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Prime Minister a white elephant?

Posted April. 20, 2015 07:14,   

한국어

The government system of Korea is called a presidential system mixed with parliamentary system because we have a prime minister. Under the presidential system, appointing someone who has the right of control over the parliament such as the prime minister goes against the principle of the system. There are reasons that Korea had to choose such system. In the beginning, the Constitutional Assembly prepared constitutional law of parliamentary system, but Rhee Syngman, the first chairman of the National Assembly who preferred the U.S.-style presidential system, insisted that he would not take any position under such system. In the end, the plan for the parliamentary system had a sudden change to the plan for the presidential system, which caused Korea to have a president and a vice president under the presidential system and a prime minister under the parliamentary system.

The position of prime minister was abolished by the constitutional amendment in 1954 but revived during the Second Republic of South Korea, as the government system was changed to the parliamentary system when the position of vice president was removed. As the third Republic of South Korea began by the May 16th military coup d’état, the presidential system was adopted again with a president and a prime minister that we have today. Korea’s prime minister is appointed by the president on the condition of National assembly’s agreement, which means that the position should win the confidence from the both sides. This made the position and roles of prime minister rather vague. Under such a tightrope walking, Prime Minister Jeong Il-gwon recorded the longest term with six years seven months (2,416 days) during the Park Chung-hee administration. Jang Myeon, Baek Du-jin, Kim Jong-pil and Go Geon served the position of prime minister twice.

With the beginning of Lee Yun-yeong, the candidate for the first prime minister of Republic of Korea who was rejected by the National Assembly, a total of 12 prime minister candidates has been turned down up to date. Since the adoption of confirmation hearing in 2000, six candidates have been refused of the position, half of which were from Park Geun-hye administration. Furthermore, Jeong Hong-won, the first prime minister under this administration, is remembered as nothing but nobody who wanted to leave the post but could not leave. The second Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo is in a very difficult condition as a candle in the wind due to his alleged corruption scandal.

The prime minister who has the record of shortest term is 6th Prime Minister Heo Jeong with 65 days during the confused administration of President Yun Bo-seon. As today marks the 63rd day for Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo in his office, everybody is paying attention whether he could break the record of shortest tenure. President Park Geun-hye seems very unfortunate when it comes to appointing a prime minister. Who, however, can she blame for it on? She is the one who has the biggest right to appoint a prime minister.



jinnyong@donga.com