Moon replaces key senior aides to boost economy

Jun 27, 2018, 09:32 am

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Presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok announced the replacement of key senior aides at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday./ Source: Yonhap News

By AsiaToday reporter Joo Sung-sik

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday replaced key senior aides, hinting an intense drive for the economy, civil society and job creation. The changes are thought to reflect that Moon has accepted criticisms to some extent on income-led growth-oriented economic policy, and that the president is willing to produce tangible results by appointing new senior aides for economy policy.

In addition, Moon renamed the title of the current Social Innovation Chamber into Civil Society Chamber while appointing a new chief secretary who worked in a civic group, expressing his intention to expand communication with the general civil society.

Presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok revealed Tuesday that President Moon named Yoon Jong-won, the current chief of the South Korean mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the senior secretary for economic affairs and also named Jung Tae-ho, the presidential secretary for policy planning, the senior secretary for job creation.

The replacement of the president's top economic aides seems to reflect the Moon administration's crisis consciousness caused by worsening conditions in the job market despite its achievement in diplomacy and security sectors that raised the possibility of denuclearization and peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula.

In fact, the general and the youth unemployment rate came in at 4 percent and 10.5 percent respectively in May, marking the highest for the month since 2000. Jobless rate is quite shocking, considering the fact that the administration has focused on the related policies by selecting job creation as the top priority of the national affairs task since Moon took office.

In the same context, Im said that the replacement is to "create actual progress that people can feel by further accelerating the efforts to realize income-led growth and innovation-led growth in the second year of the administration." President Moon said in the beginning of the year, "We will put the improvement of the quality of life of citizens as the primary goal of national affairs to make changes so that citizens can personally feel changes in their lives."

Im emphasized that the newly appointed senior aides are both talented and experienced. "Chief secretary Yoon used to be a government official in the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. He has been stressing the importance of sustainable growth and a people-oriented economic paradigm," Im said. "He has a strong understanding of income-led growth and innovative growth, so he is the right person to implement the Moon administration's economic policy in general," he added.

According to Im, Jung is a policy specialist with experience in a political party and Cheong Wa Dae. "He will accelerate creating jobs, the core agenda of income-driven growth," Im said.

In the meantime, the president named Lee Yong-sun, a district chief of the ruling Democratic Party, a new senior secretary for civil society. "Based on his communication skills and policy-related experience accumulated over the past 30 years, we expect that Lee will expand the communication window of the government and lead the way to policy-making innovative and creative ideas suggested by various kinds of civil societies," Im said.

#Moon Jae-in #replacement #senior aides #economy #income-led growth