YOON COMPLETES CABINET FORMATION

[Anchor Lead]

President-elect named yesterday the nominees for the Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister and Employment and Labor Minister, completing the incoming government’s first cabinet. He claims to have looked at their capabilities and expertise, yet he failed to keep his promise of nominating ministers in their 30s.

[Pkg]

Former Rural Development Administration chief Chung Hwang-keun, a former official under the Park Geun-hye administration, was picked as the agriculture minister. The President-elect picked former secretary general of the Korea Labor and Employment Service Lee Jung-sik as labor minister. Lee had worked for the Federation of Korean Trade Unions for more than 20 years. With that, Yoon’s cabinet appointments were completed 36 days after the presidential election. He claims to have picked them solely based on their capabilities and expertise.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President-elect) : "I tried my best to name those who would most benefit the people."

Here is an overview of the nineteen nominees – Prime Minister and eighteen ministers. By hometown, the Yeongnam region produced the most number of nominees with seven, followed by four each from Seoul and the Chungcheong area. No one from Gwangju or the Jeollanam-do Province was tapped. There are only three female nominees. Looking at alma maters, ten nominees graduated from Seoul National University and four from Korea University. Out of those ten SNU graduates, Han Dong-hoon, Lee Sang-min, Won Hee-ryong, Park Jin and Kwon Young-se attended SNU law school, the same as the President-elect. The nominees’ average age is 60.6, with Han Duck-soo being the oldest at 73 and Han Dong-hoon the youngest at 49. More than half of the nominees are men in their 60s who graduated from Seoul National University. Contrary to Yoon's promise, there were no minister appointments from those in their 30s.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President-elect (last Dec.)) : "I believe there will be not just one or two ministers in their 30s, but several."

Meanwhile, not a single person from the Presidential Transition Committee chair Ahn Cheol-soo’s party was included in the nominee pool.