Will Ho-Young Chung be able to enter Cabinet?

Attention is focused on whether Jung’s will be appointed on the 12th.

May enter the Cabinet after the Deputy Prime Minister Choo Kyung-ho gains the power to recommend appointments

Democratic Party of Korea plans to press charges against the nominee under allegations of illegal acts

With the inauguration of the new administration on the 10th, whether the Health and Welfare Minister nominee Ho-Young Chung will be able to enter President Yoon’s Cabinet is now at a crossroads.

 

Industry experts expect that the nominee will be appointed today (12th) after the Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho starts his role as Deputy Prime Minister.

 

If President Suk-Yeol Yoon does not remove the nominee from the list of appointments, then Chung is expected to ascend to the ministerial position regardless of the NA’s personnel hearing report.

 

However, there remains a possibility that he will be excluded from the list of appointments due to continued opinion on Chung’s inappropriacy within the People Power Party, the Democratic Party’s voluntary resignation request and they plan to press charges.

 

The industry expects the appointment results to come out on the 12th because Prime Minister Bu-kyum Kim’s term ended at midnight on the 11th, after which Deputy Prime Minister Choo is given the authority to recommend appointments.

 

Minister nominees are appointed upon the recommendation of appointment by the Prime Minister, therefore, the term of the Deputy Prime Minister Choo needs to first start sequentially appointing the Cabinet members that the opposition party criticized to be incompetent.

 

President Yoon needs Chung’s appointment to meet the quorum of 15 Ministers required to hold the first cabinet meeting and deal with the supplementary budget bill for COVID-19.

 

Therefore, the president is expected to fill out the quorum with the 7 Ministers that he appointed beforehand, additional appointments made immediately before the Cabinet meeting, and Ministers from the previous administration.

 

Pushing Chung’s appointment ahead will intensify the conflict between the ruling and opposition party, as the personnel hearing report for Chung was not accepted due to the collective exit of Democratic Party members during the personnel hearing.

 

The Democratic Party of Korea plans to file a complaint against Chung on allegations of his two children's transfer to Kyungpook Medical University and his son's military service exemption decision.

 

The Democratic Party of Korea has been urging the president to drop Chung’s appointment, referring to Chung as an ‘evader and breaker of laws.’ An official from the NA Health and Welfare Committee who is a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, said, “Chung should be the first candidate to be dropped.

 

If the president pushes ahead with the appointment despite the disruption shown at the hearing without adopting the personnel hearing report, the government will not be able to avoid conflict with the National Assembly for a while.

 

I understand that there is strong opposition to appointing nominee Chung even within the People Power Party.

 

Even if he enters the Cabinet, it is questionable whether he will be able to properly serve as the Minister of Health and Welfare.”