Rival parties confirmed Hwang Kyo-ahn as prime minister Thursday, ending the nearly two-month vacancy at the second-highest government position as the country is striving to contain the MERS virus that has claimed 23 lives.
The National Assembly endorsed the appointment of Hwang in a 156-120 vote. Two lawmakers abstained.
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The passage reflects the ruling Saenuri Party’s unilateral support for the confirmation, with all of the 156 of its 160 members present in the session presumed to have voted in favor.
President Park Geun-hye instantly presented an appointment letter to Hwang, allowing him to spearhead the country’s fight against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus.
Hwang chose the National Medical Center, where many MERS patients are being treated in quarantine, as his first destination for anti-epidemic efforts.
“The life and safety of people are the foremost value in a nation’s raison d’etre and I am feeling the heavy responsibility for the continuing anxieties over MERS,” Hwang said in his meeting with the head of the medical center. “As a control tower, I will stand in the vanguard of the eradication of MERS.”
The fight against the virus will be the overriding focus of Hwang’s service down the road, officials of the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Hwang will take over from Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, who has been acting as prime minister, as the chair of the government’s daily anti-MERS meeting while continuing his public outings to quell public jitters about the virus, according to the officials.
Other daunting tasks awaiting Hwang include reviving the stagnant economy, further sagged by the outbreak of the MERS virus, as well as Park’s reform and anti-corruption drives.
In a press conference held right after his nomination last month, Hwang vowed to “make utmost efforts to reform the country’s fundamentals including efforts to reset what is not normal.”
Former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo stepped down in late May amid bribery allegations.
The government and the ruling party have called for speedy parliamentary approval of a new prime minister, who takes charge as the control tower in the government efforts against the spread of the MERS virus.
Since the outbreak of the first case here May 20, the acute respiratory virus had killed 23 South Koreans as of Thursday. The total number of local MERS cases reached 165.
“It is a great relief that the new prime minister won his chance to perform his duty not too belatedly, at a time every second is dearly cherished to end the MERS situation,” Saenuri spokesman Rhee Chong-hoon said in a briefing.
“The people expect the new prime minister to be accommodating, respectful and to be a well-performing prime minister,” Rhee noted.
Since the three-day confirmation hearing last week, the opposition bloc has objected to the nominee, whom they labeled “unfit” citing influence-peddling and draft-dodging allegations.
The opposition, however, gave into Saenuri’s call for the parliamentary vote after eliciting a promise from Saenuri for a reform of the parliamentary confirmation hearing system, as well as an apology from Hwang over the allegations.
“(NPAD’s) Stance that he is an unqualified candidate has not changed. But the party will keep a close eye on whether he faithfully carries out his duty as the control tower for MERS,” NPAD spokesman Park Soo-hyun said.
Five lawmakers of the minor opposition Justice Party boycotted the vote.
The 58-year-old Hwang is widely known as a champion of the National Security Law, which prohibits sympathizing with or circulating the communist ideology of North Korea.
He had been the justice minister ever since Park took office in early 2013, before he offered to resign last week to take the country’s second-highest government position. (Yonhap)
