S. Korean Cabinet Shakeup: Unifiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok Will Resign; Defense, Foreign Ministers Will Also Step Down

Reuters Photo:   UniFiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon at the National Assembly, Oct. 6, 2006.

[Scroll down for updates]   Roh has not confirmed that he will accept the resignation of the UniFiction Minister who replaced Comrade Chung Dong-Young. 

Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok was soon expected to confirm his intention to step down during a meeting with reporters, according to the officials.

With Lee’s resignation, if accepted, the president is expected to reshuffle all of his security-related ministers, as Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung offered to step down earlier in the week.

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon is also expected to step down from his Cabinet post following his recent appointment as the next United Nations Secretary-General.

The resignation looks to be another case of nuclear fallout.  Lee was a key architect of South Korea’s  neutralist policy.  He was also one of the most slippery and mendacious characters in the recent  history of Korean politics.  Prediction:  Don’t count Lee out.  Unlike Chung,  Lee is no damned fool.  The man is conniving enough to  see the wisdom in  a strategic retreat from a 9% approval rating.

Is the Sunshine Policy finally dead?  Well, by any measure, it should be, but there is no bottom to Roh’s impulse to appease.

Update 1:   Robert Koehler notes that Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung, a relative moderate, is also out.  Worse, Ban’s likely replacement is none other than this anti-American fool, Song Min-Soon.  If selected, Song would be the first Korean cabinet official to earn both an informal  diplomatic protest and his own DOA post before even being nominated.  Again, I ask:  what kind of alliance can you form with people like this? 

Update 2:   More on the U.S. reaction to Song’s remarks, here.  As one who has served in Korea with the U.S. military, I would take it as a personal insult for Korea to nominate this dime-store demagogue as its top diplomat.  I suspect I speak for a good many others who have also served there.  It would be a bad moment for the alliance indeed.

Update 3:   The Chosun Ilbo quotes Lee on his rationale.  Lee also says that Roh will accept his resignation:

“With North Korea’s recent nuclear test, all my efforts and achievements in securing the peninsula and bringing North and South closer have been thrown on the chopping block, and in a situation that is fast becoming political warfare, I feel there is a need for someone with more ability than me to come and conquer the problems we face,” Lee told reporters. “I understand that President Roh will be accommodating my request.

In other words, Lee’s policies have been a raging success:

“I think there were no great mistakes made in the process of carrying through our North Korean policy, and I am confident in the successes brought about by our policy of engaging the North,” Lee said.

Lee will be celebrating  the successes that led to his resignation  at the Sejong Institute.  Maybe with all that time on his hands, he’ll be able to name one of them. 

I have more sympathy for Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-Ung, who often seemed to be exasperated and sidelined  by  the nutters in  the Roh cabinet.

At dinner with Roh after briefing him on his trip to Washington for the SCM on Monday afternoon, Yoon reportedly said he felt his job was done. During his two years and three months in office, Yoon focused on military reforms to reduce troop strength from 680,000 to about 500,000 by 2020, shift the focus of the military structure from manpower to technology and exercise sole wartime operational control of the nation’s troops.

In fact, Yoon came back from Washington empty-handed.  We are still where we were on operational control, with the Koreans wanting a 2012 handover and the Americans saying 2009.  The only “agreement” Yoon and Rumsfeld reached is that the date will be between those two points.  And as I noted here, Yoon did not get an enhanced warning of American nuclear protection, something that led to an exceptionally awkward moment at a joint news conference.  Yoon seems to have been  drained of power by  made-for-TV-drama palace  intrigues that put him between his officers on one side, and  the  power-hungry young  Blue House Boxers  on the other.

Update 4:   More bad news for Roh:  he appears to have lost two more bi-elections. 

Update 5:   The new National Assembly will have 141 GNP members, 127 Uri, 12 Democrats, and 19 others, out of 299 total. 

Update 6:   “Speculation is rising that Kim Seung-kyu, the head of the National Intelligence Service, will also leave his post.”