Kim Jang-soo, National Security Office at Cheong Wa Dae

Kim Jang-soo has a controversial reputation. While he garnered acclaim for his calm nature and levelheaded yet thorough way of managing key issues, critics call him a “hawk,” voicing concern about his emphasis on strong deterrence and lack of diplomatic experience.

Rejecting the tag, the 65-year-old former defense minister branded himself an “owl,” vowing to straddle the volatile line between hawk and dove.

“I have a firm belief that we must never forgive but sternly respond to North Korea’s provocations. However, we should solve what we can through dialogue and diplomacy,” he told the Dong-A Ilbo on Friday.

Kim is nicknamed “high-headed” for keeping an upright posture when shaking hands with late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang in 2007, unlike other officials who bowed to the strongman.

In recalling the event later, he said that as top military leader he could not bend his body to the head of the national enemy, earning extolment from conservative politicians and later becoming a proportional representative for the Saenuri Party.

Starting next week, Kim will head the government’s security control tower using his four decades of military experience, policy knowledge and solid resolve to stave off security threats.

Kim has championed military reform and emphasized self-reliant military capability while serving in the military for nearly 40 years.

He took up various top field and policy posts in the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Ministry before retiring as chief of the Army in 2006. 

Yun Byung-se, Foreign minister nominee

Meticulousness, stability and overtime work seem to be a few keywords to sum up the style of Yun Byung-se.

The 60-year-old former career diplomat is believed to have the best understanding of Park’s policy directions for North Korea and other foreign affairs and security issues.

Many of his former coworkers predict that Yun will focus on carrying out the president-elect’s pet projects rather than skate on thin ice to clinch his own arguments.

At the Foreign Ministry, he also faces a tough job of restoring stability and morale to the staff disgruntled with her decision to divest it of the authority of trade negotiations.

“We plan to make security and dialogue work in tandem, like the wheels on a wagon,” Yun said in a radio interview in November.

“That means that we will handle North Korean policy and foreign security and reunification policies with an integrated, balanced perspective, and that we will put stress on cross-border ties and international relations at the same time.”

Yun served the Roh government from 2004-07 as a chief of policy coordination at the National Security Council, deputy foreign minister, and senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and security. Along with Kim Jang-soo, he also accompanied the late liberal president for a second inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in 2007.

His 30 years of diplomatic stints include director of the North America division 1, deputy director-general of the North American Affairs Bureau and minister at the Korean Embassy in Washington.

While teaching at Sogang University’s Graduate School of International Studies in Seoul late 2010, he joined Park’s National Future Institute and worked on foreign, security and unification policy.

Ryoo Kihl-jae, Unification minister nominee

A professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies, Ryoo Kihl-jae has stressed the need to build trust between the two Koreas through dialogue and personnel exchanges in line with Park’s trust initiative.

His apparently sensible, balanced perspective on North Korea issues is a plus. But some observers are skeptic about his future role given his inexperience in administrative affairs and a potential policy rift with other officials amid signs of a rightward swing.

“Despite the more pacifying tone toward the new Seoul government than before, I don’t expect inter-Korean relations to improve as fast as pledged when the two governments undertake dialogue,” Ryoo said in an interview with “Voice of America” last month.

“But we’re stressing that trust, substance and quality are more important in the relationship than the time and speed. If the Park government persuades the North with sincerity and tenacity, it will possibly open a cross-border relationship with time that is different from the past.”

His name was floated after more likely candidate Choi Dae-seok abruptly resigned from the presidential transition committee on Jan. 13, instilling a flurry of speculation over the reasons, from political infighting to information leaks to personal issues.

Another daunting mission at hand is to restore and empower the Unification Ministry that has been drifting with the peninsula’s political ties since its inception 1969 as the Board of National Unification.

While it saw its operations boom and expand in particular under former progressive presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, hard-line incumbent Lee even sought to dismantle it when he took office in 2008 though he scrapped the plan in the face of severe public and political opposition.

Ryoo has been a policy advisor to the Unification Ministry since 2009, international relations and security advisor to presidential chiefs of staff since 2008, and a member of the National Unification Advisory Council’s standing committee since 2001.

He chairs the Korean Association of North Korean studies, the country’s largest society for academics in North Korea and unification studies, launched in 1996 and consisting of about 480 members. 

Kim Byung-kwan, Defense minister nominee

A series of graft and tax evasion allegations is casting a cloud over the appointment of Kim Byung-kwan.

Kim, 65, is a former deputy commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command known for his mastery of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” and pursuit of studies in military strategies throughout his 40-year career.

He made headlines for carrying a keychain engraved with the portraits of Park’s parents, late strongman Park Chung-hee and his wife Yuk Young-soo.

Kim was credited for helping shore up the military alliance despite the two countries’ rocky relations during the Roh era. Some Army officials recognized his flexibility toward different ideas especially from inferiors, and persistent experiments with and application of traditional war tactics.

Other positions include commander of Second Army Division, chief of Joint Chiefs of Staff’s force planning division, commander of 7th Force, commander of First Rock Army, head professor at Military Staff College in Daejeon.

However, he is suspected of overlooking corruption when two of his subordinates were arrested for receiving bribes from a military contractor in 1999. He suspended them for only a month and as a result received a warning from the Army chief of staff.

Kim is also accused of tax evasion, making a false report on his wealth and consulting a military contractor that was investigated in Seoul and Germany for bribing military officials and engaging in illegal lobbying. During his tenure as a military general, Kim handled weapons and arms imports. 

Ju Chul-ki , Senior secretary for foreign affairs and security

Ju Chul-ki, 67, is secretary-general of the Global Compact Korea Network and a veteran diplomat specializing in global issues and multilateral diplomacy.

With his appointment catching many by surprise, some observers again criticized Park for the reclusive decision-making process after Ju himself said he does not have any “special connection” with her.

“I will make heartfelt efforts to fortify the foundation and conditions for the country’s foreign affairs and security,” he told a news conference on Tuesday.

He worked for the Foreign Ministry for nearly 35 years in posts including ambassador to France, UNESCO and Morocco, and deputy ambassador at South Korea’s mission to the U.N. office in Geneva.

While heading the ministry’s international economic affairs bureau in 1996-97, he led the country’s successful bid for a membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“He is a real hard worker, with strengths in international issues and multilateral negotiations,” a senior ministry official said on customary condition of anonymity.

(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)