President Yoon Expected To Reshuffle Senior Secretaries, Cabinet Ministers Next Week

President Yoon Suk-yeol appeared to be moving closer to a reshuffle of his presidential secretaries and the Cabinet ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections, with Yonhap News Agency suggesting that the changes could be unveiled as soon as next week.

• Yonhap reports that the "shakeup is expected to affect five of the six senior presidential secretaries and around half of the 19 Cabinet ministers, including those for finance, justice and land," allowing many of them to run in April's elections.
• South Korean ministers typically give up their Cabinet positions if they decide to run for a seat in the National Assembly in order to maintain the separation of powers between the executive and the legislature.
• According to Yonhap, the reshuffle could be announced between the parliamentary debate on the government's 2024 budget plan and before President Yoon embarks on a trip for a state visit to the Netherlands.
• Yoon is reportedly planning to replace all but one senior presidential secretary (policy planning chief Lee Kwan-sup), while keeping his Chief of Staff Kim Dae-ki. His economic affairs czar Choi Sang-mok is seen as the front-runner to replace current Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, who will likely run for parliament.