Yoon taps Park Jin as foreign minister, Kwon Young-se as unification minister

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol announces his ministerial nominees during a press conference at the presidential transition committee's office in Tongui-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, Wednesday. On the right behind him is justice minister nominee Han Dong-hoon, who is now the vice president of the Judicial Research and Training Institute. Joint Press Corps

President-elect nominates eight Cabinet ministers, presidential chief of staff

By Nam Hyun-woo

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday announced his choices of eight ministers and the presidential chief of staff, filling eight out of 10 ministerial positions which were not announced in the first round of nominations on Sunday.

Yoon introduced the nominees during a press conference.

This combined photos show minister nominees and presidential chief of staff announced by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday. From top left are deputy prime minister and minister of education nominee Kim In-chul, foreign minister nominee Park Jin, unification minister nominee Kwon Young-se. From left in second row are justice minister nominee Han Dong-hoon, interior and safety minister nominee Lee Sang-min, environment minister nominee Han Wha-jin. From bottom left are oceans and fisheries minister nominee Cho Seung-hwan, SMEs and startups minister nominee Lee Young and presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-ki. Courtesy of presidential transition committee

They are deputy prime minister and minister of education nominee Kim In-chul, foreign minister nominee Park Jin, unification minister nominee Kwon Young-se, justice minister nominee Han Dong-hoon, interior and safety minister nominee Lee Sang-min, environment minister nominee Han Wha-jin, oceans and fisheries minister nominee Cho Seung-hwan, SMEs and startups minister nominee Lee Young and presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-ki.

For the foreign minister post, Rep. Park Jin of the People Power Party (PPP) was named as widely expected.

Park started his career as a diplomat and served four terms as a lawmaker. He is known as one of the top advisors of Yoon's foreign policies, and has a wide network of political contacts in the U.S.

He led Yoon's delegation to the U.S. and returned home on Monday. Park told reporters that he and his U.S. counterparts exchanged opinions on the normalization of the Korea-U.S. joint military exercise, the revival of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group and holding a Korea-U.S. summit soon after Yoon's inauguration.

Park did not attend the press conference, as he tested positive for COVID-19 after he returned from the U.S. trip.

For the unification minister post, Yoon selected PPP Rep. Kwon Young-se. Kwon is also a four-term lawmaker and served as Korea's ambassador to China from 2013 to 2015.

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Kwon is known as one of the closest aides to the president-elect, leading Yoon's campaign team during the election and now standing as the vice chairman of the presidential transition committee.

Initially, Kwon expressed his intention to turn down a ministerial post, but told reporters that Yoon asked him to take the job.

"Though I cannot tell you the details on how the ministry will do its job, I can say the ministry will make practical and reasonable decisions based on reasonable principles," he said.

Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Dae-ki is a former presidential chief of policy under ex-President Lee Myung-bak. He is an economic policy expert, serving most of his professional career in economy-related departments of the government or the presidential office.

What grabbed the public attention in Wednesday's announcement was justice minister nominee Han.

Han is a prosecutor and the vice president of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, but is better known for his close relationship with Yoon which dates back to when the president-elect was a prosecutor.

Along with Yoon, Han led the investigations into former Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak under the current Moon Jae-in administration, and served in key anti-corruption posts in the prosecution after Yoon was appointed as the prosecutor-general.

However, as Yoon locked horns with Moon over investigating the corruption scandals of former justice minister Cho Kuk, Han was also sent to posts at regional prosecutors' offices.

The prosecution last week decided not to indict Han over the allegation.

Yoon said Han is a perfect fit for justice minister, mentioning his extensive experience in the ministry and the prosecution.

He also pledged not to use justice minister's rights to control investigations on certain cases.

Meanwhile, figures close to presidential transition committee chairman Ahn Cheol-soo were not included on Wednesday's list. Ahn was Yoon's rival during the presidential election, but merged his campaign with him on condition of forming "a coalition government."

However, Ahn himself or figures close to him were exempt from the first and the second round of Cabinet nominations, triggering suspicion that their pledge of forming a coalition government was disrupted.