[Newsmaker] From gentle bureaucrat to unlikely crusader?
Foreign affairsFeb 5, 2013
Well known for his dovish and docile temperament, Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan took center stage after going head-to-head with the mighty presidential transition team on Monday over its plan to unhitch trade functions from his agency. The controversy pivots around President-elect Park Geun-hye’s envisioned transfer of the ministry’s trade-related operations to a newly expanded Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which will be renamed the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy. After weeks of appare