South Korean President Kim Dae-jung has carried out sweeping cabinet changes in an apparent effort to boost the government's image following a series of corruption scandals.

The president's office says Prime Minister Lee Han-dong has retained his post, but eight other cabinet ministers, including the unification minister charged with improving ties with North Korea, have been replaced.

The outgoing unification minister, Hong Soon-Young, had been strongly criticized by North Korea after the breakdown of inter-Korean cabinet level talks in November.

Calling him a "hard-liner," North Korea indicated through its media that it would not resume dialogue with Seoul as long as Mr. Hong remained in the post. He is replaced by Jeong Se-hyun, who served as Vice-Unification minister from 1998 to 1999.

Most key presidential aides were also changed in the reshuffle and, for the first time, the president named a woman, Park Sun-sook, as his top spokesperson.

The South Korean government has been hit recently with a spate of corruption scandals involving high ranking officials.

One case involves Mr. Kim's nephew and his economic secretary, who are alleged to have been involved in a stock manipulation and embezzlement scam. Mr. Kim himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

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