A 25-Year-Old College Student Becomes Cheongwadae Secretary

[경향신문]

Park Seong-min, Kim Han-kyu

On June 21, President Moon Jae-in chose Park Seong-min, a university student who was born in 1996 and who formerly served as a member of the Democratic Party of Korea’s Supreme Council, as the Cheongwadae secretary for young people-related matters and chose attorney Kim Han-kyu from the law firm Kim & Chang as his secretary for political affairs. After Lee Jun-seok was elected leader of the People Power Party, the opposition drew the interest of young voters. And the president’s bold choices seem intended to attract young people in their twenties and thirties.

Park is twenty-five this year. She studied Korean literature at Kangnam University but transferred to Korea University and is currently studying in the school’s Department of Korean Language and Literature. She entered politics as a steering committee member of the Democratic Party’s National College Student Council and went on to serve as the party’s youth spokesperson, head of the youth task force, a member of the Supreme Council, and co-chair of a joint meeting on young people and the future. She will be the youngest secretary in the Moon Jae-in government, and reportedly will request a temporary absence from school to serve as Cheongwadae secretary. Cheongwadae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said in a press briefing, “We expect her to better understand the challenges young people face from their position and to create and coordinate policies by communicating with the young people.”

Kim Han-kyu (48), the new secretary for political affairs, graduated from the Department of Political Science at Seoul National University and earned a master’s from Harvard Law School. He served as the legal spokesperson for the Democratic Party. He sought to represent Gangnam District 3 (byeong) in Seoul in the parliamentary elections last year, but was unsuccessful.

The secretary for political affairs is a position that needs to communicate with ruling and opposition politicians, and was generally occupied by former lawmakers, but Kim has no parliamentary experience. In the past, he appeared on the same TV show with Lee Cheol-hee, senior Cheongwadae secretary for political affairs, and People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok. A key Cheongwadae official said, “There is an opposition party leader with no experience in the National Assembly,” and added, “Kim has played his part in the party and is accepted as a man with a keen sense for political affairs.” President Moon’s choice of secretaries for young people-related matters and political affairs appears to reflect the determination to approach the twenty and thirty-somethings.

Earlier shortly after the April 7 by-elections, Cheongwadae launched a youth task force with Lee Cheol-hee as the leader. Cheongwadae decided to put the secretary for young people-related affairs, a position that was under the senior secretary for civil society, under the senior secretary for political affairs to better coordinate policies concerning young people. The task force is expected to release the results of its work soon based on the discussions so far.

The president chose Lee Seung-bok, director of education safety and information at the Ministry of Education as his secretary for education. Lee graduated from the Department of Education at Yonsei University and served as director general of the University Affairs and Academic Research Policy Bureau at the education ministry and as the ministry’s spokesperson. He was also in charge of university support and policy planning after passing the 35th civil service examination for grade-5 civil servants.