hankyoreh

nominee for Prime Minister

By Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent

President Park Geun-hye named former Joong-Ang Ilbo editor-in-chief Moon Chang-geuk as a nominee for Prime Minister on June 10.

Ambassador to Japan Lee Byung-kee, 67, was nominated for the post of National Intelligence Service director.

The choices are being read as a strong statement from Park that the “personnel reforms” she announced after the inconclusive June 4 municipal elections will be more of the same, rather than a change based on reflection over previous problems. Moon is considered one of the most die-hard conservative figures in the media community, while Lee is a longtime close associate of Park’s.

The choice of a divisive figure like Moon as Prime Minister in particular has many questioning whether Park misread the verdict passed by voters the week before.

When announcing the nominations, Blue House spokesperson Min Kyung-wook called Moon “a committed and upright journalist who has brought objective criticism and rational alternatives to his efforts to set right the mistaken practices and longstanding vices of South Korean society.”

“We believe he is someone whose outstanding insight and drive will help in properly executing governance tasks such as reforming public officialdom and correcting abnormal practices,” Min added.

Moon is a native of Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, with relatively few assets, suggesting that regional considerations and the ability to pass a National Assembly hearing were factors in the decision. Indeed, a senior Blue House official suggested that the hearing factor was a primary concern.

“A long list of candidates were ruled out over the vetting issue,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

A forty-year veteran of the Joong-Ang Ilbo since graduating with a degree in political science from Seoul National University, Moon is also the first nominee for Prime Minister whose professional background is entirely in media, which could be a sign the Blue House hopes to avoid criticisms over consistently appointing lawyers and bureaucrats to such posts.

But with Park’s long hunt for a suitable candidate leading her to tap Moon, many are growing increasingly concerned that her future governance approach will emphasize unilateral decision-making over unity.

To begin with, Moon is a hard-core conservative with close to far-right views, which means he could end up exacerbating Park and the administration’s “communication problems.” His extreme views have been demonstrated in past columns calling to “save” then Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency commissioner Kim Seok-ki in 2009 after an excessive police crackdown on redevelopment protests led to a fire that claimed six lives in Seoul’s Yongsan district, or claiming, at a time when free school lunches were a major political issue, that such meals “summon images of food rationing” in North Korea.

“He grew up in a Christian family in Pyongan Province [in today’s North Korea], so he’s staunchly conservative,” said a political veteran who is close to Moon. “His columns, and everything else he writes, are like ultra-right-wing cudgels.”

Another acquaintance from the ruling Saenuri Party (NFP) expressed confidence that Moon would work “with a sense of ethics and conviction,” but worried, “He may be too conservative to be the right person for bridging divisions and achieving unity.”

“He’s also not especially sociable, so there could end up being communication problems if he finds himself under attack from the opposition, such as during parliamentary questioning,” the acquaintance added.

It’s a sentiment that also emerges in a tweet from Park Jie-won, a lawmaker in the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy.

“Moon Chang-geuk for Prime Minister, Lee Byung-kee for NIS director - the world is opening up for die-hard ultra right wingers,” Park wrote.

Meanwhile, questions are being raised about whether Moon, whose only background is as a journalist and columnist, is even capable of reforming the bureaucracy or altering the governance paradigm. The issue boils down to whether he was merely chosen because his political sentiments echo Park’s, or if he will be able to emerge as more than just a “note-taking Prime Minister” who carries out her orders. In December 2013, Moon was rumored as a prospective candidate to win election as chairman of the Korea Press Foundation, but was not nominated in the end.

The Saenuri Party’s official take on the choice is positive, with spokesman Park Dae-chul calling Moon “the right person to execute the country’s great remodeling.” Internally, many view it as yet another example of Park’s “my way or the highway” approach to nominations. Key party figures, and even Blue House senior secretaries, were reportedly unaware of the decision until the day of the announcement.

“It looks like the President was deliberately keeping this nomination under wraps,” said one prominent lawmaker from Moon’s home region of Chungcheong, on condition of anonymity.

Another ruling party source said, “It’s kind of a ‘shock and awe’ appointment, something nobody saw coming.”

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