Cheong Wa Dae will be reorganized to enhance communication with the public and effectiveness in the management of state affairs during the last year of the president’s five-year term, the presidential office said Monday.

In a bid to reach out to people in their 20s-40s, Cheong Wa Dae will institute a regular meeting to reflect their needs in crafting or implementing government policies. It will also create a senior-level post in charge of it.

The reorganization was finalized during a meeting of senior presidential secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae on Monday and is to take effect next Monday.

“In order to respond to the changes facing the government in the fifth year of its term and the public sentiment shown in the outcome of the October by-elections, Cheong Wa Dae will carry out the reorganization,” Lee’s spokesperson Park Jeong-ha told reporters.

“The new meeting will focus on listening to voices of the people in their 20s-40s and reflect them in government policies. Details over how to run the meeting will be later discussed.”

Under the reorganization plan, the division for policy planning is to be merged into the division for policy and management, which will be staffed with three presidential secretaries.

The secretary for overseas promotion will be scrapped, but a new post of spokesperson for the foreign press will be created, officials said.

Under the reorganization, the number of presidential secretaries will remain at 46 as it is now. But the number of planning aides will decrease from five to four.

The organizational change may lead to the personnel reshuffle, observers said.

The new presidential chief of staff is expected to be named as early as this weekend. The post of the policy planning chief is reportedly to remain vacant for the time being.

After the ruling Grand National Party failed to retain the Seoul mayoral seat in the Oct. 26 by-election, Lee’s chief of staff Yim Tae-hee and policy planning chief Baek Yong-ho already expressed their intent to step down.

By Song Sang-ho

(sshluck@heraldcorp.com)