Some of Park’s main cabinet appointees still facing public criticism; government not ready for administration on its first day

By Seong Han-yong, political correspondent, Song Chae Kyung-hwa and Ahn Chang-hyun, staff reporters

Park Geun-hye will officially take office as President on Feb. 25, but it may take as long as another month to finish appointment procedures for her Prime Minister and Cabinet members.

The appointment of Prime minister nominee Chung Hong-won looks likely to be ratified at a plenary session of the National Assembly on Feb. 26. The opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) has said it will not put up a stiff resistance against the ratification bill.

But nomination hearings have yet to start at all for the ministers tapped to fill Park’s Cabinet.

As of now, hearings are scheduled for three Cabinet nominees on Feb. 27 (Yoo Jeong-bok for Security and Public Administration, Yoo Jin-ryong for Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Yoon Seong-kyu for Environment), three more on Feb. 28 (Seo Nam-soo for Education, Yun Byung-se for Foreign Affairs, and Hwang Kyo-ahn for Justice), two on Mar. 4 (Phang Ha-nam for Employment and Labor and Cho Yoon-seon for Gender Equality and Family), and four on Mar. 6 (Ryoo Kihl-jae for Unification, Chin Young for Health and Welfare, Suh Seoung-hwan for Land and Transport, and Lee Dong-phil for Agriculture).

But no schedule has yet been set for five nominees whose withdrawal the opposition is currently demanding: Kim Byung-kwan for National Defense, Hyun Oh-seok for the newly restructured Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Kim Jeong-hoon for Future Creation and Science, Yoon Sang-jick for Industry, Trade and Resources, and Yoon Jin-sook for Maritime Affairs.

For now, it looks as though Park will continue being aided by members of the outgoing Lee Myung-bak administration’s Cabinet. And with additional delays in nominations for Blue House secretary and administrative officer posts leaving Park without a secretariat to assist her, the new President is poised for an even rockier start than Lee had.

The danger at the moment is that these setbacks - which started before Park even took office - will hurt the efficiency of the new administration, leaving the new President facing a crisis situation from day one amid growing disappointment from the public.

How did this happen? The ruling Saenuri Party (NFP) says the reason for the delay is the opposition’s refusal to go along with an amendment of the Government Organization Act in the National Assembly.

But this explanation does not really hold water. The delay in nominations started when Kim Yong-joon dropped out as a nominee for Prime Minister due to insufficient vetting.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a ruling party source with personal experience dealing with Park said the new President’s intransigency was to blame.

“Park Geun-hye learned the ‘imperial style’ from her father,” said the source, referring to Park Chung-hee, who was president from 1961 until his death in 1979. “I am certain she will be a selfless leader, but she doesn’t have any political comrades or advisers - just lackeys who follow orders.”

“The Republic of Korea is too big and too developed now for a President to control it purely through patriotism and will. You can expect a lot more of this pre-inauguration fiasco over the next five years.”

The explanation here is that Park’s willful attitude toward nominations and self-righteous approach to leadership are the main problem. The focus now is on how she is going to handle the situation with some of her Cabinet nominees who are facing serious ethics questions. The DUP is refusing to hold any hearing at all for Kim Byung-kwan and demanding that he bow out as the nominee for Defense Minister. There is also a good chance it will refuse to adopt a hearing report for Kim Jeong-hoon or Hwang Kyo-ahn, calling for both of them to withdraw as well. Park may decide to push ahead with the nominations anyway, but that would set her up for a head-on clash with the opposition right as her administration starts moving.

Her relationship with her own party, the NFP, may not be so smooth either. Some lawmakers in it have been open about their displeasure with certain Cabinet nominees. If Park does decide to put her nominees through, these lawmakers may end up going along with an opposition motion for their dismissal.

Meanwhile, the ruling and opposition parties continued their tense debate over the Government Organization Act into Feb. 23.

Speaking at a press conference after an emergency supreme council meeting, Saenuri Party president Hwang Woo-yea said that if the opposition allows non-reporting television networks to be merged with communications and controlled by the newly created Ministry for Future Creation and Science, his party would consider upgrading the Korea Communications Commission’s (KCC) legal status to central administration organization and giving it joint legal authority on jurisdictional matters with the head of that ministry.

He also said the Saenuri Party would actively consider placing the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation and television advertising sales functions with the KCC to provide backing for those regulations.

Woo Won-shik, the DUP’s senior deputy floor leader in parliament, said his party was not willing to accept the demand to hand non-reporting television to the new ministry.

“Fairness, the public interest, and public service must be upheld in reporting and non-reporting broadcasting alike,” he said.

The situation is similarly impassable at the Blue House, where new secretaries, administrative officers, and other employees have yet to be selected.

The employees there now from the previous administration bemoaned their “house without a master” after sending Lee off to his residence in Seoul’s Nonhyeon neighborhood. At the moment, there is no one for them to pass the reins on to - nor even anyone to give directions on how to set the Blue House up after the new administration takes over on Feb. 25. The only ones showing up for work that day will be Park’s Chief of Staff and senior secretaries, as the Lee administration appointees in those spots go home.

After the inauguration ceremony, Park is scheduled to head to the Blue House for meetings with foreign envoys who attended the event. The Lee administration employees will have to handle the entire affair for the Blue House.

But a key adviser to Park only repeated that the new President plans to take her time filling the secretary spots there, which means the chaos may yet continue for some time.

　

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