Roh shifting key work to prime minister

President Roh Moo-hyun asked his secretaries yesterday to come up with an effective way to divide duties between the prime minister’s office and the Blue House.
“It is time for the president to focus on the national agenda, whereas the prime minister should take over policy implementation and governance at the ministerial level,” Mr. Roh was quoted as saying in an address to his secretaries by the Blue House spokeswoman, Song Kyoung-hee.
Mr. Roh made clear his intention to play a lesser role in national governance at the lower level during the inauguration of the team that will explore the relocation of the nation’s administrative capital.
“I intend to reduce the role of the president in providing direction for government operations and supervision,” Mr. Roh said. “Ministers will be responsible for ministerial duties, and the prime minister will supervise the government.”
Mr. Roh said he would concentrate on accomplishing long-term national goals.
Before his inauguration, Mr. Roh stressed that the role of prime minister would carry more responsibility, criticizing the largely ceremonial role past prime ministers held. His remarks yesterday appeared to confirm his plan for change.
Political observers paid special attention to the timing of Mr. Roh’s remarks. The president highlighted his intention to grant power to the prime minister immediately after Prime Minister Goh Kun put the brakes on the Government Information Agency’s plan for interacting with the media. Mr. Goh said yesterday the government should open its information sources further to the press before implementing new procedures.
“Because the Government Information Agency attempted to move the government’s briefing room to an annex without consulting the prime minister’s office first, Mr. Goh probably felt agitated,” an official from the prime minister’s office said.
A senior Blue House official said Mr. Roh’s promise to assign more responsibilities to the prime minister was based on the present government’s founding principle of the decentralization of power and autonomous governance.

by Lee Soo-ho