New Cheong Wa Dae Lineup Filled with Younger Figures

President Lee conducts organizational overhaul

President Lee Myung-bak has carried out a presidential reshuffle, the third one since his inauguration, appointing younger aides in their early 50s and late 40s charged with state affairs during the second half of his five-year term, which begins in August. President Lee on July 7 appointed three-time lawmaker and Labor Minister Yim Tae-hee, 54, as his chief of staff, replacing Chung Chung-kil, 68, who tendered his resignation following the ruling Grand National Party’s rout in the June 2 local elections.
Baek Yong-ho, 54, commissioner of the National Tax Service, was named Lee’s new policy planning chief, while Chung Jin-suk, 50, a three-time representative of the GNP, was appointed to become his senior secretary for political affairs. Park In-ju, 60, president of the National Institute for Lifelong Education, was named senior secretary for social integration, while Kim Hee-jung, 39, president of the Korea Internet and Security Agency and ex-GNP lawmaker, was tapped as his new presidential spokesperson.
Lee appointed Hong Sang-pyo, director at the cable news channel YTN, his chief secretary for public relations on July 15, capping off his selection of the new presidential senior secretary line-up of Cheong Wa Dae.
Yu Myeong-hee, chief of the 21st century frontier project at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, was tapped to be senior officer to the president for the national future, while Kim Doo-woo, senior officer for presidential speeches and messages, was named senior officer to the president for planning and management.
President Lee earlier carried out a partial reorganization, calling for the creation of the chief secretary’s office to the president for social integration, responsible for civic life, and the chief secretary’s office to the president for social welfare, responsible for policies related to low-income earners, instead of the disbanding of the chief secretary’s office to the president for state affairs and planning.
Under the organizational overhaul, the senior officer’s office to the president for the national future has been newly inaugurated and charged with policies bracing for the future, a job responsible for the future growth engine areas including intensive support and coordination in the science and technology fields, information and telecommunications and green growth. The senior officer’s office has the secretary’s office for science and technology and the secretary’s office for the environment and green growth, which combined the previous secretary for the environment and the previous secretary for future vision.
The president created the officer’s office for policy support to take responsibility for the efficient management of state tasks and to support the execution of the cabinet’s policies under the control of the presidential chief policy planning office in return for disbanding the previous senior secretary’s office to the president for state affairs planning.
He created the senior secretary’s office to the president for social integration, responsible for hearing the voices of the people from all walks of life with an open mind and reflecting them in state affairs. The office has the secretary for communicating with the people, the secretary for civic society and the secretary for civil petition management. The senior secretary’s office to the president for social policies has been reorganized into the senior sectary’s office to the president for social welfare.
Cheong Wa Dae’s third presidential aide lineup apparently indicated a “generational shift” as the presidential Big Four officeholders ― the presidential chief of staff, the presidential policy planning chief, the senior secretary for state affairs and the senior secretary for public relations ― have been replaced with young figures in their early 50s and late 40s.
The presidential aide lineup was filled with more figures hailing from the Seoul metropolitan area and Chungcheong provinces than the previous one in consideration of balanced regional proportions following the ruling party’s defeat in the local polls and the parliament’s vote against the Lee Myung-bak government’s move to build a business-education town in Yeonggi, Chungcheongnam-do, instead of the originally planned administrative town.
President Lee’s appointment of Yim as the new presidential chief of staff has been interpreted as the president’s move to shore up his leadership and facilitate communications with the people, political pundits said.
Yim, a close confidant of President Lee, is known as an expert in finance and political affairs. A graduate in business administration at Seoul National University, the new presidential chief of staff had been with the finance ministry for about 20 years before beginning his political career. He served as a spokesman for the GNP and its chief policy coordinator before working as labor minister in September 2009. nw

(far left) President Lee Myung-bak comes out of his meeting with new presidential aides in which he presented them with a certificate of appointment at Cheong Wa Dae on July 16. (above from left) new presidential chief of staff Yim Tae-hee, new policy planning chief Baek Yong-ho and spokesperson Kim Hee-jung.