Chun Shakes Up Cabinet to Ensure ‘Fairness’

President Chun Doo Hwan shuffled his Cabinet on Monday, removing all members of the ruling party and changing his prime minister for the second time in 48 days.

The move was aimed at ensuring what Chun called “fair management” of politics as South Korea prepares to elect a new leader later this year.

The new Cabinet, however, includes two recently retired generals, one of them a member of Chun’s inner circle who was among the plotters who helped him to seize power in a coup seven years ago. Chun also retained a third former army commander who had doffed his uniform only after that 1980 coup.

The new prime minister is Kim Chung Yul, 69, a former three-star general who retired from the air force 20 years ago. Kim, a former ambassador to the United States who also spent three years in business, replaced Lee Han Key, a virtually unknown former law professor named to the post only last May 26.

Effort at Fairness

“The shake-up is based on the president’s wish to administer the scheduled political events in a strictly fair manner and push important national tasks, such as promotion of freedom and welfare for the people, in an atmosphere of unity and trust,” a presidential spokesman said.

In a statement, Kim said: “Fairness will be the prime goal. What is important is stability--to achieve the scheduled political transition based on stability and to successfully stage the 1988 Seoul Olympics.”

It was the second move made by Chun to respond, in part, to calls from the opposition Reunification Democratic Party for a “caretaker” Cabinet to oversee the transfer of power when Chun steps down Feb. 25, 1988. Last Friday, Chun, a former army general, gave up his post as president of the ruling Democratic Justice Party.

The opposition party criticized the nature of the shake-up when it was made public Monday.

“No fresh and new people are included in the shake-up. All are worn-out people,” a party statement said. “We suspect that these people would not carry out democratic reforms without any hitch. It is seriously doubtful that the new Cabinet would manage elections in a fair and just manner.”

Earlier Monday, Kim Young Sam, president of the opposition party, reiterated his call for Chun to appoint a “neutral” Cabinet and separate himself from politics by giving up his membership in the Democratic Justice Party.

In the shuffle, one minister was shifted to a new portfolio while seven new ministers were appointed. All key economic ministers were retained, including Deputy Prime Minister Chung In Yong; Finance Minister Sakong Il, head of the Economic Planning Agency, and Trade and Industry Minister Rha Woong Bae. Rha resigned his membership in the ruling party as part of the “neutrality” move.

Also retained was Foreign Minister Choi Kwang Soo.

Special Forces Commander

The key appointment of the shuffle was Chun’s choice of Chung Ho Yong as defense minister. One of an inner group of eight former generals who have exercised influence throughout Chun’s seven years of power, Chung--who retired from the army as a four-star general--was commander of the Special Forces when one of its units was sent into Kwangju in May, 1980, to put down popular demonstrations against the coup. The brutality of the suppression incited protesters to raid armories in Kwangju, a southwestern provincial capital, and take up weapons in a rebellion that cost the lives of 194 people, by official count.

Chung, who was brought into the Cabinet as home affairs minister after a student’s death due to police torture was exposed in January, was fired May 26, accused of taking part in efforts to cover up the extent of police complicity in the death. A Western diplomat, who asked not to be identified, said that Chung has gained a reputation among insiders for backing the list of sweeping democratic reforms that the chairman of the ruling party, Roh Tae Woo, and President Chun promised after 18 days of street protests in June.

Chung has a reputation for dynamic decision-making, but the appointment to the defense portfolio of a former general linked to the Kwangju uprising surprised political analysts.

At a moment when the opposition is calling for apologies for the 1980 Kwangju tragedy and when public suspicions about Korea’s politically sensitive military establishment are intense, Chun had been expected to “civilianize” both his Cabinet and the leadership of the ruling party to dampen the criticism of “military rule” that boiled over in last month’s protests.

A reshuffling of the Democratic Justice Party leadership is expected, probably this week.

The 30-year military career of party Chairman Roh, the Democratic Justice candidate for president, is seen as the biggest handicap that this close friend of Chun’s will have to cope with in direct presidential elections now planned after expected changes are made in the constitution.

At about the same time as Chun’s announcement of the Cabinet shake-up--including Chung as defense minister--was being made, Chung was being denounced at a memorial service for the victims of oppression under Chun’s regime. He was listed as one of five former generals who should be punished for complicity in the suppression of the Kwangju uprising. The memorial service was held Monday night at Seoul’s Yongdong Presbyterian Church.

The two other recently retired generals in the new Cabinet are Cha Kyu Hun, who was retained as transportation minister, and Chang Ki Oh, newly appointed as minister of government administration.

Kim Chung Yul, the new prime minister--who, under Chun’s authoritarian constitution of 1980, will have little power--served in a series of important posts after retiring from the air force. But he has been out of the limelight in recent years, when his only official positions have been as a member of the largely cosmetic Advisory Council on Peaceful Unification Policy and of the Advisory Council on State Affairs.

Earlier, he had served as defense minister and chairman of the late President Park Chung Hee’s Democratic Republican Party, which Chun abolished.

Although Chun, since taking office, has made it a point to sweep out of government all Japanese-educated leaders, Kim graduated from Japan’s military academy in 1943 when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule.