Roh Replaces Economics Minister

President Roh Tae Woo today replaced his economics minister in a major Cabinet reshuffle expected to herald a push to speed the growth of South Korea’s economy.

The reshuffle, affecting 15 of 22 posts, had been expected since last month’s merger of Roh’s governing party with two centrist opposition groups. The alliance resulted in a powerful conservative party giving the president a comfortable parliamentary majority.

Prime Minister Kang Young Hoon and his entire 22-member Cabinet resigned Friday to give Roh a free hand to reorganize the government. Kang was renamed prime minister of the new Cabinet today.

However, Roh replaced most of the Cabinet’s economics officials, including Economic Planning Minister Cho Soon, who is a deputy prime minister.

Lee Seung Yun, 58, a former finance minister, succeeded Cho as the nation’s top economic planner.

His appointment is expected to bring a considerable change in South Korea’s economic policy, which has emphasized distribution rather than growth. Lee, a respected economist, is known as an advocate of a growth-oriented policy.

The state television KBS said the new economic planning minister will push a series of bold measures to encourage investment and stimulate exports.

Cho and his economic team have been criticized for a series of policy failures that aggravated land speculation, increased inflation and slowed exports. South Korean exports in the first two months of this year decreased 2.5% to $8.7 billion from a year ago.

Cho’s successor declined to provide details on his plans.

The foreign and defense ministers kept their posts.