Roh's plan for Blue House envisions 2-tier policy

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Roh's plan for Blue House envisions 2-tier policy

President-elect Roh Moo-hyun is considering creating a policy-planning office in the Blue House to parallel the existing presidential chief of staff.

A close Roh aide confirmed the reorganization yesterday and said that the status of the policy-planning chief would be equal to the Blue House chief of staff or a rank lower.

"The Blue House secretariat would be operated under a two-tier system regardless of the status of the head of the policy-planning office," the aide said. The new office is intended to end the Blue House management of the cabinet and contribute to making the presidential secretariat into a team of national policy planners.

Under the new plan, significant powers of the presidential chief of staff would be transferred to the chief of policy planning. Close contact with the president has made previous Blue House chief of staffs the second most powerful men in the administration.

The aide said that the new policy planning office would operate several teams to draw out "presidential projects." The new office would likely administer the presidential secretariat for foreign policy and national security. Mr. Roh repeatedly envisioned a secretariat "task force" tending to major issues. It seems that he wants the proposed policy planning office to handle the job.

Mr. Roh wants the future presidential chief of staff to take charge of the secretariats for political affairs, public relations and civil affairs. The senior official would likely assist the National Assembly and party operations by serving as dialogue channel between ruling and opposition-party lawmakers. Mr. Roh told a group of Millennium Democratic Party lawmakers that Blue House chief of staff should serve as an arbitrator on pending issues, where parties pursue different interests.

The aide said that Mr. Roh wants to reorganize the secretariat to make the president more accessible to a greater number of his staff. In the past, the presidential chief of staff has mostly briefed the president on state affairs. A Roh aide said that the president-elect wants to talk with the senior secretaries at all times.

MDP associates said Mr. Roh is determined to reorganize the presidential secretariat into a two-tier system. The president-elect initially planned to operate his transition committee with separate planning and political affairs secretariats. But the plan languished when he could not find suitable persons.

Mr. Roh's aides believe the prime minister and the cabinet should take over day-to-day operation of state administration.

"[Mr. Roh] would likely become a failed president if he tried to tend all the tasks presented by the transition team as his predecessors did," said a Roh aide.

A member of the transition committee said Mr. Roh's changes would change the tenor of the presidency. "The imperial presidency should be terminated systematically," he said.

imagin@joongang.co.kr

Kang Min-seok, Seo Sung-wook
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