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President Moon Jae-in presents Kang Kyung-wha with a certificate of appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs at the Blue House on the afternoon of June 18. (by Kim Kyung-ho

President Moon Jae-in officially appointed Kang Kyung-wha on June 18 as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The appointment came 28 days after Moon nominated Kang on May 21. With opposition party lawmakers who opposed Kang’s nomination now loudly denouncing the “disappearance of co-governance,” gridlock is predicted for other Cabinet confirmation hearings and passage of the revised supplementary budget.

Moon presented Kang with a certificate of appointment at the Blue House on the afternoon of June 18.

“With the South Korea-US summit coming up shortly and the G-20 summit ahead, we cannot afford to have the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs vacant,” Moon said.

“I believe even the opposition will generally understand this situation,” he added.

After the National Assembly failed to adopt a hearing report for Kang following her confirmation hearing, Moon made an additional request for the report the day before. When the National Assembly did not respond, he proceeded with Kang’s appointment on June 18 according to legal procedure.

Moon also sent a message criticizing the opposition for the difficulties with Kang‘s appointment.

“I think it is very inappropriate to treat it like a competition or war between the president and opposition simply because they disagree on appointments, and to paint it as a ‘declaration of war’ or ‘railroading’ or complain there is ‘no cooperative governance,’” he said.

“It seems to me that overcoming this [attitude] is a task we are going to have to address,” he said.

The [appointment] drew objections from the three major opposition parties.

“This is an Unconstitutional obliteration of the National Assembly’s confirmation hearing rights and a declaration of war on cooperative governance,” said Liberty Korea Party floor leader Chung Woo-taek.

People’s Party senior spokesperson Son Kum-ju said the party “strongly denounces this outrageous disregard for the National Assembly and will take immediate action.”

Bareun Party floor leader Joo Ho-young declared a “boycott,” saying the party’s members would be “refusing to attend the June 19 Standing Committee meeting on the confirmation hearing.”

Meanwhile, Moon expressed dismay over Justice Minister nominee Ahn Kyong-hwan‘s decision to bow out of consideration on June 16 over the filing of an illegal marriage notice in the past.

“It’s unfortunate. I think I‘m going to have to give some consideration to the possibility that we were so focused on our goals that our vetting was lax,” Moon said.

He went on to reiterate his commitment to stronger democratic controls and other prosecutorial reforms.

“We need to bring in good people so we do not miss the opportunity to reform the Justice Ministry and Prosecutors,” he said.

By Lee Jung-ae and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporters

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