President Yoon “Some people will be leaving starting next week”… Cabinet reshuffle made official

President Yoon Seok-yeol said at the Cabinet meeting on the 28th that there will be a personnel reshuffle in the Cabinet and the Presidential Office starting from the beginning of the new month. He officially announced that there will be a major personnel change by sending out ministers and presidential staff who will run in the general election next April. President Yoon said during a closed session of the Cabinet meeting held at the Yongsan Presidential Office on this day, “I think there will be people leaving starting next week. “Those who are stepping down are being called by the party because they are doing a good job, so I hope they don’t feel too upset,” multiple attendees reported. One attendee told the Hankyoreh, “President Yoon said something to the effect of, ‘It will be announced sometime next week, and those who want to change will be contacted.’” Another attendee said, “President Yoon said, ‘I am the type of person who doesn’t throw away people once we work together,’ and it was a remark that encouraged the recipients.” Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong, who is preparing to run in the general election, is said to have said at a ministry event that day, “I did not single out any ministry at today’s cabinet meeting, but the president and the person in charge of personnel directly said that a cabinet reshuffle was imminent.” There are speculations that many of the senior staff in the President’s Office and about 10 of the 19 ministers will be replaced ahead of the general election. In fact, the dominant view is that this is the beginning of the ‘second term of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’. Incumbent lawmakers, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho, and outsiders, Minister Won Hee-ryong and Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs Park Min-sik, are certain to run in the general election. Their successors are Choi Sang-mok, Senior Economic Secretary to the President, Shim Kyo-eon, Director of the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, and Kim Seok-ho, Professor of Sociology at Seoul National University, respectively. Former Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office Director Park Seong-jae and former Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office Director Gil Tae-gi are mentioned as successors to Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon, who are waiting for the ‘general election level’ in the People Power Party. There are both rumors of Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin’s replacement due to his candidacy in the general election and rumors of his retaining his position as minister. There is also a possibility that the ministers of the Ministry of Employment and Labor (Lee Jeong-sik), the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Lee Young), the Ministry of Science and ICT (Lee Jong-ho), the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (Jeong Hwang-geun), and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (Cho Seung-hwan) will be replaced. The reorganization of the Presidential Office is likely to take place in the second week of December, before President Yoon leaves for the Netherlands. It is expected that the new Senior Secretary for Political Affairs will be Director Oh-seop Han of the President’s Office for Government Affairs, Spokesperson Lee Do-woon will be selected as Senior Secretary for Public Relations, and Hwang Sang-moo, former Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) anchor, will be selected as Senior Secretary for Civil Society. In addition, Park Chun-seop, a member of the Bank of Korea’s Monetary Policy Committee, is mentioned as a strong candidate for the senior secretary for economic affairs, and Vice Minister of Education Jang Sang-yoon is mentioned as a strong candidate for the senior secretary for social affairs. It is expected that among the areas previously handled by the Senior Secretary for Social Affairs, environment, labor, and welfare will be removed to create a new Senior Secretary, and a Senior Secretary for Science and Technology will also be created. Reporters Kim Mi-na and Bae Ji-hyeon min@hani.co.kr