Do not ignore public’sfeelings about the gov’t

President Yoon Suk Yeol last week replaced three key aides — the chief of staff, policy chief and national security adviser. Kim Dae-ki, whom Yoon kept as his chief of staff since inauguration in May 2022, was let go. As a bureaucratic expert on economic affairs, Kim had looked after the presidential office for nearly two years. But the president needed a new push due to his stagnant approval rating on top of the People Power Party (PPP)’s crushing defeat in a by-election in Seoul and the face-losing defeat in Busan’s bid for the 2030 World Expo.

The PPP stressed the need for pain-sharing from the presidential office after the ruling party’s key figures have been under pressure to bow out or run in difficult battlegrounds in the April 10 parliamentary election. Some wanted Kim to share the responsibility for the by-election defeat and the failed Expo bid.

Policy chief Lee Kwan-sup has moved to Kim’s office. Before he starts his new job this week, Lee must deliberate on his priorities in playing the role of the chief presidential secretary.

President Yoon’s approval rating is still stuck in the 30-percent range due to his distance with public sentiment. The presidential office has been out of sync with public sentiment by feeding ideological messages while most of the people struggle with the sluggish economy. The presidential office must end the revolving-door appointments and broaden the talent pool. The new chief of staff also must be more proactive in smoothing the top-down relationship between the presidential office and the PPP.

Sung Tae-yoon, an economics professor at Yonsei University, replaces Lee as head of the policy office. Although he had served as an advisor for government policies, questions remain over his new role as the commander of economic and social policies. Scholars were recruited as policy chiefs before, but they had at least some experience in the government. Sung must guide the government’s economic policy so as not to repeat the past flops from half-baked ideas like uniformly extending the workweek to 69 hours. He is also required to curb populist policies ahead of the legislative election, not to mention accelerate the much-delayed reforms in labor, education and pension.

First Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin was tapped as national security adviser after his processor Cho Tae-yong was named as the new director of the National Intelligence Service. Chang must work closely with Cho Tae-yul, who was nominated as the foreign minister, to cope with increasingly belligerent North Korea and follow up on earlier agreements by the leaders of the United States and Japan to reinforce trilateral cooperation on nuclear deterrence and economic issues.