President-elect Yoon Nominates Jeong Hwang-geun, Former Rural Development Administration Chief, as New Minister of Agriculture and Forestry (Update)

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is entering the office of the Presidential Transition Committee in Tongui-dong, Seoul, on the 14th. Photo by the Transition Committee Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol nominated Jeong Hwang-geun, former Administrator of the Rural Development Administration, as the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on the 14th.

On the afternoon of the same day, Yoon held a press conference at the transition committee office in Tongui-dong, Seoul, and announced Jeong as the candidate for the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Yoon evaluated Jeong as "a traditional bureaucrat who has held key positions in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, having served as Director of the Rural Policy Bureau, Director of the Agricultural Policy Bureau, and Secretary for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs at the Blue House, designing overall agricultural policies."

He added, "During his tenure as Administrator of the Rural Development Administration, he devoted himself to transitioning to smart farming based on advanced convergence technology, considering changing conditions such as climate change and the aging rural population. He is the right person to not only solve current rural issues but also strengthen competitiveness and develop it into a future growth industry."

Jeong, 62 years old this year, graduated from Seoul National University College of Agriculture and passed the 20th Technical Civil Service Examination in 1985 to enter public office. He served as spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in 2008, Director of the Rural Policy Bureau in 2010, Director of the Rural and Fisheries Policy Bureau in 2011, and Director of the Agricultural Policy Bureau in 2012.

In 2013, he served as an expert member of the Economic Division 2 of the Presidential Transition Committee for then President-elect Park Geun-hye, and served as Secretary for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs at the Blue House until 2016.

Afterwards, he served as Administrator of the Rural Development Administration from 2016 to 2017, retired from public office, and has been a visiting professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Chungnam National University since 2018.