Transition team lineup completed

Kim Jang-soo

President-elect Park Geun-hye announced the remaining members of her transition team Friday.

She named the heads of committees that will each be composed of 24 people and the chairman of a special committee in charge of preparing her inauguration.

Former Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo was appointed to lead the committee for foreign policy, defense and unification. The appointment was announced by transition team Chairman Kim Yong-joon in a briefing at the team’s office at the Korea Banking Institute building in Samcheong-dong, Seoul.

Kim Jang-soo was in charge of formulating defense and security policies during Park’s presidential campaign.

Park named Seoul Arts Center President Mo Chul-min to handle the committee for gender equality and culture, and Kim Jin-sun, president of the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, as the chairman of the inauguration preparatory committee.

Other appointments include Sungkyunkwan University professor Yoo Ming-bong as head of the committee for planning and coordination of state affairs; Seoul National University professor Park Hyo-jong for political affairs; Rep. Yoo Sung-kull of Saenuri Party for the economy 1; Rep. Lee Hyun-jae of Saenuri Party, the economy 2; Dong-A University professor Lee Hye-jin for law and social security; former President of Kyung-in Women’s University Kwok Byung-sun for education and science; and honorary professor of Seoul National University Choi Sung-jae for employment and welfare.

The team is responsible for drawing up the apparatus for implementing policy for the Park administration. The interim organization is made up of nine committees covering political, social and welfare issues with two special committees dedicated to the economy.

The appointments were made under close scrutiny because many of Park’s predecessors appointed members of the transition team to top posts in the new administration.

However, Kim Yong-joon stressed earlier that the members would return to their respective jobs at the end of their two-month stint.

The team will end operations before Park’s official inauguration on Feb. 25.

The appointments are in line with the President-elect’s earlier pledge to build a “low-key” transition team made up of working level experts able to lay the groundwork to help move her new government forward.

The team is expected to be made up of about 100 to 150 people, including advisers and office staff.

Previously, Han Kwang-ok, a former presidential chief of staff to the late President Kim Dae-jung, and Kim Sang-min, a first-term lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, were tapped to lead special committees on national unity and youth respectively.

Meanwhile, Park has recently drawn criticism from the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) for naming controversial figures such as Yoon Chang-jung, a conservative commentator, as her team’s spokesman, and other appointees previously engaged in corruption and ethical lapses.

The DUP has demanded she withdraw those appointments but Park has yet to respond.

Park, who will become the nation’s first female president, beat the DUP standard-bearer Moon Jae-in in the Dec. 19 presidential election by winning 51.6 percent of the 30.7 million votes cast. Moon received 48 percent. <The Korea Times/Chung Min-uck>