Event and Exhibition Planning Expert... Graduate School Alumni with Kim Geon-hee
Opposition Criticizes "First Case of First Lady's Close Aide Appointment... Is It a Yoon-Kim Joint Government?"
Some Administrative Officers Recently Resign... Speculation on Partial Personnel Reshuffle in the Presidential Office
President Yoon Suk-yeol has appointed Kim Seung-hee as the acting Protocol Secretary, filling the vacant position.
According to the Blue House on the 16th, President Yoon appointed Secretary Kim Seung-hee on the 14th as the successor to former Protocol Secretary Kim Il-beom. This comes 36 days after former Secretary Kim Il-beom resigned on the 10th of last month.
The Blue House explained that Secretary Kim was officially appointed as acting Protocol Secretary to ensure smooth event management ahead of President Yoon's state visit to the United States scheduled for later this month.
Secretary Kim, a former CEO of an event agency, is an expert in event and exhibition planning. She has worked as a senior administrative officer in the Protocol Secretary’s office since the early days of President Yoon’s administration.
However, opposition parties have intensified criticism, citing her past connection with First Lady Kim Geon-hee as problematic. It is known that Secretary Kim and the First Lady completed the advanced course at Korea University Graduate School of Media in 2009 together.
Kang Sun-woo, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Korea, pointed out on the 15th, "This is likely the first case where a close associate of the First Lady has been appointed to the position responsible for the President’s domestic and international schedules and movements." Lee Soo-jin, the Democratic Party’s floor spokesperson, also criticized during a National Assembly briefing that day, saying, "By appointing the First Lady’s graduate school classmate as Protocol Secretary, the Protocol Secretary’s office has effectively become a 'second annex office.' It’s confusing who the President of the Republic of Korea really is. Is this a joint government of Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Geon-hee?"
There is speculation that personnel reshuffling within the Blue House has begun ahead of President Yoon’s first anniversary next month. Cheon Hyo-jung, a senior administrative officer who served as acting New Media Secretary and deputy spokesperson, recently tendered her resignation and was dismissed on the 14th.
Following changes in the diplomatic and security lines, some administrative officers from the spokesperson’s office under the Chief of Public Relations and the Office of External Cooperation Secretary have also left the Blue House. It is also reported that some administrative officers under other secretaries have recently submitted their resignations to the Blue House.
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