The economy is continuing to slump in South Korea and President Moon appears to be trying to show he is doing something to address it:
Hong Nam-ki, chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, speaks to reporters at his office on Nov. 9, 2018, after his nomination as the new finance minister. (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in sacked the finance minister and his chief policy adviser Friday after the two top economic policymakers openly displayed a serious rift over how to handle the slumping economy.
Moon named Hong Nam-ki, an economic technocrat who is currently serving as chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination under the Prime Minister’s Office, to replace Kim Dong-yeon as finance minister and deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Cheong Wa Dae said.
Moon also sacked Jang Ha-sung, presidential chief of staff for policy, and named his senior social affairs secretary Kim Soo-hyun to succeed him. Jang is the architect of Moon’s trademark “income-led” growth policy.
Kim and Jang have publicly displayed wide differences over how to revitalize the sluggish economy, with Kim voicing a need to alter the “income-led” growth policy and Jang insisting on sticking to the distribution-centered policy.
Their replacement was seen in part as aimed at revamping the economic team as they failed to produce tangible results in revitalizing Asia’s fourth-largest economy. Their sacking was also seen as a measure to hold them responsible for failing to work in concert with each other. [Yonhap]
Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic
More like the Sewol than the Titannic. 😥
Rearranging deck chairs on the Pueblo before being taken by NK?
Setnaffa, nobody rearranged deck chairs on the Sewol, they were all told to stay below decks….
That’s exactly right, Flyingsword. And that’s exactly how much pushback the norkification is receiving.
It’s as if some soporific cloud had descended over South Korea.