New Prime Minister Getting PR Boost

The government, mainly the Government Information Agency (GIA), has embarked on “promoting” Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook.

It was reported yesterday that Kim Chang-ho, head of the GIA, recently instructed each ministry to devise measures to enhance the prime minister’s image in a weekly meeting in which officials responsible for promoting policies of each government ministry participated.

The move is intended to develop promotion strategies to stress the gentle and informal image of the prime minister.

Against this backdrop, it is expected that each ministry will hold various events soon, which can highlight the prime minister’s image.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources developed a plan in which the prime minister would attend a “Teacher’s Day” ceremony, which the government, teachers’ associations and parents will jointly hold on May 15, and visit one or two schools.

The ceremony in which the government will participate as a host is reportedly to be the first such event in eight years since it was suspended by then Education Minister Lee Hae-chan in 1998.

An Education Ministry official did not attach a special meaning to the plan, saying, “Participation in various ceremonies and visits to schools were just annual events that other prime ministers did as well.”

An official at another ministry said, “I heard that participants in a strategy promotion meeting, which was hosted by the GIA immediately after Prime Minister Han took office, discussed that Han’s already good image would be further enhanced if (each ministry) invited her to various events.”

A GIA official also confirmed this, saying, “It is true that there was such a conversation in a recent weekly meeting.”

This suggests that somehow Han will more frequently attend various events held by the government. Some in and outside of political circles interpret this as the government’s move to put up another presidential candidate. But the GIA calls the interpretation an “overreaction.”

The GIA official said, “There is no political intention whatsoever. We just discussed how to enhance the prime minister’s image according to usual practice because a new prime minister was appointed to represent the Cabinet.”

The official also said, “It is only natural to come up with ideas of enhancing a new head’s image and put them into practice when an organization has a new leader,” adding, “The GIA discussed ways to enhance the image of former prime ministers, including former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, when they were inaugurated.”

In a weekly meeting hosted by the head of the GIA, officials responsible for each ministry’s policy promotion participated and had discussions on how to promote government policies or how to respond to the media.