[Reporter’s Notebook] Merit-Based Appointments and Behind-the-Scenes Unity... No New Faces

"We selected and verified candidates based on whether they are the best people to take charge and lead their respective fields for the country and its people."

Although President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol announced the first ministerial nominees for the new government on the 10th, the reaction inside the Tongui-dong press conference room in Seoul was mostly "as expected." This is because the appointments did not significantly deviate from Yoon’s usual philosophy of merit-based personnel selection.

The reasons for the ministerial appointments are also straightforward and understandable. The nominee for Minister of Health and Welfare, former director of Kyungpook National University Hospital Jeong Ho-young, who established the COVID-19 response system at a tertiary hospital during the early stages of the pandemic, and the nominee for Minister of Science and ICT, Lee Jong-ho, director of the Seoul National University Semiconductor Joint Research Center and a world-renowned authority in the semiconductor field, have already been validated purely on their capabilities.

However, the "as expected" evaluation also carries a heavy dose of concern. There is a looming fear that the code-based appointments, which were consistently criticized during the Moon Jae-in administration, might be repeated in Yoon Seok-yeol’s new government. The personnel appointments confined to a specific group began as early as the Presidential Transition Committee. The committee members were criticized for being composed of Seo-o-nam (Seoul National University graduates, men in their 50s).

Going further, most of the ministerial nominees are acquaintances of President-elect Yoon, people he met after starting his political career, or former members of his campaign and special advisory teams. There is also criticism of a concentration of candidates from Gyeongnam (Gyeongsang Province, men in their 60s). Except for nominees Kim Hyun-sook (Chungbuk), Won Hee-ryong (Jeju), and Park Bo-gyun (Seoul), all other nominees hail from Yeongnam. Their average age is 60.5 years, and seven of them are men.

The merit-based appointments seem to imply a lack of freshness. Yoon’s personnel philosophy of "no quotas or balancing" should mean a plan to "find hidden masters," not just appoint close associates. It is hoped that President-elect Yoon remembers the public’s "Wow" reaction when President Moon Jae-in appointed him as the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in 2017, when he was previously stuck in a minor post.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.