Pres. Park conducts surprise personnel reshuffle

President Park Geun-hye has carried out a surprise of the Presidential Secretariat as she returned to Cheong Wa Dae Monday from her one-week summer vacation. Having her chief of staff as well as four senior secretaries replaced, the president renewed her secretariat in a bigger-than-expected scale.

The president named former Justice Minister Kim Ki-chun as presidential chief of staff, former ambassador to the European Union Park Joon-woo as senior secretary for political affairs, former senior prosecutor Hong Gyeong-sik as senior secretary for civil affairs, former Hanaro Telecom Chairman Yoon Chang-beon as senior secretary for future strategy and former Vice Health Minister Choi Won-yeong as senior secretary for employment and welfare affairs.

One of senior presidential secretaries whose summer vacation began on Monday, returned to Cheong Wa Dae upon hearing the news. This shows that the reshuffle came as a surprise even to senior secretaries.

President Park is said to have considered reshuffling the presidential secretariat for an extended period of time. At a luncheon meeting with senior editors of news media on July 10, she said, “Some of those I believed professionals could prove to be different. Nevertheless, I cannot replace them right away. I will seek proper times later based on such information.” Therefore, the president must have developed a plan for a partial reshuffle. Sources at Cheong Wa Dae said that the president conducted the partial reshuffle on Monday as she had been looking for a person to fill the position of senior secretary for political affairs, which had been vacant since early June.

The president’s large-scale reshuffling on Monday surprised many due to her style of not changing personnel frequently. With more than 60 percent approval rates, she must have conducted the personnel reshuffle to push forward with government operations more powerfully into the latter half of the first year in office.

A key figure at Cheong Wa Dae said, “The president has to knuckle down her job in the first year, which is full of energy. But if presidential staff do not work smoothly, the president`s state affairs operation could be impeded. Due to the president`s five-year term, presidential personnel management is basically different from that of lawmakers or party leadership,” hinting that the recent replacement must have been made to punish those who did not fulfill their responsibilities.

Cases in point are the replacement of senior secretaries for future strategy and for employment and welfare affairs. The two posts lead key secretariats in charge of the president’s key projects of creative economy, 70 percent employment, and people’s happiness. In that sense, it was doubtful whether now the former presidential secretaries in charge were capable of dealing with the tasks to the extent that the people can feel the difference.

A key official at Cheong Wa Dae said Monday that there would be no Cabinet reshuffling. But another official said, “The president is not considering the cabinet reshuffle at the moment, but this doesn`t mean that the Cabinet is doing any better than the Presidential Office. No one can ensure that the Cabinet reshuffle will not be made within this year.” Following the partial reshuffle on Monday, reappointment of some presidential secretaries who have job performance issues could be carried out, sources of the presidential office said.

Though people say the timing of the reappointment was great, many are not satisfied with the outcome. The career of Kim Ki-chun, 74, newly named as presidential chief of staff, is said to have revived the old image of presidential personnel due to his past working experience including serving the senior advisory committee for last year’s presidential campaign.” In addition, regarding the appointment of a former diplomat as presidential secretary for political affairs, many in and out of the ruling party are concerned that it could turn out to be a risky trial to resolve political situation, which is mired in the main opposition Democratic Party’s street protest.