Roh shuffles cabinet before election
SEOUL: President Roh Moo Hyunappointed a top security aide Monday as thenew minister in charge of South Korea's relations with North Korea, in a government reorganization before nationwide local elections later this year.
Lee Jong Seok,a top official at the National Security Council, which oversees foreign and security policies, was appointed unification minister, the president's office announced.
Since assuming his post at the National Security Council, Lee has been a key architect of the Roh administration's policy on the North, including an offer of electricity to the impoverished state in return for its giving up its nuclear weapons.
Roh appointed the head of the governing Uri Party, Chung Sye Kyun, as minister for commerce, industry and energy - a vital role in Asia's fourth-largest economy and one of the world's top energy importers, an official said.
Roh also named new science and labor ministers.
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The reshuffle was the first half of a two-part government shake-up that Prime Minister Lee Hae Chan said would take place in January. The reorganization is apparently intended to reshape the image of the Roh administration and his Uri Party before mayoral and gubernatorial elections in May.
The previous unification minister, Chung Dong Young,a popular television anchor turned politician, quit last week so he could campaign for the party. Chung is considered one of the most likely candidates to succeed Roh in the 2007 presidential election. Chung's rival in the Uri Party, the former health minister Kim Keun Tae, also resigned last week to campaign for the party.
The governing camp's popularity has been low amid public discontent over stagnant job growth, rising housing prices and reforms that have fallen short of voters' expectations. In two rounds of special elections last year, the party lost 27 to 0 to opposition parties.
In the other ministries, a former presidential chief of staff, Kim Woo Sik,was named science minister, while Lee Sang Soo, a former Uri legislator, will go to the Labor Ministry.
Media reports and political analysts interpreted the replacement of Science Minister Oh Myung as a reprimand for the discovery in December that stem-cell research by Hwang Woo Suk,the prominent scientific researcher, was fabricated.
These appointments are subject to approval by Parliament after confirmation hearings, a new measure that took effectwith the aim of better verifying qualifications of incoming cabinet members.
Lee, the new unification minister, is viewed widely as reform-minded and supportive of engagement with North Korea. His appointment is unlikely to alter policy as it was developed under Chung.
