Park completes transition team in S. Korea

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SEOUL, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye selected her transition team with an eye to national unity, a spokesman said Saturday.

Yoon Chang-jung told reporters critics who say the team is too heavily weighted toward the right are speaking "for opposition's sake," Yonhap news agency reported.

The daughter of Park Chung-hee, an Army general who came to power in a 1961 coup and ruled for 18 years, Park was the candidate of the conservative Saenuri Party.

Park's final appointments to her team, announced Friday, included former Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo, who is responsible for foreign affairs, security and North Korean policy. She also said she will send Rep. Rhee In-je to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as her representative.

"It is an undeniable and objective fact that President-elect Park Geun-hye was very meticulous in naming personnel for the transition team with a basic philosophy for national unity," Yoon said.

Park's five-year term begins Feb. 25.