No minister safe as presidential office prepares sweeping shake-up: Sources

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No minister safe as presidential office prepares sweeping shake-up: Sources

Published: 21 Nov. 2024, 18:06

MICHAEL LEE
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President Yoon Suk Yeol, far right, shakes hands with Hong Chul-ho, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, after arriving back in Korea from his eight-day trip to South America on Thursday morning. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The presidential office is preparing to submit recommendations to President Yoon Suk Yeol to overhaul his administration upon his return from South America on Thursday, according to officials who spoke to the Korea JoongAng Daily’s Korean-language affiliate the previous day.

Yoon returned to Korea on Thursday morning from an eight-day trip to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru and the Group of 20 summit in Brazil.

The officials said that the heads of virtually all government ministries may be targeted for replacement.

“We are currently working on creating a pool of candidates to take up the helm at all ministries and agencies,” said a senior official who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity.

The official noted that the president “is particularly determined to carry out a wide-ranging shake-up,” adding that his office is seeking to recruit “talented individuals” from not only within the administration but also outside of politics after meeting with conservative People Power Party (PPP) leader Han Dong-hoon.

For weeks, the PPP leader has demanded that Yoon clean house after party members accused first lady Kim Keon Hee of indirectly influencing the running of state affairs through a clique of current and former administration officials.

Both the president and the first lady have also been accused of interfering in the PPP’s candidate nomination process before multiple elections at the behest of self-proclaimed power broker Myung Tae-kyun, who allegedly arranged favorable polls for Yoon during his ultimately successful presidential run in 2022.

Officials from the Yoon administration and the PPP, which supports the government, also floated the possibility that Prime Minister Han Duck-soo could be replaced as part of the shake-up.

Although the prime minister submitted his resignation to Yoon in the wake of the PPP’s resounding defeat in the April general election, the president has not yet named his successor, leaving Han in the post.

Political observers believe that Han could be replaced as prime minister by six-term PPP Rep. Joo Ho-young, who is currently serving as one of the National Assembly’s deputy speakers, or five-term PPP Rep. Kwon Young-se, who headed the Unification Ministry until July last year.

Other possible candidates include former conservative lawmaker Lee Jung-hyun, who was the first native of the liberal Jeolla region to take up the helm of the country’s main conservative party, and current National Intelligence Service Director Cho Tae-yong.

The senior official who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo said any candidate tapped to replace Han would be “an individual who has already been vetted” because the president’s pick for prime minister must be confirmed by the National Assembly, unlike other ministerial nominees.

While any nominee for the premiership would likely face scrutiny by the liberal Democratic Party (DP), which controls 170 seats in the 300-member legislature, another official close to the president predicted that the DP “would not try to unhorse” a “good person” due to the political burden of stonewalling the president’s candidates indiscriminately.

Although observers believe the president could also choose to shake up the chiefs of the country’s foreign policy and security establishment ahead of the U.S. presidential handover, a senior presidential official said any personnel changes in those fields would not be “rushed.”

Conservative People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon, left, speaks to PPP floor leader Choo Kyung-ho, right, at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Thursday. [YONHAP]

While PPP leader Han has said little in recent days regarding a potential shake-up inside the Yoon administration, his allies within the party have continued to demand the removal of any officials close to the first lady.

In an interview with SBS Radio on Wednesday, PPP Supreme Council member Kim Jong-hyuk said, “The removal of all officials closely tied to first lady Kim should be the highest priority [of the shake-up],” adding that Yoon’s administration needs “to undergo reform just as wide-ranging as the time it launched.”

BY PARK TAE-IN, MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]