The Blue House appointments President Park Geun-hye made Sunday are more evidence that she will not be swayed by the ruling party’s defeat in the April 16 parliamentary election.

Park had already expressed her reluctance to admit her wrongdoing -- that she and her associates interfered with the candidate nominations for the election -- and take due steps, such as a sizable shakeup of the Cabinet and the Blue House.

Accordingly, the appointment of Lee Won-jong, chief of the Presidential Commission on Regional Development, as the Blue House chief of staff would not have come had Lee Byung-kee not insisted that he took responsibility for the election defeat.

The new chief of staff, who previously served as mayor of Seoul and governor of his native North Chungcheong Province -- the latter post three times -- is generally respected in the public sector for his long experience as a public servant and local administrator and sociability.

But few believe that Park brought in the 74-year-old Lee, who lacks experience in politics, to make a change to her governing style and put fresh vigor into her administration.

Rather, Lee’s appointment has added instant fuel to the speculation that Park and her followers in the Saenuri Party will support U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the party’s candidate for the 2017 presidential election. Both Lee and Ban come from the same province. 

Park’s decision to move her senior economic aide An Chong-bum to the post of the chief policy aide and tap Kang Seog-hoon, a Saenuri Party lawmaker, to replace Ahn also shows that Park wants to continue to rely on her close associates.

Both economists, An and Kang have advised Park since her 2012 presidential campaign, and Kang, along with former Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, are key members of the pro-Park faction in the ruling party. It is no coincidence that the three went to the same university in the U.S.

In other words, Park brought in another her loyalist in a personnel change necessitated by an election defeat for which she and her followers are to blame. This cosmetic change will never help Park and the ruling party restore public confidence.