Yoon Appoints Yoo Cheol-hwan as New Anti-Corruption Commission Chair... Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Industry Also Selected

Appointment of Kang In-seon, Presidential Office Overseas Public Relations Secretary, as 2nd Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
Also Appointments of 1st and 2nd Vice Ministers of Industry and Head of Trade Negotiations Headquarters Made

On the 10th, President Yoon Suk-yeol nominated former Seoul Central District Court Chief Judge Yoo Cheol-hwan as the chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, filling the vacancy left by the departure of Kim Hong-il, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission. He also appointed the 2nd Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, the 1st and 2nd Vice Ministers of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Chief Negotiator for Trade, among other vice minister-level appointments.

President Yoon nominated former Chief Judge Yoo Cheol-hwan as the chairman of the commission, a ministerial-level position, according to Lee Kwan-seop, Chief Secretary to the President, during a briefing held at the Yongsan Presidential Office.

Born in 1960 in Dangjin, Chungnam, Yoo Cheol-hwan graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in law. He contracted polio as a child and was classified with a level 4 physical disability. After passing the 24th Judicial Examination in 1982, he was appointed as a judge and served for 22 years until he stepped down as Chief Judge of the Seoul Central District Court in 2007.

Yoo’s father is Yoo Je-yeon, a former member of the National Assembly for the 8th, 9th, and 12th terms. Following his father, Yoo Cheol-hwan serves as chairman of the board of directors of Munhwa Academy, the foundation for Sinpyeong Middle and High Schools in Dangjin. He is also chairman of the board of Samil Academy, the foundation for Samil High School in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

Lee Kwan-seop said, "As a judge and later as a lawyer, he has worked hard to represent socially vulnerable groups and currently serves as a central administrative adjudication commissioner at the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, striving to protect the rights of the people. With his rational character, warm leadership, and extensive legal experience, we expect him to lead the commission in playing a pioneering role in creating a society where fairness and common sense, which the Yoon Suk-yeol administration pursues, prevail."

Former Chief Judge Yoo Cheol-hwan of the Seoul Central District Court, who has been appointed as the new Chairperson of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, is delivering a greeting on the 10th at the briefing room of the Presidential Office building in Yongsan, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Nominee Yoo Cheol-hwan also expressed, "I have taken this position with the mindset of how to lead the commission and to practice a commission that reaches out to the vulnerable and disadvantaged neighbors in our society."

Nominee Kang In-seon, appointed as the new 2nd Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, was born in 1964 in Seoul. She graduated from Seoul Girls' High School and Seoul National University with a degree in diplomacy, completed graduate studies at Seoul National University, and earned a degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

She began her career in journalism in 1990 as a reporter for Monthly Chosun and moved to Chosun Ilbo in 2001. During the Iraq War, she was one of only three Korean war correspondents dispatched to the battlefield to cover the front lines. She has served as Chosun Ilbo’s Washington correspondent, international news editor, editorial writer, and Washington bureau chief. After the inauguration of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, she served as the first presidential spokesperson and overseas public relations secretary.

Lee Kwan-seop explained, "As a former international relations journalist with overseas field experience and a wide network, she is expected to smoothly lead multilateral and public diplomacy."

President Yoon also made appointments at the vice minister level in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Kang Kyung-sung was appointed as the 1st Vice Minister, Choi Nam-ho, the ministry’s spokesperson, as the 2nd Vice Minister, and Jung In-kyo, Director of the Strategic Materials Management Institute, as the Chief Negotiator for Trade.