS chair to be appointed without an Assembly confirmation hearing since 2006 when Korea added the JCS chair to the list of nominees who are subject to confirmation hearings.
Also on Monday, President Yoon nominated Song Ok-rial, a professor at Seoul National University Law School, as the new chairperson of the Fair Trade Commission, and requested a confirmation report from the Assembly on Financial Services Commission Chairman nominee Kim Joo-hyun.
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