Transition Committee Head Is Actively Involved

Lee Kyung-sook, Sookmyung Women’s University president and the Presidential Transition Committee chairwoman for the new administration, is displaying ambitions from the start.

Lee, who has to cover both jobs, said that 24 hours are not enough, so that she skips meals.

When President-elect Lee Myung-bak appointed her as the committee chairman, the Grand National Party and his camp members saw her as a figurehead.

Particularly, when Kim Hyung-o, the four-time lawmaker, was selected as the vice-chairman of the transition committee, many people speculated that Kim would actually lead the committee.

Over the past three days since her designation, committee members are surprised to see her active role as a chairperson.

“Not many days are left until February 25. All of you have to be committed to your work,” Lee said at the committee meeting at the Korea Banking Institute in Seoul Friday, “I feel like I am taking a college final exam. If I had studied this hard, I would have graduated Summa Cum Laude.”

Lee Dong-kwan, the spokesperson of the transition committee, said, “Chairperson Lee is staying up at night to study the promises of the president-elect and the transition white book of the previous administration.

She began to voice what she thinks about.

Lee said, “Above all, we have to hold the higher moral ground for the activities of the transition committee. Based on the framework of leadership for serving people, like the president-elect said, we should set specific policies.”

She added, “ We should develop policies that can protect the socially marginalized and ordinary citizens, that can wipe away people’s tears, and that can fit the standard of the public. In the center of those policies stand people.”

There was a small turmoil at the committee meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Committee members thought chairperson Lee would not attend and prepared only the seat for the vice-chairman.

When the meeting began, Lee showed up at the meeting, and they hastily put the seat for the vice-chairman aside and made another one for her.

A member of the committee said, “All committee members are now uptight because of her aggressive habit of not missing any meetings.”

mhpark@donga.com