Personnel Changes Made at Vice-Ministerial Level

President Roh Moo-hyun appointed six people to vice-minister level posts on September 1, including the Vice-Minister of Labor, which will be filled by Chief of Planning and Managing at the Ministry of Labor Chung Byung-suk (51).

Kim Se-ho (51), the director of the Korean National Railroad, was named to be the vice-minister of the Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MOCT), and Kim Jong-gahp (53), the vice-minister of Commerce, Industry, and Energy, was named to be the Commissioner of Korean Intellectual Property Office. Kim Jeong-sook (53), the head researcher at the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, was appointed to be the Commissioner of the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA).

President Roh also appointed Yoo Hong-joon (55), a professor of Art History at Myongji University, to be the administrator of Cultural Properties, and Yang Chun-shik (54), a high official of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), to be the vice-chair of the FSC.

Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Kim Jong-min said, “The commissioner of KFDA, the vice-chair of FSC, and the vice-minister of MOCT have expressed their wish to resign while the three others were deemed to have done their appointed duties to some extent since the inauguration of the participatory government, and this reshuffling is not due to any special faults or misconducts,” regarding the background of these personnel changes.

Jung-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com