A division under the justice ministry tasked with vetting personnel for the Yoon Suk Yeol administration officially launched on Tuesday.
The 17-member division consists of officials from the office of government policy coordination, the ministries of personnel management, education and defense, as well as the police, the national intelligence agency, the financial watchdog and the prosecution.
Park Haeng-yeol, the head of the Leadership Development Bureau at the National Human Resources Development Institute, was named the division’s inaugural chief.
The justice ministry said Park has extensive experience in personnel administration, having worked in the now-defunct Civil Service Commission, the former training agency for public servants and the personnel management ministry.
The team was launched after President Yoon abolished the office of senior presidential secretary for civil affairs that previously handled the vetting of candidates for high-level government posts.
In order to guarantee the division’s autonomy, its offices have been set up at the state audit agency in Seoul’s Jongno district, rather than within the Gwacheon government complex, where the justice ministry is located. Justice minister Han Dong-hoon will not receive interim reports.
Source: KBS World Radio