President Park Geun-hye on Thursday nominated Justice Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn as prime minister. If the National Assembly approves the nomination, Hwang will fill the post left vacant following the resignation of Lee Wan-koo in late April as he faced allegations that he took 30 million won from a businessman who killed himself. Lee, who barely passed his National Assembly confirmation hearing, earned the ignominy of being one of Korea’s shortest-serving prime ministers.
It must not have been an easy task to come up with yet another nominee for the post of prime minister. Park suffered the humility of having three of her prime minister nominees not make it to office. Nitpicking by the National Assembly is frequently blamed for the fiascos, but more often than not, the nominees themselves suffered from significant flaws ― most having to do with ethical lapses and in one case a controversial perspective on history ― so much so that passing close scrutiny of a confirmation hearing unscathed would have been something of a feat.
In nominating Hwang, Park chose someone who has already been vetted by the National Assembly. This significantly lessens the possibility that the upcoming confirmation hearing will unearth some new detrimental issues, boosting the chances that Hwang would receive parliamentary approval.
As expected, Park chose for her next prime minister someone from the legal profession. In fact, Park appears to favor former prosecutors as her close aides, as was the case of former Blue House chief of staff Kim Ki-choon. Such favoritism, in turn, seems to stem from her belief that legal professionals are astute and resolute. In announcing the nomination, the Blue House said that Hwang was the right person to fight corruption and carry out political reform.
However, Hwang’s specialty in applying National Security Law during his 30-year career as a prosecutor will prove problematic in his confirmation hearing, as progressives have consistently called for the scrapping of the law, which they claim is liable to being exploited to suppress opposition. It is not difficult to predict that the confirmation hearing will be less than smooth.
Indeed, the major opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy immediately criticized the nomination as a failure to meet the people’s expectations for a prime minister who would unify the people. The party also described Hwang’s nomination as a declaration that Park intends a draconian rule with Hwang as the prime minister. The opposition may not find much in the way of ethical lapses in the case of Hwang, but it is assured that the opposition will try to block his appointment by mining his track record as justice minister.
