By Shim Jae-yun
Staff Reporter

President Roh Moo-hyun is seeking measures to ravamp Chong Wa Dae as part of a larger move to rearrange state affairs around the year-end season.

Some presidential secretaries are poised to leave Chong Wa Dae to run in the general elections in April. Personnel changes have become top priority in the administration.

``As a relatively large number of presidential staff will quit their jobs for the Assembly elections, we need to appoint new officials,’’ chief presidential secretary Moon Hee-sang said on Friday.

He added that the administration plans to fill vacated seats with remaining staffers and that some divisions will be merged.

Moon presided over a meeting of advisors and secretaries to discuss the Blue House’s reorganization.

``We decided to continue to discuss the issue without an exact conclusion due to the need to coordinate details,’’ presidential spokesman Yoon Tai-young said yesterday.

Yoon said the shakeup will mainly affect the policy team and several other divisions. ``But there will be no major change,’’ he said.

A Chong Wa Dae official said the policy team will name officials in charge of each ministry to reinforce policy coordination between the presidential office and ministries.

He said revamping efforts have been designed to strengthen the expertise within Chong Wa Dae by putting an end to the criticism of its amateurism.

ssm@koreatimes.co.kr