Lee Jae-jung, the New Senior Vice President of Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification

President Roh Moo-hyun named Lee Jae-jung, a former assemblyman from the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), on October 27 as the senior vice president of the Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification (ACDPU), a position that remained unfilled for eight months.

The president also appointed former Supreme Court Judge Lee Yong-hoon for the post of president of the Ethics Committee for Government Officials, and the current Deputy Minister for Planning and Management of the Ministry of Science and Technology Choi Seok-sik as the new vice minister of the same ministry.

The new vice president of ACDPU was fined 30 million won at the second hearing on charges alleging him for transferring funds of one billion won in bonds to the MDP from Hanhwa Group just before the presidential election in 2002. After the appointment of the former deputy prime minister and minister of Education and Human Resources, who failed to win at the general election of April, this appointment of former Assemblyman Lee, who served 50 days in prison for involvement in the illegal election funds, is stirring up yet another controversy over it being another “compensational appointment.”