Minister of C & T Oh Replaced by Successor Kim Yong-Chae

President Kim Dae-Jung replaced yesterday the Minister of Construction and Transportation (MCT) Oh Jang-Seob asking the responsibility for Korea to be evaluated as a second grade country on aviation safety by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The president appointed Kim Yong-Chae, a close adviser for the United Liberal Democrats` Honorary President Kim Jong-Phil and the president of the Korea Land Corporation, as a successor.

Chief Presidential Press Secretary Park Jun-Young announced the replacement saying, ``The former minister Oh showed his intention to resign to President Kim even before the audit result was presented by the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea was announced.``

Press Secretary Park also explained the background of the appointment by saying, ``The new minister Kim is a well-prepared person for the construction and transportation administration, because he was the chairman of the National Assembly`s Construction and Transportation Committee.``

It has been known that before the replacement, President Kim sent the Presidential Minister`s Secretarial Han Kwang-Ok to the Honorary President Kim to explain the inevitability of the replacement and to hear about opinion on the successor selection.

Although the `DJP tension controversy` seems to be fading away with the replacement, the position issue of the Minister of Unification Lim Dong-Won, whose credit has been questioned along with the former minister Oh, is still remaining as a tinderbox.

When asked by reporters about the possibility of the replacement, the Honorary President Kim did not deny about the chance of replacement by answering, ``It will be issued when the illegal behavior of the people who went to Pyongyang is questioned.``

Meanwhile, Jeon Yong-Hak, the Spokesperson of the Democratic Party, said, ``We think that the former minister Oh took the political responsibility.`` The Chief Deputy Spokesman of the Grand National Party Jang Kwang-Kun blamed the replacement by saying, ``Although the replacement of the former minister Oh was unavoidable, to appoint a person who lacks specialty and morality is to profane the people of the country.`` ``It shows that the appointment was just a measure to read JP`s facial expression.`` he added.

Yun Seung-Mo ysmo@donga.com