Anchor: Nearly three weeks after taking office, President Lee Jae-myung has released a list of eleven Cabinet minister nominees, including his picks to head the ministries in charge of national defense, diplomacy and inter-Korean relations.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: President Lee Jae Myung has announced the names of eleven Cabinet minister nominees.

According to presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik on Monday, five-term Rep. Ahn Gyu-back of the ruling Democratic Party(DP), who has long served on the parliamentary defense committee, was nominated to the defense minister post.

The chief of staff said Ahn, the first defense minister nominee in 64 years to come from a civilian background, is expected to lead change within the military after it was mobilized for martial law on December 3.

President Lee would like five-term DP Rep. Chung Dong-young to return to his former post as unification minister, which he previously held in the Roh Moo-hyun administration.

The president also tapped former Permanent Representative to the United Nations Cho Hyun as foreign minister.

Bae Kyung-hoon, head of LG AI research, is the science minister nominee, while Kwon Oh-eul, a former lawmaker from the conservative party, formerly called the Grand National Party, has been nominated as veterans minister.

DP Reps. Kim Sung-whan, Kang Sun-woo and Chun Jae-soo were tapped to serve as environment minister, gender equality minister and oceans minister, respectively.

Former Naver CEO Han Seong-sook was named to head the small and midsize enterprises ministry, and Kim Young-hoon, former head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, is the labor minister nominee.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung was retained, with the presidential chief of staff attributing the decision to her achievements and capabilities, reflecting the Lee government’s pragmatic approach.

Yoon Chang-yul, chief of LG’s global strategy center, who had previously served as vice minister of government policy coordination, was selected as Lee’s first minister of the office for government policy coordination.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.