hankyoreh

The third batch of personnel appointments for the incoming Park Geun-hye administration was announced on Feb. 17. Included on the slate were ministerial candidates for 11 different agencies, including economic offices in the Ministries of Strategy and Finance, Unification, and Gender Equality and Family. The names appearing there were discouraging. Though they may be experts in their fields, most could scarcely be described as having clear convictions or the skill to put them into practice.

The most worrisome name of all may be Hyun Oh-seok, who was tapped to head the economic team as deputy prime minister for the economy and Minister of Strategy and Finance. The new administration’s aim in resurrecting the post after five years may have been to satisfy the need for strong leadership to steer the economic team on the path out of economic crisis. Leadership and capability, however, are not qualities that are immediately apparent in viewing Hyun’s career history. Nor, for that matter, does he appear to have the philosophy or vision to work for the kind of economic democracy that Park has emphasized. He is an economic bureaucrat who has never held an important post, a paragon of self-preservation who has altered his approach to suit the tastes of whatever administration has happened to be in power. It is difficult to fathom just what Park was thinking when she appointed this inadequate figure to fill the newly revived post.

Another extremely disappointing nomination was transitional committee deputy chairman Chin Young’s appointment as Minister of Health and Welfare. It is a cruel joke against the public for Park to put this kind of non-expert in place to supervise social services, after putting so much emphasis on them during her campaign. As the pro-Park politician par excellence, Chin may be able to faithfully reflect her philosophy on welfare issues. But as someone with no basic concept or philosophy about welfare, he can hardly be expected to improve the level of services available in this country.

The same can be said for Phang Ha-nam, the Korea Labor Institute senior researcher nominated to serve as Minister of Employment and Labor. Right now, labor-management issues are the single biggest conflict confronting South Korean society. There are a host of problems in need of correction - not just the well-documented issues at places like Ssangyong Motor and Hanjin Heavy Industries, but the widespread use of temporary labor at workplaces across the country. If we fail to solve these problems, polarization will only worsen, leaving Park‘s dream of an “age of national happiness” farther out of reach. But Phang is a pension expert with no experience handling labor issues. One has to question what kind of philosophy he will bring to achieving a balanced resolution to this tense conflict between two sides with disparate interests.

One particular surprise among the nominations was Kim Jeong-hun, the Bell Labs president named to head the new Ministry of Future Creation and Science. Kim is a self-made man who is widely recognized for his achievements in venture business. Most of his experience has come in that area, as well as research institutes and universities. This may prove helpful in his efforts to come up with legislation for the kind of “creation economy” that Park has been emphasizing so strongly. Whether or not he is capable of leading a mammoth ministry cobbled together from bits and pieces of other agencies is a different matter entirely. If this “experiment” doesn’t work out, it could mean a world of trouble for Park’s plans to make the new ministry into a driving force for growth.

In procedural terms, it was inappropriate to announce these nominations before the National Assembly had time to pass the bill reconfiguring government organization. It may have been inevitable in some sense, with the administration set to be inaugurated next week (Feb. 25), but Park’s own insistence on passing the original plan is the main reason the delay happened in the first place. It is rather galling for her to turn around and plead for the opposition to give its blessing to her slate of nominees.

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