After Five Nominees Fall, Even Chief Secretary Kang Hoon-sik Steps Down
The post of chief secretary — the heart of the presidential office — was left vacant on the eve of the president's overseas trip.
The presidential office announced that Chief Secretary Kang Hoon-sik has offered his resignation to President Lee Jae-myung. The president is set to depart on an overseas tour from the 21st to the 27th, attending the UN General Assembly in the United States and making a state visit to Mexico. Coming on the heels of the successive falls of five minister-level nominees, the chief secretary's resignation offer is read not as a simple personnel change but as the surfacing of accountability for the administration's personnel management as a whole. With his departure just a day away, the president's home-front commander has been cornered.
Accumulated Personnel Failures, and the Flames Reach the Chief Secretary
Since the launch of the Lee Jae-myung government, minister-level nominees who fell during vetting already number five. Former Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won recently stepped down of his own accord after a partisan standoff over the adoption of his confirmation hearing report, saying he had "fallen short of the public's expectations." Education Minister nominee Lee Jin-sook and nominee Kang Sun-woo also withdrew one after another during the vetting process. With allegations of improper outside interference in appointments now added to the mix, criticism that "the vetting system itself is broken" has gained traction.
The chief secretary serves as the president's eyes and ears, overseeing everything from personnel vetting to managing the political landscape. With five nominees falling in a row, observers argue that under standard accountability logic, a resignation offer was only a matter of time. In fact, political circles are divided over whether this resignation was Kang's own decision or whether President Lee accepted it with accountability over appointments in mind. The fact that senior presidential press secretary Sung Ki-hong confirmed it in a separate briefing suggests it may be more than a simple acknowledgment — potentially signaling the shape of the next personnel reshuffle.
Domestic Turmoil Comes Before the UN Stage's Message
The trip itself carries considerable weight. President Lee plans to lay out a systematic vision for peace on the Korean Peninsula in his UN General Assembly address, and the tone and substance of his message toward North Korea will be the international community's first look. The state visit to Mexico — the first in 16 years — also carries significance as an expansion of diplomacy in Central and South America. Given that the president previously directed the Cabinet to deliberate a bill establishing a policy council for implementing inter-Korean agreements, his strong commitment to North Korea policy and peace issues is clear.
The problem lies offstage. In a Realmeter survey, President Lee's approval rating rebounded for the first time in 10 weeks to 34.8%, but it remains stuck in the 30% range. Considering the past few weeks, in which he had to personally apologize and explain himself over his supporters' use of hateful language, the core risk is that no matter how sophisticated a peace vision he presents at the UN, domestic personnel turmoil could undermine it. If additional controversies over nominees or appointments erupt at home during the trip, the weakness of having no chief secretary — the point of contact for handling such crises — will be laid bare.
The Scope of the Post-Trip Reshuffle Is the Key Question
The variable to watch is the speed of President Lee's acceptance and the scope of the restructuring. Whether he accepts the resignation immediately and names a successor before departing, or overhauls the entire presidential secretariat after the trip, will shape the political landscape upon his return. Having already secured the milestone of restoring the judiciary through the appointment of Supreme Court justices, he has ample justification to overhaul the personnel vetting process as part of the restructuring. As former lawmaker Rhyu Si-min's criticism that the direction of prosecutorial reform "stinks of a fish market gone rotten" shows, voices within the ruling party are already demanding responsible personnel management, and pressure for a reshuffle is likely to grow.
Henry Ford said preparation is the secret of success — but the presidential office now faces two tests at once: preparing for the trip and cleaning up its personnel mess. Before the president's messages abroad reach the international community, the successor chief secretary and secretariat restructuring plan to be announced after his return are set to be the opening move that determines this government's second phase.
