At last, political unanimity: Abuse from all sides for Kim's new lineup

President Kim Dae-jung's Tuesday cabinet reshuffle, in particular the return of a trusted aide, Park Jie-won, in a key advisory position, rattled loud in the political sector on Wednesday.

The main opposition Grand National Party denounced the shake-up as one "for and by Park Jie-won," and dubbed him "vice president."

"President Kim Dae-jung has arranged a political comeback for himself and signaled that there will be a political realignment," said Nam Kyung-pil, the opposition spokesman. "The return of Mr. Park as senior adviser is to carry on the pursuit of a Seoul visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, and to use North Korean matters to the administration's political advantage."

The president's own Millennium Democratic Party was no kinder in evaluating the changes.

Party reformers, who had forced through the ouster of Mr. Park in November, took issue with his appointment against the background of an internal power struggle in the months before the party's April nomination of its presidential candidate for the December election.

"It is time that the party seek a new kind of relationship. The Blue House should go its way and the party should stand with the people," said Representative Lee Seong-ho, who leads the reform-minded Dawn 21 group.

At a meeting of party officeholders, Representative Chang Sung-won said, "We should modestly reflect on the reshuffle, which has brought back a person who had earlier quit upon reformers' call for a party overhaul."

Expressions of dissatisfaction also came from two reform-minded representatives who are among the ruling party's presidential hopefuls, Kim Keun-tae and Chung Dong-young.

Mr. Park resigned Nov. 8 as senior secretary for policy and planning when reformers demanded the ouster of party veterans they said exercised excessive influence on the party and administration. Just two weeks earlier, the Millennium Democrats had suffered a humiliating shutout in three by-elections. President Kim gave up his party presidency on the same day.

The controversy over Mr. Park's reappearance in the Blue House was highlighted by a typographical error. As the former chief of staff, Lee Sang-joo, announced the aide's appointment on Tuesday, he corrected Mr. Park's title, as noted on a press release, from senior adviser to the president for "politics" to "policy."

Political pundits predict that the Blue House will be guided by a team co-led by Mr. Park, Jeon Yun-churl, chief of staff, and Lim Dong-won, another trusted aide and senior adviser to the president for foreign policy, national security and unification. In this view Mr. Jeon, the former minister of planning and budget, would focus on the economy; Mr. Lim on coordinating inter-Korean relations, and Mr. Park would be general manager of all this and more.

Aware of Mr. Park's reputation as an influential power broker between the party and the administration, Mr. Jeon explained to reporters on Wednesday the division of roles between the two.

"I will be in charge of the broad range of issues of the presidential secretariat, while Mr. Park will be in charge of important issues," said Mr. Jeon.

Mr. Park said little, stressing that the Blue House will keep its distance from politics and will attend only to "economics."

"The success of President Kim's presidency will rest on not remote-controlling the ruling party and not realigning the political sector. I will be meeting with leaders of all sectors of society, whose opinions I will gather and relay to the president. But I will not be meeting with politicians," Mr. Park said.

President Kim defended his appointments at Wednesday's cabinet meeting, saying, "I hope Tuesday's reshuffle is the last [in my tenure]." But he added that he would not let any remain who are not doing their jobs. A Blue House senior official said Mr. Kim would reshuffle deputy ministers and officials of comparable status this week.

by Song Sang-hoon