FORMATION OF YOON'S CABINET

[Anchor Lead]

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration has officially launched but prospects are still unclear regarding the formation of his Cabinet. Out of 19 Cabinet nominees including the prime minister, confirmation hearing reports have been adopted for only 7 of them. There is speculation the new administration will push ahead with the appointment of some nominees amid the lack of progress in hearing procedures.

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Prime minister nominee Han Duck-soo completed his parliamentary hearing on May 3. But it’s still unclear when a motion for his appointment will be introduced to a plenary session. Hearing reports have been adopted for seven nominees, less than half of what’s needed for 18 Cabinet posts. At least 15 ministers must be present for a Cabinet meeting to take place. Therefore President Yoon Suk-yeol is considering pushing ahead with the appointment of five nominees for whom requests have been made for parliament to send over their hearing reports. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum who remains in office until midnight Wednesday, the 11th, is likely to make the move of recommending the appointment of Cabinet members who are cleared by parliament. Then, newly appointed deputy prime minister Choo Kyung-ho, in the capacity as acting prime minister, is likely to recommend the appointment of other nominees who are not yet confirmed by parliament. Even if this scenario plays out, three more officials, that is at least 15 Cabinet members in total are necessary to satisfy the quorum for decision making. It appears inevitable that ministers of the Moon Jae-in administration will end up attending the new government’s Cabinet meeting. The People Power Party which is now the ruling bloc is urging the now opposition Democratic Party to hasten confirmation hearing procedures so that a Cabinet meeting on Thursday can approve a bill on providing compensation to small businesses hit by pandemic restrictions.

[Soundbite] Kweon Seong-dong(Floor Leader, People Power Party) : "The DP should at the least let the new gov’t work. Any further move to prevent this from happening will only cause backlash in public sentiment."

The Democratic Party maintains a hawkish stance, vowing to bring charges against nominees for health and land minister posts.

[Soundbite] Park Hong-keun(Floor Leader, Democratic Party) : "The DP has no way to block unilateral, self-righteous decisions made by the president who holds the right to personnel appointments. But Minister nominees clearly implicated in illegal allegations must be held accountable."

However the DP is keeping tabs on public opinion because if the hearing process is prolonged, it will be seen as preventing the full-fledged operation of the new administration.