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S. Korea unveils new Cabinet
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- New President Roh Moo-hyun's first Cabinet has retained the chief North Korea policymaker and appointed South Korea's first female justice minister. The new team's chief goals will be to resolve the crisis over North Korea's nuclear activities and reshape an alliance with the United States, South Korea's chief ally. U.S. officials said late Wednesday that North Korea had restarted a nuclear reactor at the heart of a suspected nuclear weapons program. (Full story) The presidential Blue House said Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun, a key architect of former President Kim Dae-jung's policy of engaging the North, would stay in his post. Kang Gum-sil, a 46-year-old female lawyer, was named justice minister. She is several years younger than senior prosecutors. Traditionally, South Korean governments have been male-dominated and have promoted officials based on their seniority. Yoon Young-kwan, who was appointed foreign minister, is a professor and political scientist at the prestigious Seoul National University, but he has little diplomatic experience. He served on Roh's government transition team and was a key adviser on national security during Roh's election campaign last year. The new defense minister is Cho Young-kil, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His job is to oversee South Korea's 650,000-strong armed forces, which face a much larger North Korean force across the world's most militarized border. Lee Chang-dong, a film director who campaigned for Roh, became culture and tourism minister. Goh Kun, a 65-year-old former mayor of Seoul, took office as prime minister earlier Thursday after the opposition-dominated National Assembly approved his nomination a day earlier. Goh has held gubernatorial, mayoral and Cabinet posts under past military rule and was prime minister in 1997-98 under conservative President Kim Young-sam. Roh has already filled some key presidential posts with politicians, scholars and civic activists who were largely considered outsiders. Some were former student activists during the country's past military rule. Roh, 56, vows to bring South Korea a bigger role in resolving the North Korean nuclear dispute, but North Korea has dismissed Seoul's appeals that it give up its nuclear ambitions, and wants to deal only with the United States. Washington insists it will not reward the North for such recalcitrance. Blunt commentsYoon, the new foreign minister, stirred controversy in early February when he told a seminar in Washington that many young South Koreans "favored a North Korea armed with nuclear weapons over its collapse, which could trigger a war on the Korean Peninsula." During his campaign, Roh endeared himself to young voters by saying he would not "kowtow" to the Americans. After his election, Roh said he would not go along with the United States, his country's No. 1 ally, if Washington planned to attack the North because of its nuclear development. His blunt comments were a sharp departure from those of past South Korean leaders, who generally were in line with U.S. policy toward North Korea. The opposition accuses Roh of endangering relations with the United States. Washington has repeatedly said it has no plans to invade the North, preferring a peaceful solution of the nuclear standoff. But it says it leaves all options open. One the eve of Roh's inauguration, North Korea test-fired a missile off the peninsula's eastern coast. At home, Roh is constrained by the opposition Grand National Party that holds a majority of legislative seats and demands that Seoul be tougher on North Korea. Roh is a self-taught lawyer who lacks experience in international affairs. He worked once as maritime affairs minister. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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