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By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

US President Barack Obama finished up appointments for his second-term Korean Peninsula policy crew by tapping Evan Medeiros, China director at the National Security Council, as Senior Director for Asia.

With this, the new lineup at the three policy organizations - the White House, State Department, and Defense Department - is complete. But the names in it suggest that the administration is prioritizing policy continuity: all of them, with the exceptions of Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who were appointed early this year, are holdovers from Obama’s first term.

At the NSC, the lineup includes Susan Rice as national security adviser, Medeiros as senior director, and Sydney Seiler as Korea director. Neither Rice nor Medeiros has handled Korea policy to date, which means the role of Seiler, a Central Intelligence Agency veteran with longstanding experience in North Korea policy, is likely to be key.

Rice is known to be one of Obama’s closest and most trusted associates, but she is also seen primarily as a Middle East and Africa expert. Medeiros, who is in his early forties, joined the White House in 2009 after previously doing research on China and nuclear nonproliferation at the RAND Corporation. Because of his limited experience in government, little is known about his positions.

At the State Department, the key figures working under Kerry include deputy Secretary of State William Burns, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs Daniel Russel and deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Japan and Korean Affairs James Zumwalt, and director for Korean affairs Robert Rapson, as well as Glyn Davies as special representative for North Korea policy and Robert King as special envoy on North Korean human rights.

All but Kerry and Russell are holdovers. Under secretary for political affairs Wendy Sherman is nominally in charge of the East Asia/Pacific bureau, but is not deeply involved in North Korea policy. The position under Davies as special envoy to the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue has been empty since being vacated by Clifford Hart. A foreign affairs source reported hearing “nothing yet about a replacement being hired” for Hart, meaning the post could remain empty for some time.

No major changes happened in the lineup at the Defense Department, which includes Deputy Secretary Ashton Carter, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Miller, and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia David Helvey. The post of assistant secretary for East Asia has been empty since Mark Lippert left it to work as Hagel’s chief of staff. Two names currently being mentioned as possibilities to fill it are acting assistant secretary for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Peter Lavoy and senior Senate Foreign Relations Committee senior advisor Michael Schiffer.

Diplomatic insiders in Washington said the new faces were generally more lightweight than in the first term, adding that the aim seemed primarily to be maintaining consistency rather than looking for changes in North Korea policy. While Kerry is one of the leading advocates of inter-Korean dialogue, he has been focusing primarily on issues concerning the Middle East and Islamic world, paying six visits to the Middle East since taking office and heading to Pakistan earlier this week. Indeed, the current situation may be read as leaving little room to maneuver, given Obama’s reluctance to take action and insistence on “principle” and the political leanings of the new administrations in Seoul and Tokyo. Said one foreign affairs source on condition of anonymity, “The biggest emphasis in Washington right now is on policy continuity.”

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