SEOUL, July 28 (UPI) -- South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has completed a new lineup of his security team, installing his aides to key posts, which set the stage for his much-touted reform of the military.
Roh on Wednesday appointed his adviser for defense affairs, Yoon Kwang-ung, as defense minister, replacing Cho Young-kil, who was under fire after a recent military scandal involving a misleading report on a naval standoff with North Korea.
Presidential aides said the replacement was aimed at pushing for the scandal-hit military and seeking a "cooperative self-defense system" with Washington, in a departure from the country's decades-long reliance on the U.S. security umbrella.
"The incoming defense minister was selected because he came to share President Roh's understanding of national defense and reform of the military, while serving as the presidential aide for defense affairs for six months," Jeong Chan-yong, senior presidential aide for personnel affairs, told a press conference.
Yoon, who had served as Roh's senior aide for defense affairs since January, has been considered as a flag-bearer of the reform campaign on the military. A graduate of the same high school as Roh in the southern port city of Busan, Yoon is loyal to Roh and his military reform drive.
Yoon is the first graduate of the Korea Naval Academy to become defense minister in more than 40 years since 1953. Most of previous defense ministers were graduates of the Korea Military Academy. The country's military system is controlled by a strict hierarchy among elite Army generals.
"Yoon is expected to reform the Army-dominated military by boosting the status of Navy and Air Forces," a government official said on condition of anonymity. Yoon has served as the Navy's vice chief of staff and chief fleet operations officer.
The military has suffered from corruption scandals, particularly involving big-ticket arms procurement deals. "Military reform efforts would focus on the arms procurement projects," the official said.
Wednesday's minor Cabinet reshuffle, which also affected Justice and Trade ministers, came less than one month after Roh appointed his close aide as the chief North Korea policymaker.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young, former chairman of Roh's Uri Party, is a longtime Roh loyalist and an advocate of the president's policy of peaceful engagement with North Korea.
Chung, who campaigned for Roh's election to the presidency in December 2002, is widely viewed as a potential ruling party candidate for presidential elections in 2007. The cabinet post will help groom Chung for the presidential race, offering him the high-profile post.
Roh has also named his adviser for foreign policy as foreign minister earlier this year in an effort to reform the ministry that criticized Roh's policy to seek independence from the United States. Ban Ki-moon has replaced Yoon Young-kwan, a U.S.-educated scholar who had called for closer ties with the United States as a strategic thinking.
The country's intelligence chief, Ko Young-koo, was also handpicked last year by Roh to reform the National Intelligence Service, which has long been accused of political maneuvering and human right abuses. Ko, 65, was the head of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, a powerful reformist lawyers' group. Roh, former human right lawyer, also was a member of the group.
Roh's reform drive on the military was caused by a recent naval standoff with North Korea. Outgoing Defense Minister Cho had been under pressure to quit since the confrontation, which angered President Roh, who is seeking reconciliation with the communist neighbor. Cho apologized for "causing trouble to the people and the president" on Tuesday and offered to resign to take responsibility for the scandal.
A three-star army general in charge of intelligence at the Joint Chiefs of Staff was sacked on Monday for mishandling the naval confrontation with North Korea earlier this month
Lt. Gen. Park Sung-Choon, head of the defense intelligence agency at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was accused of leaking sensitive information about the South's reaction to the North's violation of the disputed inter-Korean maritime border.
On July 14, South Korean navy ships fired warning shots to drive away a North Korean patrol boat that had intruded into southern territorial waters. In its report on the incident, the South Korea's navy and Joint Chiefs of Staff omitted to note that ship-to-ship radio contact between the two Koreas had taken place at the time of the confrontation.
In the face of angry response by the presidential office, Park disclosed to the media the contents of the radio exchanges in a bid to justify the South Korean navy's warning shots at an intruding North Korean patrol boat.
Park said he had hoped to show that North Korea had sought to mislead the South Korean navy by claiming that the intruding North Korean naval vessel was a Chinese fishing boat.
The shooting incident came after the two Koreas agreed last month to open radio contact between their navies to prevent accidental clashes near the disputed maritime border, the key to military tension reduction across the border.
North Korea protested the shooting incident, boycotting military talks scheduled for July 19. The military meeting was to review progress on the dismantlement of loudspeakers and other propaganda apparatus along the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas.
President Roh was angered by the shooting incident and the military's failure to report it to the presidential office. He punished top military brass involved in the scandal.
But the ruling party called for tough reforms of the military, describing the incident as an "outright challenge" to the reform-minded Roh's leadership by conservative military brass trained under "past military governments."
"President Roh is expected to use the incident as a momentum to launch delayed reforms on the military," said a defense analyst who requested anonymity. "As part of reform efforts, he is expected to overhaul the military leadership, replacing key posts, including chiefs of staff in the Army, Navy and Air Forces," he said.
