The Marmot’s Hole

This really should have been blogged yesterday, but I’m still trying to figure out what to make of it. Anyway, Ra Jong-il, Noh’s national security advisor, turned in his resignation Friday, as did Kim Hee-sang, the President’s national defense advisor. Replacing Ra will be Kwon Chin-ho, formally a deputy head of the National Intelligence Service, and Yoon Kwang-ung, head of the Emergency Planning Committee, will take Kim’s place. Frankly, I don’t know a whole lot about the two new guys aside from the fact that they are both military men — even the Hani doesn’t seem to know a whole lot about them as far as their politics are concerned. Anyway, the Hani seems to think that Kwon, given his army experience, will focus his attention on military reform and North Korea. It should be pointed out that Yoon, too, is a weapons expert, so they might be there to assist Noh in building up South Korea’s “independent defense.” What everyone seems to agree upon, however, is that the hand of National Security Commission deputy chief Lee Jong-seok will be strengthened, and that’s not a positive development as far as the US-ROK alliance and policy coordination on North Korea are concerned. Anyway, not that I value the Korea Times news analysis that highly, but they did have a piece on how this latest shakeup at the Blue House might signal a shift in South Korean policy away from the United States. I’m going to wait a while before I start believing that the sky really is falling, however — for all of Noh’s faults, he’s a clever fellow (notice his appointment of Ban Gi-moon to replace Yoon Young-gwan), and if Lee and his friends on the NSC start getting carried away, the President might just apply the breaks before things really get out of hand.