Roh names Kim confidant to key post at Blue House

Representative Moon Hee-sang was named yesterday as presidential chief of staff in the new Roh Moo-hyun administration. Yoo Inn-tae, the head of the Millennium Democratic Party's district chapter in Jongno, Seoul, was named senior presidential secretary for political affairs.

Lee Nak-yon, the president-elect's spokesman, said the new chief of staff would focus on National Assembly and political party issues. "President-elect Roh wants the political affairs and policy planning staff to lead the Blue House operations," he said.

Representative Kim One-ki, Mr. Roh's long-time advisor and leader of the majority faction of the Millennium Democratic Party, will be named as the president's political affairs advisor, Mr. Lee said, although he does not yet have a formal title.

Political observers said that conflict between competing MDP factions seemed to have played a role in the organization of Mr. Roh's senior staff. Mr. Moon's appointment seemed to take party reformers by surprise; he is a member of the group of Kim Dae-jung loyalists in the party that is considered by reformers to be opposed to changes in the party structure. Those reformers have demanded that the group surrounding President Kim resign their senior party posts and many had asked Mr. Roh for a chief of staff who would clean out the party apparatus.

MDP officials said Mr. Roh valued Mr. Moon's experience in handling jobs like the presidential senior secretary for political affairs and his contributions to Mr. Roh's election victory. He also has a reputation for dealing easily with the opposition Grand National Party, which now controls the National Assembly. Indeed, the GNP welcomed his appointment, saying it would bring stability to government administration.

Mr. Yoo, a former lawmaker and now Mr. Roh's senior political advisor, was a leader of the student movement for democracy during the 1970s and 80s. He served 4 1/2 years in prison for those activities beginning in 1974, and has close ties with several GNP leaders.

Mr. Moon said yesterday that the Blue House organization would be overhauled and direct oversight of the cabinet by the Blue House would be ended. The political planning chief, he said, would play a coordinating role with cabinet members and other senior secretariat offices, except for those involving foreign policy, national security and government audits, would be abolished. He said other senior positions would be downgraded and officials filling them would report to the Blue House policy planning head.

Those jobs would include positions related to labor, economy, education, culture and welfare.

The large staff in the office of the senior secretary for policy planning will work primarily on "presidential projects," Mr. Moon said, such as the president-elect's promise to move the nation's administrative capital to a new location south of Seoul.

Mr. Moon said the rationale for the downgrading of some of the senior secretaries' offices is that officials dispatched to the secretariat from government ministries are already duplicating those functions in their work on the policy planning staff.

The Blue House proper will also become less a grand museum and more a working building. Mr. Lee, the spokesman, said the presidential secretariat offices would move into the Blue House proper. Mr. Roh ordered the change on Sunday to gather his staff closer around him.

At present, presidential aides have to take a 10-minute hike to meet their boss.

by Seo Seung-wook, Kang Min-seok