Candidates under close scrutiny

Presdiential transition team appointments delayed

Rep. Chin Young of the ruling Saenuri Party, the newly-appointed vice chairman of the presidential transition team, tells reporters Sunday at the party’s headquarter in Seoul that the team would help the new government take over smoothly. Yonhap

President-elect Park Geun-hye, in collaboration with Cheong Wa Dae, is screening candidates of the transition team, a spokesman of the team said Sunday.

This came amid mounting criticism over the President-elect’s closed-door decision in choosing her members. Three of them including Kim Kyung-jae, the vice chairman for the committee of nationwide reconciliation, sparked controversy over their past comments and behavior that were deemed incompatible with Park’s commitment to uniting the nation.

Park Sun-kyoo, a spokesman of the transition team, told reporters that all of the team officials’ roles will end when Park becomes the president next year.

“The human-resource monitoring team at Cheong Wa Dae has the record and information of every possible figure who is capable of helping the president-elect to take over the presidential office efficiently,” he said.

“We worked with the team as such a step is critical in shift of the government, and it has begun since Park was selected as the incoming president (in the Dec. 19 election).

“I also want to make clear that the members of the transitional committee are not proper government officials and their roles will only last until Park’s presidential inauguration day (on Feb. 25.),” he added.

The President-elect picked 14 of the 26 transitional team members on Thursday without consulting aides. Her move came after Monday when she was embroiled in a dispute over her closed-door decision in selecting Yoon Chang-jung, a politically-biased conservative journalist, as her chief spokesman.

And even Yoon said he never knew who will take the post until he opened the sealed envelope carrying the list of the 14 selected members and announced them at the press conference on Thursday.

Park’s reclusive decision-making raised concerns in carrying out her policies. The President-elect seeks to unite the nation divided along social status, political affiliation, region, age, and other factors. And three of the transitional team members have raised doubts over qualification in carrying out such roles.

Kim, 70, was a former close aide of late President Kim Dae-jung, one of the most prominent liberals in the country. He joined the Park camp during the presidential campaign to help her in drawing out support from liberals. The former two-term lawmaker instead came under fire for criticizing late President Roh Moo-hyun, also a liberal, as well as voters in Jeolla Province, a strong-hold of the liberals.

Of the 14 members, six of them serve on the special committee for young people, especially those between their 20s and 40s. And two of six committee members, Youn Sang-kyu and Ha Ji-won remain controversial picks because of past allegations of wrongdoings against them.

The President-elect stresses fair treatment for non-regular workers, a number of them in their 20s and 30s, in terms of their working hours and salaries. And Youn, 40, the CEO of the online game company Neowiz Games, was found paying money delinquently between 2009 and 2011 to its sub-contractor which hired a number of non-regular employees. Youn later paid the amount under the order of Fair Trade Commission but still failed to pay the interest.

Ha, the president of the environmental advocacy group Ecomom Korea, was also fined for taking bribes in 2008 when she served as the regional official of the Grand National Party, the predecessor of Park’s Saenuri Party.

“We urge Park to withdraw her decision and replace the three disputed members with others, Park Ki-choon, the newly-selected floor leader of the main opposition Democratic United Party, said Sunday.

“The sealed envelope clearly shows her decision-making behind closed doors, and if she really wants to unite people, we ask her to abandon those three.” <The Korea Times/Yi Whan-woo>