By Shim Jae-yun
Staff Reporter

President Roh Moo-hyun on Tuesday named Yonsei University professor Ahn Byung-young, 62, as new deputy prime minister and education and human resources development minister, Chong Wa Dae said.

Ahn will replace Yoon Deok-hong who resigned in connection with the controversy over the National Education Information System (NEIS), a new database the ministry had set up to manage students’ personal information.

Yoon’s replacement was timed to come just ahead of the upcoming cabinet shuffle in order to help dispel the public perception that he was being replaced for his failure to perform his duty properly and increase his chance of winning in next April’s general elections. Yoon will run on the pro-Roh Uri Party ticket in Taegu, the stronghold of the majority Grand National Party.

``While acting as education minister for 20 months from December 1995 under the former President Kim Young-sam administration, he managed to carry out educational reform smoothly,’’ Roh’s top personnel officer Jeong Chan-yong said. ``Ahn is also expected to be able to tackle head-on a variety of pending education issues based on his experience in university and government.’’

Jeong said that Roh will likely conduct a minor shuffle affecting at least two or three portfolios on Dec. 28.

Although Jeong didn’t say which ministers will be affected, presidential aides said Health and Welfare Minister Kim Hwa-joong, Construction and Transportation Minister Choi Jong-chan and Minister of Government Policy Coordination Lee Young-tak will likely be replaced.

A graduate of Yonsei University, Ahn got his doctoral degree at Vienna University in Austria and served as a faculty member at the Hankook University of Foreign Studies and as a visiting professor at Columbia University.

Meanwhile, 11 out of 23 former Chong Wa Dae staffers are preparing their bids for the April elections in an effort to strengthen the Uri Party’s presence in the National Assembly. Roh hopes to gain up to half of the seats up for grabs in the elections.

jayshim@koreatimes.co.kr