KT Announces Resignation of Outside Director Cho Seungah Due to Conflict of Interest with Largest Shareholder Hyundai Motor Group

Prohibition on Concurrent Service as Outside Director for Largest Shareholder

KT announced on December 17 that outside director Cho Seungah has lost her position on KT’s board due to a conflict of interest with Hyundai Motor Group, where she is the largest shareholder.

On this day, KT disclosed through the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system (DART) that “Outside director Cho Seungah has lost her position as outside director in accordance with Article 542-8, Paragraph 2 of the Commercial Act.”

During the review process for candidates for outside director to be nominated at next year’s regular general shareholders’ meeting, KT identified an issue with Cho’s qualifications as an outside director.

The current Commercial Act stipulates that if the largest shareholder is a corporation, the directors, auditors, executive officers, or employees of that corporation are disqualified from serving as outside directors.

Cho was appointed as a KT director in June 2023, and in March 2024, she was also appointed as an outside director of Hyundai Steel, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group.

Subsequently, the National Pension Service, which had been KT’s largest shareholder, sold part of its shares in March of last year, making Hyundai Motor the largest shareholder of KT in April of the same year. As a result, Cho was no longer able to concurrently serve as an outside director at KT.

Cho’s resignation as KT outside director is retroactively applied to March 26 of last year, the date she assumed her position as outside director at Hyundai Steel. Due to her resignation, all resolutions passed by KT’s board of directors with her participation from that date until today are rendered invalid.

In connection with this, controversy has arisen as the KT director nomination committee, which included Cho, resolved the previous day to nominate former head of the corporate division Park Yunyoung as the final candidate for the next CEO.

KT stated that Cho did not participate in the interview process for the three candidates, including former president Park, which took place the previous day.