Kim to Health Aide: 'Stop Right There'

While most political insiders expected Choi Sun-jung, minister of health and welfare, to be given a chance to put the nation's medical system back on track, President Kim Dae-jung made it clear that he would not wait to see what the minister had to offer as he abruptly ended a meeting with Mr. Choi on Wednesday.

The health minister briefed the president on an array of proposed measures to fully fund the national health insurance system.

After listening in absolute silence for 90 minutes, President Kim suddenly said, "Why don't you stop there."

Immediately after the disastrous meeting, Mr. Choi told Han Kwang-ok, the presidential chief of staff, that he would resign. The president then appointed Rep. Kim Won-gil, a third-term lawmaker with the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, to the vacant post.

The lawmaker, who is visiting London at the invitation of the British Parliament, was notified of his new assignment by telephone.

The new minister, who is known as an economic specialist and a vocal advocate of welfare policies helped delay the implementation of medical reform in 1999, citing a lack of preparation.

He takes over the Ministry of Health and Welfare at a difficult time, as the very reform he blocked two years ago is coming unraveled.

Meanwhile, the ruling party's coalition partner, the United Liberal Democrats, welcomed the new appointment.

The opposition Grand National Party, however, warned the government against glossing over the problem.

"Minister Choi is only a scapegoat," the opposition party said in a statement.

"The responsibility for the failure of medical reform lies completely with President Kim Dae-jung and his government."

Political observers had forecast that the president would dismiss five or six ministers sometime next week. But the reshuffle may well take place later than that as the president plays a political chess match of appeasing his party's coalition partners.

by Choi Hoon