President Lee Jae-myung said on the 29th that ministries have been given autonomy over appointments at the director-general level and below, adding that they should "fully recognize their responsibility and do a good job of filling those posts with good people on their own."
Lee made the remarks at a Cabinet meeting held at the presidential compound, marking the first Cabinet session attended by his new ministers. "As former ministers would all know, the presidential office directly decides appointments at around the vice-ministerial level for each ministry, agency and commission, but for director-general-level posts and below, we follow the views of the working ministries as much as possible," he said. "When first, second and third choices are submitted, we let the ministry proceed according to that order wherever possible, as long as there are no problems with vetting."
He added that while advance reports are received in special cases for screening purposes even for lower-level posts, "that does not mean we intervene in the appointments." He continued, "Each ministry handles these on its own, but since that too appeared to draw comment, we switched to after-the-fact reporting, and they should have been notified that each ministry and agency instead takes responsibility for the outcome."
Lee also said the presidential office is "stepping back as much as possible from such working-level matters and focusing instead on gathering public opinion as widely as possible and having that public opinion newly reflected in each ministry and agency."
