President Moon to Reform Ministry of Foreign Affairs under

Kang Kyung-hwa

[Anchor]

President Moon Jae-in forewarned that he will remove practices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that show favoritism to graduates of the foreign service examination and the "North America line."

Appointing Kang Kyung-hwa as Minister of Foreign Affairs is, so to speak, the first move.

Han Seung-ho has more.

[Reporter]

Hitherto, important positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such as the minister, was considered to be set aside exclusively for the so-called elites who passed the foreign service examination and worked on diplomacy with North America.

President Moon Jae-in declared that he would put an end to such exclusivism.

This is a show of his strong will to reform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

<Moon Jae-in / President> “I think that the extremely exclusive structure made up of seniors and their juniors of the foreign service exam is the reason that our diplomatic abilities have not been growing...”

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa is said to be well-qualified to uphold the president’s intentions and to break down the wall dividing the mainstream and non-mainstream within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This is because Foreign Minister Kang herself is the first woman to be appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and did not pass through the foreign service examination or was part of the North American line.

Minister Kang also expressed her agreement to the president’s administration philosophies as she accepted her certificate of appointment from him. She also stated her intention to actively set out on the path of reform.

<Kang Kyung-hwa / Minister of Foreign Affairs> “I want to expand the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ organization to include more diversity in the composition of its human resources. I think it is in the same direction as that which the president mentioned.”

President Moon also plans to expand the human resource pool when appointing ambassadors for each country to civilian experts and non-foreign service examination graduates, as well as women.

Moreover, President Moon plans to diversify the paradigm of foreign affairs that have until now focused on the four major countries of the U.S., China, Japan and Russia based on a series of personnel reform.

Han Seung-ho reporting for Yonhap News TV.

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