South Korea’s President-elect Lee Myung-bak’s transition committee has announced their recommended cuts in the federal government:

President-elect Lee Myung-bak’s Transition Committee on Wednesday disclosed a blueprint for streamlining the government. It would reduce the current 18 ministries to 13, 22 sub-organizations to 19, and 10 presidential commissions to five.

Five ministries — of unification, of science and technology, of information and communication, of gender equality and family, and of maritime affairs and fisheries — and two ministry-level offices — the Government Information Agency and the Ministry of Planning and Budget — are for the chop. [Chosun Ilbo]

Read the whole thing, but the Lee recommends cutting a number of positions at the Blue House as well including some of the special presidential committees:

The new government will not extend the mandate of five out of the 10 current presidential commissions — the Presidential Committee for the Inspection of Collaborations with Japanese Imperialism, the Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization under Japanese Imperialism, the Presidential Commission on Suspicious Deaths in the Military, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Investigative Commission on Pro-Japanese Collaborators’ Property.

The elimination of these committees are sure to cause an improvement in relations with Japan, but most importantly some citizens in the Korean public are breathing a sigh of relief that their property is not going to be confiscated to be given to outgoing President Roh’s cronies.  It will be interesting to see if with the disbanding of these committees if the people who had their land confiscated already by the Roh government will be able to get their land back. 

Also of interest is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was disbanded.  ROK Drop readers may remember that this commission recommended the US government pay compensation for supposed war crimes during the Korean War that through simple historical research I was easily able to debunk.  It looks like the time of claims of GI war criminals from the Korean War lodged by the Korean government is now fortunately over. 

Of course you can read more over at the Marmot’s Hole.

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