Ruling Party’s Ire Puzzles Cheong Wa Dae

Cheong Wa Dae officials are having a hard time understanding why the ruling party is having problems with the Cabinet reshuffle announced on January 2.

The opposition from the ruling party shows no sign of subsiding, even though President Roh Moo-hyun publicly expressed his wish to appoint Uri Party lawmaker Rhyu Si-min as the new health and welfare minister on January 2, and said that he would have discussions with the Uri Party.

Because the criticism from the ruling party seems to have expanded over the sudden nomination of Rep. Chung Sye-kyun, acting chair of the governing party, to a cabinet position, Cheong Wa Dae is concerned about a possible ripple effect.

The presidential office monitored the opposition within the ruling party in a daily meeting presided over by Lee Byung-wan, presidential chief of staff, yesterday. But it refrained from displaying any official response on worries that a premature announcement of an official position might spark another controversy.

The presidential office expects that the situation will get better once it begins actively persuading the party. It believes that the controversy over Rhyu’s appointment was caused by an “absence of close communication,” rather than by a fundamental conflict between the ruling party and the presidential office.

Probably based on this idea, Cheong Wa Dae hastily announced that Roh and the Uri Party leadership would have a dinner meeting on January 5, while avoiding expressions which seem to confirm Rhyu’s impending nomination to the cabinet.

The prevailing atmosphere in the presidential office is that there is a slim chance that the president would give up the appointment of Rhyu. However, the situation could become different if the ruling party’s opposition does not subside and the conflict between the party and the presidential office gets worse. There was a precedent that the appoint of Rep. Kim Hyuk-kyu as the prime minister shortly after the general elections in April 2004 was canceled due to opposition from the ruling party.

A Cheong Wa Dae official said, “With severe resistance from the ruling party, the nomination of Rhyu appears to have become highly fluid.”

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com