Hanjoon Lee, LH President, Announces Resignation with Three Months Left in Term

Kim Seyong and Heonwook Lee Mentioned as Possible Successors

Hanjoon Lee LH President

Hanjoon Lee, President of Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), who was appointed during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, has expressed his intention to resign with three months remaining in his term.

According to the government and LH on August 8, President Lee submitted his resignation to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) on August 5. On July 9, he posted a message on the company’s internal bulletin board stating that he would leave his future to the discretion of the appointing authority once a new MOLIT minister was appointed. He expressed his intention to resign five days after Yoonduk Kim took office as the new minister.

President Lee took office in November 2022 and his three-year term was scheduled to end in November this year. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to accept his resignation through internal procedures and then begin the process of recruiting a successor. The LH president is selected through an open recruitment process, with the Executive Recommendation Committee narrowing down the candidates, followed by verification by the Public Institution Management Committee under the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and finally appointed by the president.

Kim Seyong, a professor at Korea University who previously served as president of Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) and Gyeonggi Housing and Urban Development Corporation (GH), and Heonwook Lee, former president of GH, are being mentioned as potential candidates for the next LH president. Professor Kim is known to share policy philosophy with President Jaemyung Lee and was recently considered a candidate for the MOLIT minister position. He is currently serving as a member of the National Policy Planning Committee.

If the head of LH is replaced, significant changes are expected in the promotion of large-scale housing projects, including public housing supply, the development of the third new towns, and reconstruction and redevelopment projects.