President Yoon to Announce Ministry of Science and ICT Vice Minister-Level Personnel Changes Possibly Today
Complete Replacement Expected Including First Vice Minister Cho Seong-gyeong, Serving Less Than One Year
Science Community Urges Boosting Scientists' Morale and Ensuring Successful Launch of Space and Aviation Administration
Cho Seong-gyeong, the 1st Vice Minister of Science and ICT, known as a replacement candidate [Image source=Yonhap News]
President Yoon Suk-yeol is reportedly set to replace the 1st and 2nd Vice Ministers of the Ministry of Science and ICT as well as the head of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters all at once as early as the 23rd. It is rare to replace three vice minister-level officials in a single ministry simultaneously. While the scientific community welcomes this move, there is also an assessment that if President Yoon wants to be called the "Science President," there must be no further confusion.
The newly appointed vice ministers and head of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters, whom President Yoon is expected to select, are professional bureaucrats. Lee Chang-yoon, head of the National Science and Technology Advisory Council Support Group, is mentioned for the 1st Vice Minister position; Kang Do-hyun, Director of the Information and Communications Policy Office, for the 2nd Vice Minister; and Ryu Kwang-jun, Science and Technology Innovation Coordinator, for the head of the Innovation Headquarters.
Except for the 2nd Vice Minister, the minister, 1st Vice Minister, and head of the Innovation Headquarters were previously professors, so this change means replacing them with professional bureaucrats to assist the professor-origin minister. While the replacement of the 2nd Vice Minister and the head of the Innovation Headquarters was anticipated, the sudden replacement of the 1st Vice Minister, who has been in office for less than a year, is interpreted as a warning from President Yoon to the Ministry of Science and ICT. The core of this personnel change is Vice Minister Cho Sung-kyung.
Although President Yoon has repeatedly emphasized being a "Science President," the aftermath of last year's cuts to the national research and development (R&D) budget has not disappeared. Measures such as research funding support for student researchers have been implemented, but dissatisfaction in the field has only grown. The protest against R&D budget cuts that occurred during President Yoon's speech at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) graduation ceremony shows how difficult it is to easily reverse the harsh view of the current government from the research community.
Since Vice Minister Cho Sung-kyung took office last year, the sudden push for R&D budget cuts reportedly caused significant dissatisfaction even within the Ministry of Science and ICT. In particular, the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters, responsible for R&D budget and performance evaluation, expressed considerable discontent. A senior official at the Ministry of Science and ICT lamented, "If Vice Minister Cho had timely shared Yongsan's will for R&D budget innovation, the dissatisfaction in the research field could have been reduced compared to now."
Vice Minister Cho Sung-kyung is an expert in the nuclear power field. After serving as the Presidential Office's Science and Technology Secretary, he was appointed as the 1st Vice Minister in July last year, but most evaluations say he failed to achieve a smooth landing within the Ministry of Science and ICT. He stirred controversy by visiting research sites and mentioning a science and technology cartel, and allegations of misuse of corporate cards and plagiarism of papers were raised. He claimed these were groundless and continued on his own path. He traveled extensively to Europe and the United States for cooperation with the Aerospace Administration, leading to interpretations that Vice Minister Cho is aiming to become the next head of the Aerospace Administration.
The Ministry of Government Policy Coordination's 2023 government performance evaluation gave the Ministry of Science and ICT a 'B' grade for the first time ever, a situation it brought upon itself due to the R&D budget cuts.
Dissatisfaction in the scientific community also grew. Figures in the science and technology sector who were dissatisfied with the Moon Jae-in administration's unscientific nuclear phase-out policy have expressed concerns that President Yoon has taken away the future of the science and technology community by observing the series of events.
Lee Deok-hwan, Professor Emeritus at Sogang University, evaluated, "Vice Minister Cho's failure was due to a lack of genuine interest and affection for science and technology and insufficient understanding of the research field," adding, "The new vice ministers must raise the morale of the science and technology community affected by the R&D budget cuts and ensure that there are no problems with the launch of the Aerospace Administration."
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