{"id":2199888,"date":"2023-01-13T09:02:34","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T09:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/koreapro\/?p=2199888"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:10:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:10:22","slug":"how-lack-of-diversity-in-government-risks-undermining-seouls-global-reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/01\/how-lack-of-diversity-in-government-risks-undermining-seouls-global-reputation\/","title":{"rendered":"How lack of diversity in government risks undermining Seoul\u2019s global reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"
President Yoon Suk-yeol has received relentless <\/span>criticism<\/span><\/a> for a lack of diversity in his administration, showing clear <\/span>favoritism<\/span><\/a> toward men and former colleagues from the prosecutors\u2019 office when hiring. This approach may jeopardize <\/span>democratic values and transparency<\/span><\/a> in the ROK, because his close aides may be loyal to Yoon instead of the country and fail to provide the necessary checks and balances.<\/span><\/p>\n Yoon has ignored the opposition’s attempts to <\/span>remove some of his ministers<\/span><\/a> and told the <\/span>Chosun Ilbo<\/span><\/i> newspaper in a recent <\/span>interview<\/span><\/a> that he has no plans to reshuffle his Cabinet as he approaches his first year in office.<\/span><\/p>\n In the same interview, he also claimed that he does not consider education or regional background when selecting staff \u2013 only their abilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t care about schools or regions when I choose people. It was the same when I was a prosecutor. Also, during the election, I deliberately avoided many of my law school colleagues and prosecutors, which upset many people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Yoon\u2019s denials notwithstanding, his Cabinet and staff are overwhelmingly linked to him through <\/span>personal connections from school or past work<\/span><\/a>. If not that, a large proportion of people Yoon has hired are <\/span>those who served<\/span><\/a> under past conservative presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye.<\/span><\/p>\n