Pres. Lee's Partial Cabinet Reshuffle

Confidant and ex-presidential chief of staff Yu nominated as new unification minister

President Lee Myung-bak carried out a partial cabinet reshuffle, affecting four ministers, a politically-nominated position and a presidential adviser on Aug. 30.
President Lee has tapped his confidant and former Presidential Chief of Staff Yu Woo-Ik as the new unification minister, replacing Hyun In-taek, who has been named a special adviser to the president on unification.
The president nominated Choe Kwang-shik, historian and chief of the Cultural Heritage Administration as the minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, while Rim Che-min, minister of the Prime Minister's Office, was named the new minister of Health and Welfare. Rep. Kim Kum-lae of the Grand National Party was tapped as the new General Equality minister, while Lim Jong-ryong, first vice minister of strategy and finance, was nominated as the new minister of the Prime Minister's Office to succeed Rim.
President Lee's tapping of Yu as the new unification minister has touched off speculation that the Lee Myung-bak government's hard-line policy against North Korea might soften down the road.
The political community has demanded that Unification Minister Hyun should be replaced, holding him responsible for further exacerbating inter-Korean relations.
But a Cheong Wa Dae official said the change of the unification minister does not signal a change in the government's stance toward North Korea. The government's stance is that North Korea should send a clear message of apology for their torpedoing of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan and for shelling Yeonpyeong Island, both in 2010. Even though flood relief materials worth 5 billion won were recently sent to North Korea and the South's humanitarian aid for North Korean infants and children has soared, the Korean government has maintained its hard-line stance toward the North.
Outgoing Unification Minister Hyun, who once served as a member of President Lee's presidential campaign team, maintained principal policies such as a demand for the improvement of human rights in North Korea while in office since February 2009. He had also implemented hard-line policies against North Korea's provocations.
Unification Minister-designate Yu had favored making a breakthrough in the soured inter-Korean relations by holding inter-Korean summits while serving as the Korean ambassador in China, sources said. He is apparently on the same wavelength with the current Cheong Wa Dae chief of staff Lim Tae-hee, who is in favor of proposing inter-Korean summit talks, they said.
No replacement has yet to be named to replace Minister-without-portfolio Lee Jae-oh, who is expected to return to the ruling party after stepping down. Outgoing ministers, Chung Byoung-guk of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Chin Soo-hee of Health and Welfare, are expected to run in next year's general elections.
Yu, an ex-geography professor, was the architect of President Lee's campaign pledge on the development of the so-called Grand Canal Project, which was scaled down to become the Four Rivers Project. He resigned from his position as Cheong Wa Dae chief of staff in June 2008 in the wake of anti-government protests over U.S. beef imports and was appointed as Korea's ambassador to China in December 2009.
New Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister-designate Choe taught at Korea University, served as the head of the National Museum of Korea and took such positions as standing director of the Goguryeo Research Foundation.
New Health and Welfare Minister-designate Rim held such official positions as those related to trade, policies for small and medium-sized companies and R&D in his 30-year career in officialdom.
New Gender Equality Minister-designate Kim had worked as a women's rights activist before joining Lee's campaign team in 2007. nw

New Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choe Kwang-shik

New Minister of Health and Welfare Rim Che-min

New Unification Minister Yu Woo-Ik

New General Equality Minister Kim Kum-lae

Ex-unification minister Hyun In-taek, tapped as the special adviser to the President on unification

Photo on Courtesy of PCNC