Revival of Minister without Portfolio Prime Minister-Designate Lee Asks for Establishing Vice Minister for Every Ministry

Prime Minister-designate Lee Hae-chan on June 25 revealed that he would propose to President Roh Moo-hyun to introduce a minister without portfolio system and a system to establish a vice minister without a portfolio in each ministry after deeply studying the feasibility of the system.

In the second session of his two-day confirmation hearing at the National Assembly, he said, “I expect the minister without portfolio system will play an important role in promoting better relations between the National Assembly and the executive branch and between the Assembly and political parties.”

“I think it is time for North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, to visit South Korea considering the historic South-North joint declaration on June 15, 2000,” he added.

In regard to media reform, the prime minister-designate said, “The government doesn’t have much to do, but legislators, civic organizations, and journalists have lots to do.” About adopting a cash reward program for reporting violations of subscription rules in order to stop over-competition in the newspaper market, he expressed a negative view saying, “The government has carried out a reward program for reporting illegal election campaign because election campaigns can be quite influential to the public. The newspaper market has that influence but not as much as the election campaign does.”

About the move to lower the age of eligible voters to 18, he said, “I personally think giving suffrage to a person at the age of 18 is reasonable.”

Upon the controversy of whether to abolish the National Security Law Mr. Lee revealed, “I think abolishing the National Security Law after combining it with criminal law would be one way.” The National Assembly will adopt the report on its confirmation hearing on the prime minister designate on June 28 and vote on Lee’s appointment on the following day during a plenary session. Lee’s designation is likely to be approved since opposition parties have not shown an active opposition on the matter.

Myoung-Gun Lee Seung-Heon Lee gun43@donga.com ddr@donga.com