Presidential Office: "Not a Series of Diplomatic and Security Line Replacements for Specific Individuals... Building the Strongest Team"

'Yoon Sunbae' Clarifies Personnel Move for Kim Yonghyun
"Not Excluding Diplomatic Line... Building the Strongest Team"

Kim Yong-hyun, the newly nominated Minister of National Defense and Chief of the Presidential Security Service, is attending a personnel briefing held on the 12th at the Yongsan Presidential Office building in Seoul, listening to the announcement by Jeong Jin-seok, Chief of Staff to the President.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Presidential Office explained the claims that it suddenly and consecutively replaced key diplomatic and security personnel to appoint Kim Yong-hyun, head of the Presidential Security Service, as Minister of National Defense as "baseless claims," stating that it was "to build the strongest team for diplomacy and defense."

A Presidential Office official met with reporters at the Yongsan Presidential Office on the afternoon of the 14th and said, "Reports that personnel changes were made consecutively to appoint someone are absurd claims."

Earlier, President Yoon Suk-yeol appointed Kim Yong-hyun, head of the Presidential Security Service, as the new Minister of National Defense, and Shin Won-sik as the new Director of the National Security Office on the 12th. The former Director of the National Security Office, Jang Ho-jin, was appointed as the inaugural Special Advisor for Foreign Affairs and Security.

Subsequently, some criticized that President Yoon replaced the National Security Office chief after seven months and the Minister of National Defense after ten months, enduring criticism to favor Kim Yong-hyun, who is one year senior to him at Chung-Ang High School. In particular, there were voices claiming that the appointment of Special Advisor Jang Ho-jin was a dismissal.

In response, a Presidential Office official explained, "The Special Advisor for Foreign Affairs and Security was newly established upon the President's order to carry out strategic tasks related to core national interests," adding, "The revision of the Presidential Secretariat organization was approved at yesterday's Cabinet meeting, and the appointment was made today. (Special Advisor Jang) has started working in a temporary office on the 7th floor and will later have an office prepared in the Security Service building."

He further explained, "The Special Advisor will operate appropriately according to the President's instructions, like former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and a special team will be separately formed," adding, "They will receive full support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others."

The Presidential Office official reiterated, "Currently, the Director of the National Intelligence Service is also a career diplomat, and this is a plan to operate the diplomatic line more efficiently, not the exclusion of the diplomatic line as some claim."

He added, "The Special Advisor will soon depart on an overseas trip to visit major countries, and frequent overseas trips will continue."

National Security Office Director Shin Won-sik (right) and Defense Secretary Choi Byung-ok are discussing at a luncheon for descendants of independence activists held on the 14th at the Blue House State Guesthouse.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding the appointments of candidate Kim Yong-hyun and Director Shin Won-sik, the official explained, "We have built the strongest line in defense."

The Presidential Office official said, "Candidate Kim Yong-hyun is highly trusted by the public and has a strong sense of national and North Korea policies to the extent that former National Security Office Director Kim Kwan-jin, who is most feared in North Korea, highly recommended him."

In response to questions suggesting that the timing was inappropriate due to the sudden personnel changes causing Director Shin Won-sik to concurrently serve as both National Security Office Director and Minister of National Defense, he said, "Looking at the crises in the Middle East and Europe now, the reason for the timing will become clear. You can see it as Special Advisor Jang Ho-jin forming a special team to focus more on tasks directly related to national interests."