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South Korea's new prime minister named

South Korean president-elect Lee Myung-bak, right, walks with Han Seung-soo, who was named as the new prime minister by Lee, to a news conference at the government transition committee office in Seoul yesterday. PHOTO: REUTERS

South Korea's incoming president yesterday made his first Cabinet appointment, naming veteran diplomat and economist Han Seung-soo as his prime minister.

President-elect Lee Myung-bak said Han, who is currently the UN special envoy on climate change, has broad experience in diplomacy, economics and politics.

"Han is best qualified to achieve our goal of reinvigorating the economy and also for trade and energy diplomacy," said Lee, who takes office on Feb. 25.

Lee has said a key role of his prime minister would be resource diplomacy -- securing a stable supply of energy and other resources for a manufacturing nation which must import almost all its oil and gas.

"Resources are indispensable to our economy. I'm ready to criss-cross the globe to engage in resource diplomacy," Han told reporters. "South Korea, which depends on [imported] gas and crude oil, must diversify its energy sources."

Han also pledged to overcome what he called a looming global economic crisis through further deregulation and stimulation of private investment.

Lee, a former chief executive who will be the country's first president from a business background, has promised to promote investment through cutting red tape and tax adjustments.

He pledges to raise annual growth to 7 percent, from the current figure of around 5 percent, during his five-year term.

Han, 71, is a former member of parliament who served as ambassador to the US from 1993 to 1994 and later as foreign minister. He was elected president of the UN General Assembly in 2001.

He earned a doctorate in economics from the University of York in 1968, and was commerce minister between 1988 and 1990 and finance minister between 1996 and 1997.

His appointment must be confirmed by parliament in which Lee's opponents, the United New Democratic Party (UNDP) and other liberal groups, have a majority.

UNDP spokesman Woo Sang-ho said his party was disappointed at the appointment, calling Han a "past-oriented" figure who once worked for former president Chun Doo-hwan. Chun seized power after crushing a pro-democracy uprising in 1980.

"His relationship with Chun's military government dates back 28 years and his capabilities have already been verified," retorted Na Kyung-won, spokeswoman for Lee's conservative Grand National Party.

"Han will be the best man to perform Lee's key national and diplomatic tasks," Na said.

Former president Kim Young-sam, who backed Lee during his election campaign last month, has described Han as the country's best ever finance minister.
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