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Nam Jae-joon | Shin Je-yoon | Kim Dong-yeon |
By Chung Min-uck
President Park Geun-hye on Saturday named Nam Jae-joon, 68, a former Army chief of staff, to head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the state intelligence agency.
Shin Je-yoon, 54, the first vice finance minister, was nominated as head of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the nation's financial watchdog, and Kim Dong-yeon, 56, as chief of the Prime Minister's Office.
"With his clean and upright character, and a firm sense of national security, Nam is believed to be the right man to resolve the current security crisis and make the NIS fulfill its role," said presidential spokesman Yoon Chang-jung.
Nam is currently a professor at Seokyeong University in Seoul. He was a career soldier who served as Army chief of staff, chief director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Joint Operations Headquarters and deputy commander of the South Korea-United States Combined Forces Command.
Last year, Nam was the top defense policy adviser for Park when she was the presidential candidate. He also advised Park when she ran for the party's presidential ticket in 2007.
Shin, the nominee to become FSC chairman, is a leading specialist on international finance and worked as the FSC vice chairman and director of the finance ministry's international finance bureau.
Nam and Shin are subject to confirmation hearings at the National Assembly but parliamentary approval is not required.
Park named the chief of the Prime Minister's Office under the present law. According to the government reorganization bill, the Prime Minister's Office will be split into two ― an office for government policy coordination and the other for the Prime Minister's secretaries. The reorganization bill is currently pending at the Assembly.
The spokesman said Kim's post will be renamed as chief of the office for government policy coordination after the bill's passage.
Park's unusual Saturday announcement of the appointments is seen to stress the urgency of the need to fill her Cabinet at the earliest time amid a deadlock at the National Assembly over the government restructuring bill.
Other nominations of key government posts, including those of Public Prosecutor General and head of the National Policy Agency, would be announced when ready, the spokesman said.
The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) criticized the appointments, citing a lack in the nominees' expertise.
"The NIS chief nominee, the head of the presidential National Security Office, defense minister and presidential security service chief have all been taken up by former military officers," said Kim Hyun, a DUP spokeswoman, Saturday. "It is especially regretful that a former Army officer was named the NIS chief, a position that needs expertise in various areas including North Korean issues and gathering overseas information."
