President Yoon on Reshuffling His Staff, "Plan to Make Careful, Practical and Substantial Changes"

President Yoon Suk-yeol answers questions from the press in front of the Office of the President building in Yongsan, Seoul on August 16, the eve of his 100th day in office. Office of the President press photographers

On August 16, the eve of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s 100th day in office, the president spoke on reshuffling the staff in the Office of the President and said, “The reforms are for the people, and I plan to make careful, practical and substantial changes.”

This morning, on his way to work at the presidential office in Yongsan, President Yoon met with reporters, and when a reporter asked about changes to the presidential staff, the president said, “Ultimately, changes should be made to properly tend to the people’s livelihood and carefully secure the people’s safety. I don’t think it is something that should be done after calculating the political gains and losses.”

President Yoon added, “We have been working frantically on various issues since the inauguration, but I have been considering a few things since my vacation.”

As for his silence on the comfort women victims in the Japanese military and measures to restore damages in his congratulatory address the previous day, the president said, “I have been deeply pondering several measures since before the launch of our government,” and explained, “I mentioned the general direction and did not go into details (in my congratulatory address), but you can say that it was all included in the purpose. The comfort women issue is also a problem of basic human rights and universal values.”

This afternoon President Yoon will meet Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. President Yoon described Gates as a person who worked hard to give people in poor countries fair access to vaccines and added, “We plan to discuss justice in health care with Chairman Bill Gates to help global citizens facing economic challenges defend and expand their freedom from diseases.”

The president also spoke about government measures in response to the continuing downpour and said, “The rain has moved south and is causing great damage in western Chungcheongnam-do and the nation.” He explained that he had instructed related public officials to thoroughly check the damages and swiftly provide support and recovery measures since many houses were flooded and crops were injured. The president went on to explain that the ground was soft in the Seoul metropolitan area and the central region due to the continuing rains and stated that the government was doing its utmost to prevent landslides.