Former PM talks about hopes for the new president

Former Prime Minister Han Duk-su said the harmful effects of the ‘imperial presidential system can be prevented only when the new president gives ministers their unique agenda to enable distribution of power.

Han, who served as prime minister under the liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration and the South Korean ambassador to the U.S. under the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration, told The Dong-A Ilbo on Wednesday about the tasks given to the new president-elect. “While the cabinet uses the power granted to concentrate on the livelihood of the people in each field, the president must focus his political leadership on communicating with the opposition bloc to resolve difficult issues that require social consensus, such as regulatory reform and climate change,” Han said.

“Since presidential candidates tried to woo voters with populist election pledges that are not sustainable in the mid to long-term, the president-elect should honestly seek understanding from the people and exert political power to filter out ill-thought-out pledges during the transition period,” Hand stressed. “The transition committee should be ready to review and adopt good pledges made by the rival candidate.”

Former Prime Minister Han went on to say that more than half of the new president’s time and efforts should be spent on communicating and persuading the people, politicians and the media, predicting that communication will be one of the most important political issues for the new president as there was a controversy over poor communication of the Moon Jae-in administration.


Hye-Ryung Choi herstory@donga.com