Kim Calls New Team For Talks Tete-a-Tete

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Kim Calls New Team For Talks Tete-a-Tete

President Kim Dae-jung started toughening up his new cabinet team Monday, calling in his new foreign affairs team for one-on-one meetings.

Mr. Kim met individually with Unification Minister Lim Dong-won, Defense Minister Kim Dong-shin and Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Han Seung-soo for 30 - 40 minutes each.

He held a similar meeting with Shin Kuhn, director-general of the National Intelligence Service, on Friday.

The interpretation of the reasons for the personal format of the meetings varied. Presidential secretaries said that the meetings were intended to show the president's support for the new ministers.

Other observers said, however, that the interviews with the ministers were in effect a test of their abilities and were also designed to create a "constructive rivalry" between them and senior presidential secretaries.

By starting out with the foreign affairs team, Mr. Kim again demonstrated the priority of expanding his "sunshine" policy toward North Korea and strengthening ties with the United States, Japan, China and Russia.

The nation's foreign affairs team is the only one that was completely revamped in last week's cabinet shake-up. On Sunday Mr. Kim replaced 21 vice ministers including those from the unification, defense and foreign affairs and trade ministries.

The president will continue interviewing the rest of the new ministers through Wednesday.



by Kim Jin-kook

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