President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday conducted a small-scale reshuffle of her senior secretaries and vice-ministerial officials amid calls for a personnel shift in the wake of the ruling Saenuri Party's defeat in April's parliamentary polls.

Park appointed former Saenuri Party lawmaker Kim Jae-won as her new senior secretary for political affairs while naming Hyun Dai-won, a professor at the communication department of Sogang University, as her senior secretary for future strategy.

She also tapped Kim Yong-seung, vice president of the Catholic University of Korea, to be her chief secretary for educational and cultural affairs.

The presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae said that Park's new chief secretary for political affairs is "well-suited" for the post, given his ample experience in politics and firm grasp of the president's statecraft philosophy.

"He is well suited for playing a bridging role between (Cheong Wa Dae and) political circles based on his experience and capabilities built through his activities at the legislature," Kim Sung-woo, chief presidential secretary for public affairs, told reporters.

Underscoring Hyun's expertise in the digital media content sector, the publicity secretary said Hyun would help advance the president's "creative economy" drive. The creative economy is designed to turn new ideas into real businesses with the help of cutting-edge science and information technology.

The presidential office then expressed hopes that the new chief secretary for educational and cultural affairs would help ensure "active" policy implementation based on his hands-on experience in the educational field.

The president, in addition, appointed three new vice ministers.

Kim Hyung-suk, presidential secretary for unification affairs, was appointed vice minister of the Unification Ministry, while Lee Joon-won, senior official in charge of food industry policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, was promoted to the position of vice farm minister.

Park also promoted Lee Jung-sub, senior official in charge of environmental policy at the Ministry of Environment, to vice minister. (Yonhap)