President Yoon Approves Appointment of Kim Moon-soo as Minister of Employment and Labor

President Yoon Suk-yeol approved the appointment of Kim Moon-soo as Minister of Employment and Labor on the 29th, the presidential office announced.

Earlier, the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee held a confirmation hearing for candidate Kim on the 26th, but it ended in deadlock after disputes between the ruling and opposition parties.

The ruling party argued that candidate Kim, a former labor activist with extensive field experience, was suitable for the position of Minister of Employment, while the opposition criticized his past remarks and called for his voluntary resignation.

The opposition particularly took issue with Kim's response to the question, "Did your ancestors have Japanese nationality during the Japanese colonial period?" to which he replied, "The country was lost during the Japanese colonial period, so what (Korean) nationality could there have been?"

On the same day, President Yoon also approved the appointments of Seo Seung-hwan as Vice Chairman of the National Economic Advisory Council, Choi Yang-hee as Vice Chairman of the National Science and Technology Advisory Council, Yoo Il-ho as Private Sector Chairman of the Regulatory Reform Committee, and Kim Chang-kyung as Chairman of the Digital Platform Government Committee.