Yesterday, President Park Geun-hye dismissed the Cheong Wa Dae Senior Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Security Ju Chul-gi. She also carried out a partial reshuffle of her cabinet by replacing the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Yoo Il-ho, a former politician who is expected to run in next year's general election, and Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Yoo Ki-june along with the vice ministers of six ministries related to foreign affairs and security, such as the first vice minister of foreign affairs and the vice minister of national defense. The latest reshuffle was carried out the day when the media reported that Senior Secretary Ju expressed his intention to resign for his responsibility surrounding the controversial Korean fighter jet project, the KF-X. The controversy surrounding the president's diplomatic activities during her trip to the U.S. and Ju's responsibility in the KF-X project has spread questioning the responsibility of all connected to foreign affairs and national security. Experts suspected that the latest reshuffle may have been a makeshift measure by the president, who rushed to reshuffle her cabinet as the situation spread.

It is natural that Ju be held responsible for the controversial KF-X project. In the process of selecting the model for the KF-X, selecting the U.S. Lockheed Martin's F-35 was an apparent mistake, since the government had already known that they would not be able to receive the four key technologies from the U.S. Unlike the original report by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, Ju received a report that we would not be able to receive the technological information from the U.S. last April, and reported the fact to Cheong Wa Dae two months later. Yet, he still failed to take appropriate follow-up measures. He failed to fulfill his basic duty of assisting the president in her foreign affairs and security policy. He should also be held responsible for the diplomatic humiliation Minister of National Defense Han Min-koo experienced when he was rejected by U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter after requesting the transfer of technology.

However, the changes to personnel in foreign affairs and security should not end at just the replacement of Ju. Ju is not the only person to have failed in foreign affairs and security policies since the launch of the Park Geun-hye government. The foreign affairs and security authorities including Cheong Wa Dae's Office of National Security, the foreign ministry and the defense ministry have revealed their incompetence and lack of strategy in the past. The president appointed Kim Jang-soo and Kim Kwan-jin, military figures inexperienced in foreign affairs as the head of the Office of National Security, which acts as a control tower in the field of foreign relations and security, failing to present a balanced foreign affairs strategy. Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se, who has led the foreign ministry since the early days of the government also failed to keep a stable balance in foreign affairs mentioning the outrageous "blessing." He said, "That South Korea is receiving invitations from both the U.S. and China is not a dilemma, but a blessing," revealing his complacent awareness of the situation. After attending China's military parade, President Park embarked on a journey to persuade the U.S., which viewed China's "celebrations" with suspicion, and only returned with criticism for her "pendulum diplomacy." It is the foreign minister who should be responsible for such diplomatic failures, yet the president retained him, eventually reconfirming her confidence in Yun.

The KF-X project is a national project with development costs alone ranging near 8 trillion won. It was a project once almost stranded because of various allegations raised. The president cannot expect to cover up such a serious mistake by just replacing one senior secretary. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration should clearly reveal how it came to make a belated report to Cheong Wa Dae as well as the president's role in the whole project. Kim Kwan-jin, head of Cheong Wa Dae's Office of National Security who led the selection of the model as defense minister at the time the project was launched, will also find it difficult to avoid responsibility. The defense ministry and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration should also be held responsible. That is the only way we can stop the repeated corruption in introducing weapons and defense.

In the wake of the latest incident, the foreign affairs and security team should undergo a general reorganization. It may be difficult for President Park to replace all those in her foreign affairs and security line with the South Korea-China-Japan summit approaching. But it is clear that she cannot respond to the changes in the situation and pursue peace in the Korean Peninsula and stability in Northeast Asia with her current team of officials in foreign affairs and security. Unless the president is trying to cover up her failed foreign affairs and security policies by replacing a senior secretary and a handful of vice ministers, she needs to perform a major operation on her foreign affairs and security team after the South Korea-China-Japan summit.