Two days after Lee Myung-bak was sworn in as president on Feb. 25, 2008, the Cabinet was called into a weekly session. But none of Lee’s appointees for the Cabinet posts had been approved by the National Assembly. As a stopgap measure, the Cabinet members of the previous administration were summoned to the session.
The second conference, held on March 3, was presided over by Han Seung-soo, Lee’s first prime minister, whose appointment had been approved on Feb. 29. But the meeting was still abnormal, with four Cabinet members of the previous administration seated as participants. It took another two weeks before the anomaly was finally fixed.
President-elect Park Geun-hye, whose inauguration is scheduled for Monday, is set to find herself in a similar predicament, with the confirmation processes on her appointees set to continue into March.
The National Assembly is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing on Park’s prime minister nominee, Chung Hong-won, on Wednesday and Thursday. Should the hearing proceed without a hitch, Chung’s selection will be put to a vote on Feb. 26. Yet, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the vote may be delayed until next month, with the main opposition Democratic United Party determined to delve into suspicions regarding his son’s exemption from military service.
The ruling Saenuri Party has yet to schedule confirmation hearings on candidates for other posts in consultation with the opposition party. Moreover, the parties also have to conclude negotiations on Park’s proposal to reorganize government agencies, which must precede the hearings on the nominees for the top posts of the ministries selected for reorganization.
Against this backdrop, Park appealed to the opposition party for help in passing the government reorganization bill promptly.
True, continuity and consistency are demanded of the administration of state affairs. For this reason, if functions are to be readjusted among government agencies, the change needs to be kept to the minimum.
In this regard, the opposition party may have reservations about some of Park’s reorganization proposals. One of the most vexing to the DUP is the proposal to transfer the task of negotiating trade rules with other countries from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which would be renamed the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Resources.
When it comes to the proposal involving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in particular, it may be tempting to say, as the idiom goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
But the opposition party will have to give as much leeway to Park as possible, given that government reorganization was one of her key campaign promises. It will find it difficult to dispute her claim to a mandate for readjusting administrative jurisdictions among different government agencies.
Instead, the opposition party will have to focus on verifying the qualifications of those nominated for the Cabinet posts during their confirmation hearings. Serious suspicions are already raised about the backgrounds of some of the nominees.
Among them is Kim Byung-kwan, who reportedly carried a keychain engraved with the portraits of Park’s parents ― the late President Park Chung-hee and the first lady ― before he was nominated for the post of defense minister. At issue, however, is not the keychain held in his possession but a slew of allegations against him.
When he bought his wife and his 8-year-old son plots of land 27 years ago, Kim did not pay the gift taxes at the time. He paid the overdue taxes when the tax evasions made headlines after his nomination. Even more damaging was the role he began to play as a consultant for a weapons dealer two years after he retired in 2008 as an Army general. In 2011, he was accused of illegally lobbying for the dealer importing submarine parts from Germany.
Another controversial nominee is Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is selected for the post of justice minister. He is accused of dodging the military draft. According to government records, he was allowed to delay the physical examination required for conscription three times during college before he was exempted from active duty for a skin disease.
Should any of her nominees not be approved by the National Assembly, delaying the launch of her full Cabinet, Park would have no one else but herself to blame. That would be all the more damaging, given that her first prime minister nominee, Kim Yong-joon, withdrew as one allegation of ethical lapses followed another.
