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South Korea The State Council
The top executive body assisting the president in 1990 was
the State Council, or cabinet, the members of which in 1990
included the president, the prime minister, and from fifteen to
thirty heads of various ministries and their equivalents. More
often a technocrat than a politician, the prime minister is
appointed by the president with the consent of the National
Assembly. Other cabinet members, also presidential appointees,
are supposed to be recommended by the prime minister but actually
are chosen by the president. As under the 1980 constitution, no
member of the military may hold a cabinet post unless he is
retired from active service.
The State Council is responsible for the formulation and
implementation of basic plans and policies concerning a wide
range of government functions. The results of deliberation by the
council are conveyed to the Presidential Secretariat and the
Office of the Prime Minister, the two principal units responsible
for coordination and supervision relating to various government
agencies. Given the importance of economic performance to the
stability and security of the nation, the Economic Planning Board
plays a significant role in the administrative and economic
process. The minister of the board by law doubles as deputy prime
minister; his senior assistants, many of them holding advanced
degrees from foreign universities, have been among the ablest
public servants in the country.
As South Korean observers have noted, the president's power
to appoint persons to senior and deputy ministerial positions not
only has administrative significance but also is an important
political tool for balancing factional interests within the
president's party and for rewarding loyalty. The South Korean
media closely scrutinize high-level appointments for clues to
politics within the ruling party. The announcement in early 1990
of plans to merge the ruling party and two of the three major
opposition parties and to institute a cabinet-responsibility form
of government produced even more intensive interest in cabinet
appointments.
In 1989 a presidentially appointed Administration Reform
Commission concluded a fourteen-month study concerning the
structure of the government. In reporting its findings to the
president, the panel proposed a number of changes, including the
merger or abolition of several State Council ministries and other
government agencies. Faced with strenuous lobbying by officials
of the agencies concerned, the ruling party and government
administration tabled most of the recommendations. Several
proposals were implemented. The new Ministry of Culture,
established in late 1989 from the former Ministry of Culture and
Information, was placed under the initial direction of Yi O-yong,
a prominent essayist and literary critic. The new ministry
continued the cultural and artistic functions of its predecessor
and also took over responsibilities concerning national and
public libraries and national language policy from the Ministry
of Education. The establishment of the Ministry of Environment,
upgraded from the former Office of Environment within the
Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, acknowledged that national
development over the preceding three decades had often neglected
environmental concerns. Its establishment redeemed a pledge made
in both the 1980 and 1987 constitutions that the people of South
Korea "shall have the right to a healthy and pleasant
environment," and that the government would take measures for
environmental protection.
Data as of June 1990
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