"Just because people who like the color blue have gained power, they cannot turn society entirely blue. Nor does the color red lose its qualification as a member of the community. (Cabinet meeting on December 30, 2025)"
This remark, which President Lee Jae-myung left at a Cabinet meeting last year, best illustrates the appointment philosophy of the Lee Jae-myung government. It reaffirmed that the moment one becomes president, one must be "everyone's president" rather than the representative of a particular camp, and it restated a pragmatic policy of impartial appointments that prioritizes ability and results over political color.
Indeed, since taking office, President Lee has consistently attempted unity appointments that cut across conservative and progressive lines. He retained Song Mi-ryung, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs appointed under the Yoon Suk-yeol government, and tapped Kwon O-eul, a three-term lawmaker from the Grand National Party, as Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs. Kim Sung-sik, vice chairman of the National Economic Advisory Council, and Huh Eun-a, secretary for national unity, are also examples of appointments made across camp lines.
Song Mi-ryung, Kwon O-eul, Kim Sung-sik, Huh Eun-a... Unity Appointments Sailing Smoothly
Then, early this year, the failed nomination of Lee Hye-hoon as Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination began to shake the unity appointments. Early in the administration, Kang Jun-wook, secretary for national unity at the Presidential Office, resigned just a week after his appointment when it was revealed that he had defended the December 3 emergency martial law in a past book. More recently, Lee Byoung-tae, former vice chairman of the Regulatory Rationalization Committee, stepped down after remarking that "May 18 has become a sanctuary."
With writer Rhyu Si-min's so-called "reconstruction theory" also emerging, skepticism about unity appointments themselves has grown in some quarters of the ruling bloc. In political circles, assessments such as "unity appointments really are difficult" or "pragmatic appointments have failed" have surfaced.
Kang Jun-wook, Lee Hye-hoon, Lee Byoung-tae... Appointments That Threw Cold Water on Unity
But if the success cases are examined alongside them, it is difficult to conclude that unity appointments themselves have failed.
Minister Song Mi-ryung was retained despite the change of government, recognized for her expertise and policy continuity, and is carrying out her role stably. Minister Kwon O-eul, too, draws more attention as a minister responsible for veterans affairs administration than for the fact that he comes from a conservative political background. Secretary Huh Eun-a is likewise focusing on her own role of national unity and keeping her distance from political controversy.
What these figures have in common is clear. After entering public office, they concentrated on carrying out their assigned duties rather than putting their political identities front and center.
The Standard That Separated Success and Failure... The Politically Charged "Pundit" Identity
The failure cases, by contrast, showed a different picture.
What former vice chairman Lee Byoung-tae and former secretary Kang Jun-wook have in common is not their conservative leanings themselves, but the fact that even after entering public office they still failed to shed the identity of a political pundit.
Former vice chairman Lee Byoung-tae was an economist and a regulatory reform expert, but he continued to express strong opinions on political and social issues through social media and press interviews, and in the end the image of a political pundit was etched more strongly than that of a regulatory expert.
Above all, public servants must share the goal of erecting a building—whether an extension, reconstruction, or redevelopment—with all these materials. There are still more success cases than to conclude that unity appointments have failed. The work of broadly appointing figures who share a basic understanding of and sense of responsibility toward the community, democracy, and the constitutional order, and who are strong in self-restraint, must continue.
Former secretary Kang Jun-wook, too, unlike his post of national unity, revealed strong political positions on martial law and the constitutional order through his book, and his personal ideological identity was highlighted before his performance in public office, leading to his downfall.
The case of former nominee Lee Hye-hoon differs in character from controversies over historical awareness or political remarks. But the symbolism of appointing an incumbent conservative politician was consumed before her economic expertise and policy capabilities, and in the end there is an aspect in which she began as a symbol of unity appointments and ended as a burden of unity appointments.
In the end, what separated success and failure was not a matter of conservative versus progressive. The decisive difference lay in whether one remained a politically charged pundit even after becoming a public servant.
For a politician, the more they reveal their own color and arguments, the greater their presence grows. A public servant, by contrast, is evaluated when they embody their assigned duties and the government's governing philosophy rather than their political identity. As shown above, the success cases were evaluated by their public service capabilities and policy achievements rather than their political backgrounds.
Conversely, in the failure cases, political self-expression stood out before their role as public servants. Through social media activity, public remarks, and press interviews, they actively expressed personal opinions on social issues, and as a result the public could not help but perceive them as political pundits rather than policy officials.
A Public Servant's "Restraint and Sense of Responsibility"... The Key to Unity Appointments
In the end, the standard that determines the success or failure of the Lee Jae-myung government's unity appointments is not conservative versus progressive. What matters more is whether there is shared understanding of the community's basic values of democracy and constitutional order, whether one has self-restraint and a sense of responsibility as a public servant, and whether one can prioritize one's assigned duties over one's political identity.
The more political polarization deepens, the greater the need for unity appointments becomes. What is needed, therefore, is to refine the formula for successful unity appointments more precisely. As President Lee has always stressed, "cement, gravel, sand and water must be mixed together to make concrete."
