Kim Seon-sun, Director of the Women and Family Office at Seoul City with Grade 1 status, and Choi Hong-yeon, Deputy Mayor of Songpa-gu with Grade 2 status, are the most senior among the high-ranking officials below the Deputy Mayor level, who are appointed by the President and hold vice-ministerial rank.
They are administrative examination passers who have risen as far as possible, excluding elected mayors and nationally appointed deputy mayors and chief secretaries.
They are regarded as long-serving senior public officials.
Kim Seon-sun is the first woman to pass the Seoul City administrative examination (36th session). Due to this symbolic significance and her competence, she has received public praise from Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who said, "Do your work like Director Kim."
Because of this, Kim is expected to serve her full term until her retirement at the end of June next year. There is no successor to replace Director Kim.
After serving as Director of Welfare, Kim now oversees key policies of Mayor Oh’s Seoul City administration, including responses to low birth rates and childcare issues, as Director of the Women and Family Office.
An official from Seoul City praised her, saying, "Director Kim Seon-sun is a remarkably competent executive from whom there is much to learn."
Due to her capabilities, she wanted to serve as a deputy mayor of a Seoul autonomous district when she was Grade 2, but the mayor did not let her go at the last moment, so she never had the chance.
Kim’s administrative examination classmate, former Deputy Mayor Kim Ui-seung, entered politics and even ran for a parliamentary seat in his hometown of Andong, Gyeongbuk.
Also, Hwang Bo-yeon, former Director of Economic Policy, who was equally competent, is currently a research professor at the University of Seoul after retirement and was appointed by Mayor Oh as president of Seoul Energy Corporation, where he is making every effort to revive the struggling company.
Alongside them, Choi Hong-yeon, Deputy Mayor of Songpa-gu and two administrative examination classes senior to Director Kim, was born in 1969 and is one of the longest-serving officials with the potential to continue public service for another four years.
Deputy Mayor Choi is smart enough to have passed the administrative examination while in his senior year at Korea University, and his character is believed to be a reason for his long tenure.
The current longest-serving administrative examination official in Seoul City, Deputy Mayor Choi served as Deputy Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu for five and a half years without promotion to Grade 2, but was promoted to Grade 2 and transferred to Deputy Mayor of Songpa-gu thanks to Songpa-gu Mayor Seo Kang-seok.
Both Kim Seon-sun, Director of the Women and Family Office, and Choi Hong-yeon, Deputy Mayor of Songpa-gu, have been able to sustain their long public service careers due to their exceptional diligence, solid competence, and good character.
Considering the general view that it is not desirable to be promoted early and retire young in the era of longevity, it is also true that some people envy these two senior high-ranking officials of Seoul City.
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